The Road Through the Wall [Paperback]

The compelling novel that began Shirley Jackson's legendary career

Pepper Street is a really nice, safe California neighborhood. The houses are tidy and the lawns are neatly mowed. Of course, the country club is close by, and lots of pleasant folks live there. The only problem is they knocked down the wall at the end of the street to make way for a road to a new housing development. Now, that’s not good—it’s just not good at all. Satirically exploring what happens when a smug suburban neighborhood is breached by awful, unavoidable truths,The Road Through the Wallis the tale that launched Shirley Jackson’s heralded career.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.Shirley Jackson(1916–1965) received wide critical acclaim for her short story “The Lottery,” which was first published in theNew Yorkerin 1948. Her works available from Penguin Classics includeWe Have Always Lived in the Castle,The Haunting of Hill House, andCome Along with MeandLife Among the Savagesavailable from Penguin.

Ruth Franklinis currently working on a biography of Shirley Jackson and is a book critic and contributing editor at theNew Republic. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

 

CHAPTER ONE

Mrs. Merriam came to her back window, which saw Miss Fielding’s house and Pepper Street beyond, and looked anxiously down Pepper Street. Mrs. Merriam’s clock had stopped; it was easier to look oulƒ