Picnic at Hanging Rock

“In the seemingly limitless pantheon of gone-girl literature, Picnic at Hanging Rock might take the prize for best setting. . . . It’s a proto-Virgin Suicides, dreamy and haunting, animated by a sense of slightly sickening erotic mystery.” —The New Yorker

“[This] cult novel—the first in a thriving genre of ‘gone girls’—continues to beguile . . . and will continue to haunt readers for generations to come.” —The Economist

“Pure magic. Every fashion film and NYU undergraduate thesis takes its cues from this lyrical masterpiece. In college I tried to make a satirical remake entitled Lunchtime at Dangling Boulder, but all my actors slept too late.” —Lena Dunham, on the film adaptation

“[From the] Victorian hothouse atmosphere and fetishism . . . and its focus on the burgeoning sexual curiosity of the girls (and the women) . . . to Gothic terrors, supernatural wonder, divine mysticism, or the imperialist unconscious . . . Picnic actively encourages a host of fantasies.” —Megan Abbott, author of You Will Know Me, The Fever, and Dare Me, in an essay for The Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray/DVD edition of the film

“A sinister tale . . . laced with touches of other-worldliness” —The Guardian

“Deliciously horrific.” —The Observer

“The fact that most people believed that this palpable fiction was a record of a real event is not merely a tribute to the writer . . . but a testimony to the atavistic power of its theme.” —The Spectator

“Beautifully haunting.” —The Sun Herald (Australia)