The Accursed (Oates novel)

{{Short description|Book by Joyce Carol Oates}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2014}}

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The Accursed is the fifth volume of United States writer Joyce Carol Oates's Gothic series following Bellefleur (1980), A Bloodsmoor Romance (1982), Mysteries of Winterthurn (1984), and My Heart Laid Bare (1998). The novel was published by Ecco on March 5, 2013.{{cite book | isbn=9780062231703 | title=The Accursed | last1=Oates | first1=Joyce Carol | date=March 5, 2013 | publisher=HarperCollins }} It is set in and around Princeton, New Jersey in the early twentieth century, and explores a variety of supernatural themes, tracing their effect upon members of several families who reside in the area. The Accursed contains a number of historical figures used in a fictional context, among them President Woodrow Wilson, and writers Mark Twain, Jack London and Upton Sinclair and his first wife Meta.

The Accursed was well-reviewed by a number of major authors, with writer Stephen King describing it in The New York Times Book Review as "the world's first postmodern Gothic novel".[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/books/review/the-accursed-by-joyce-carol-oates.html?pagewanted=all Stephen King, New York Times Book Reviews March 14, 2013]