The Haunting of Hill House (Penguin Modern Classics) [Kindle Edition]

Shirley Jackson's characters are definite 'types' if not stereotypes and the relationships that develop between them are plausible and interesting. The house is described as 'not sane' but the house is certainly not the only lunatic element. Its visitors bring their own range of mental disfigurement with them. Most of the men in this story and all of the women are deeply neurotic, with Eleanor being the top of the heap, 24 carat wacko. They are all excellent subjects for the house to work with. The terror generated is more restrained than the sort you expect to find in the modern 'bloodfest' type of horror. The tale would fail to terrify any reader who could not bring the power of their own imagination to The Haunting of Hill House. For a reader with imagination however, the book is a potent generator of fear.

Recommended.

There are several references to real life haunted house case histories, as in Borley Rectory and Ballechin House, and clearly Ms Jackson was influenced by these, in that she wanted to write a story in which a small party of ghost-hunters hole up in a haunted house to see what will happen. Where this differs from all that though is that Hill House itself appears to be the evil entity, not the ghosts it may contain. She constantly refers to it as a mad place, with a mad appearance. Eleanor Vance, one of the party, is a young woman who has spent many years nursing her invalid mother and missing out on life. She has become deeply introverted and neurotic. (I felt there were some comparisons with Catherine Deneuve's character in "Repulsion"). She wants desperately to belong somewhere, but when the group she finds herself in start to act like a family, i.e joshing each other, teasing etc, she can't cope with it. Some of the early scenes, when the characters are getting to know each other, were reminiscent of "Big Brother". You felt Eleanor needed a Diary Room to retreat to and voice her concerns at! The ghost-hunters do become a family, with Dr Montague, the genial old academic, as the father figure. Hill House itself at times becomes to resemble a comfy sanitorium, with the younger people reduced to a childlike state, spending their days eating and exploring the house and grounds.

The spook factors may be too subtle for some people's tastes. This is no Richard Laymon-style horror with machete-wielding psychopaths leaping out of the woodwork. The most frightening things that happen are the hammerings on the walls. What makes this novel great is the way it shows a small bunch of people acting in an unusual set-up, and of course, the final chilling realisation that Hill House wants Eleanor as it's captive. Stephen King in his book "Danse Macabre" said that he found this fact too horrifying for words. Highly recommended.

Somewhat later I got around to reading the book. For one thing it is remarkably similar to the original film screenplay, lines are identical on page as they are on the film, in certain areas. The quality of the book is not in question, it is a remarkable read, full of suspense and drama, but it all depends on whether you prefer your chills and frights from the page or the screen. Only then, to get the full impact of the storyline, can you decide whether to read this book first then watch the film or vice versa. It's upto you.

My own personal choice would be to read this first, then watch the film, but like me, many of you who have already seen the film and not read this book will be left in a quandary. Don't be, this book is a great read, buy it either way.