The Lottery, The Adventures of James Harris
Christopher Morley says about "The Lottery"
"I have tried hard to put Shirley Jackson's grim fairy tale out of my mind. I wouldn't read it again for anything. It is the rare and embarrassing masterpiece, that keeps itself to itself. When its full cruelty and horror break upon you, you will want to buy a crate of clove-gillyflower and Old Spice from the American Institute of Arts and Letters and retire early."
"Is it a history of New England, to which Old England of the 17th century exported all its sharpest bowel-pains? If they survived the voyage (the lucky passengers didn't) they were set to work picking up gallstones from the New England hillsides to build pasture walls."
"Is it a history of any organized community, even a suburban ladies' club? Or the mimeographed sensibilities of graduate schools and culture by conveyor-belt? It is as gently sardonic as a footnote in Toynbee, but it treads on lighter feet. It might have had one perfect reader, Hawthorne; but, as he would be quick and courteous to say, no more perfect writer."
"I implore you not to read this story unless you can take a day or a week afterward to think about it. A great story, like a great vintage, throws a crust of sediment which may destroy the bouquet and cause ulcers later. If you don’t feel the tweak of the ulcers, you haven’t really read this story."