Skip to Main Content

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Text Study): Home

Year 12 English set text

What is "We Have Always Lived in the Castle"?

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a 1962 mystery novel by American author Shirley Jackson. It was Jackson's final work, and was published with a dedication to Pascal Covici, the publisher, three years before the author's death in 1965. The novel is written in the voice of eighteen-year-old Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood, who lives with her agoraphobic sister and ailing uncle on an estate. Six years before the events of the novel, the Blackwood family experienced a tragedy that left the three survivors isolated from their small village. [source]

Links to Web sites and articles

Shirley Jackson's We have always lived in the castle

Insight Text Guides take students into the deeper layers of meaning in this novel. It is designed to develop detailed knowledge, in-depth understanding and genuine insight into each text. 

VATE Inside stories: We have always lived in the castle

Teaching Notes prepared by Karen Lynch

We have always lived in the castle analysis playlist by Aimee Shattock

Interesting Things

Podcast from the ABC Book Show

Sion Learning Resource Centre | Opening Hours | Monday - Thursday 8:00am - 4:30pm Friday 8:00am - 4:00pm