The Accursed

"Joyce Carol Oates has written what may be the world's finest postmodern Gothic novel: E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime set in Dracula's castle. It's dense, challenging, problematic, horrifying, funny, prolix and full of crazy people. You should read it." --Stephen King, New York Times Book Review

Princeton, New Jersey at the turn of the 20th century: a tranquil place to raise a family, a genteel town for genteel souls. But something dark and dangerous lurks at the edges of the town, corrupting and infecting its residents. Vampires and ghosts haunt the dreams of the innocent. A powerful curse besets the elite families of Princeton--their daughters begin disappearing. A young bride on the verge of the altar is seduced and abducted by a dangerously compelling man--a shape-shifting, vaguely European prince who might just be the devil, and who spreads his curse upon a richly deserving community of white Anglo-Saxon privilege. And in the Pine Barrens that border the town, a lush and terrifying underworld opens up.

When the bride's brother sets out against all odds to find her, his path will cross those of Princeton's most formidable people, from Grover Cleveland, fresh out of his second term in the White House and retired to town for a quieter life, to soon-to-be commander in chief Woodrow Wilson, president of the University, and a complex individual obsessed to the point of madness with his need to retain power; from the young Socialist idealist Upton Sinclair, to his charismatic comrade Jack London, and the most famous writer of the era, Samuel Clemens/ Mark Twain--all plagued by "accursed" visions.

Narrated with Oates's unmistakable psychological insight, The Accursed combines beautifully transporting historical detail with chilling supernatural elements to stunning effect.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Ecco Press
Published: 03/05/2013
ISBN: 9780062231703
Pages: 688
Weight: 1.83lbs
Size: 9.35h x 6.42w x 1.71d

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 10/01/2012 pg. 56
Library Journal 10/01/2012 pg. 56
Publishers Weekly 11/05/2012
Library Journal 11/15/2012 pg. 77
Booklist 12/15/2012 pg. 23
Kirkus Reviews 01/15/2013
Shelf Awareness 03/05/2013
People Weekly 03/18/2013 pg. 54
New York Times Book Review 03/17/2013 pg. 1
New York Times Book Review 03/24/2013 pg. 22
New York Review of Books 04/25/2013 pg. 29
Kirkus Best Fiction 11/15/2013 pg. 30
NY Times Notable Bks of Year 12/08/2013 pg. 26
New York Review of Books 05/08/2014 pg. 45