The Sundial
E194724
"The Sundial" is a darkly comic Gothic novel by Shirley Jackson that explores themes of family dysfunction, apocalyptic prophecy, and claustrophobic isolation within a grand, eerie mansion.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Sundial canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1715153 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Sundial Context triple: [Shirley Jackson, notableWork, The Sundial]
-
A.
Tables of the Sun
Tables of the Sun is an astronomical reference work by Simon Newcomb that provides highly accurate solar ephemerides used for celestial navigation and scientific calculations.
-
B.
The Light
The Light is a notable work by the rapper Common, showcasing his introspective lyricism and soulful, jazz-influenced hip-hop style.
-
C.
Day of the Sun
Day of the Sun is North Korea’s most important national holiday, marking the birth anniversary of founding leader Kim Il-sung with large-scale celebrations and state ceremonies.
-
D.
The Dial
The Dial was a 19th-century American literary and philosophical magazine that served as the chief periodical voice of the Transcendentalist movement, publishing works by figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
-
E.
The Clock
The Clock is a 1945 romantic drama film starring Judy Garland and Robert Walker, directed by Vincente Minnelli, about a brief but intense wartime romance in New York City.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Sundial Target entity description: "The Sundial" is a darkly comic Gothic novel by Shirley Jackson that explores themes of family dysfunction, apocalyptic prophecy, and claustrophobic isolation within a grand, eerie mansion.
-
A.
Tables of the Sun
Tables of the Sun is an astronomical reference work by Simon Newcomb that provides highly accurate solar ephemerides used for celestial navigation and scientific calculations.
-
B.
The Light
The Light is a notable work by the rapper Common, showcasing his introspective lyricism and soulful, jazz-influenced hip-hop style.
-
C.
Day of the Sun
Day of the Sun is North Korea’s most important national holiday, marking the birth anniversary of founding leader Kim Il-sung with large-scale celebrations and state ceremonies.
-
D.
The Dial
The Dial was a 19th-century American literary and philosophical magazine that served as the chief periodical voice of the Transcendentalist movement, publishing works by figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
-
E.
The Clock
The Clock is a 1945 romantic drama film starring Judy Garland and Robert Walker, directed by Vincente Minnelli, about a brief but intense wartime romance in New York City.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
dark comedy
ⓘ
gothic novel ⓘ novel ⓘ |
| author | Shirley Jackson ⓘ |
| centralTheme |
apocalyptic prophecy
ⓘ
claustrophobia ⓘ family dysfunction ⓘ fear of the outside world ⓘ isolation ⓘ madness and delusion ⓘ power and control ⓘ social satire ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| explores |
abuse of authority within families
ⓘ
conflict between reality and delusion ⓘ group psychology under threat ⓘ |
| followedBy | The Haunting of Hill House ⓘ |
| genre |
Gothic fiction
ⓘ
dark comedy ⓘ psychological fiction ⓘ |
| hasMotif |
closed community
ⓘ
imprisonment ⓘ inheritance and legacy ⓘ supernatural signs ⓘ |
| hasReception |
critical reappraisal in late 20th century
ⓘ
cult following ⓘ |
| hasSymbol | sundial ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryForm | prose ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | American Gothic ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person narration ⓘ |
| notableCharacter |
Aunt Fanny Halloran
ⓘ
Fancy Halloran ⓘ Maryjane ⓘ Orianna Halloran ⓘ |
| partOf | Shirley Jackson bibliography ⓘ |
| plotElement |
family secludes itself in mansion
ⓘ
prophecy of the end of the world ⓘ |
| precededBy | Raising Demons ⓘ |
| protagonistFamilyName | Halloran ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1958 ⓘ |
| publisher |
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ⓘ
surface form:
Farrar, Straus and Cudahy
|
| setting | Halloran house ⓘ |
| settingType | mansion ⓘ |
| tone |
darkly comic
ⓘ
macabre ⓘ satirical ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Sundial Description of subject: "The Sundial" is a darkly comic Gothic novel by Shirley Jackson that explores themes of family dysfunction, apocalyptic prophecy, and claustrophobic isolation within a grand, eerie mansion.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.