Written in 1948, read in 2015 by myself, ‘The Lottery’ rocked my world as a reader and writer. It is brutal. The narrative voice is chillingly calm, as if talking about doing the washing up, and then Jackson upends the reader’s world, by centering on the everyday potential of human cruelty. The story is set in a small, seemingly idyllic village where the residents gather for an annual lottery. The so-called winner is stoned to death by the other villagers as a ritualistic sacrifice.
‘The Lottery’ was an influence on the writing of the short story ‘Ultramarine’, in my story collection of that name.
First published in The New Yorker in June 1948 and available online to subscribers here. Widely collected, including in The Lottery and Other Stories, Penguin 2009
A Personal Anthology 