- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: St Martin's Press; 1st Tor Trade Paperback Ed edition (1 Jan 1971)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312868855
- ISBN-13: 978-0312868857
- Product Dimensions: 14.6 x 2 x 21.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 119,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Rolf Rudolph Deutsch is going die. But when Deutsch, a wealthy magazine and newpaper publisher, starts thinking seriously about his impending death, he offers to pay a physicist and two mediums, one physical and one mental, $100,000 each to establish the facts of life after death.
Dr. Lionel Barrett, the physicist, accompanied by the mediums, travel to the Belasco House in Maine, which has been abandoned and sealed since 1949 after a decade of drug addiction, alcoholism, and debauchery. For one night, Barrett and his colleagues investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townfolks refer to it as the Hell House.
Dr. Lionel Barrett, the physicist, accompanied by the mediums, travel to the Belasco House in Maine, which has been abandoned and sealed since 1949 after a decade of drug addiction, alcoholism, and debauchery. For one night, Barrett and his colleagues investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townfolks refer to it as the Hell House.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Even after death, Belasco, "The Roaring Giant", greets his guests to a stay they won't easily forget... If they survive, that is. If you like haunted houses' stories, I really think you should read this one. It's my favourite Richard Matheson novel. The rythm is excellent and the atmosphere really chilly, plus the characters are well defined and very human. If you've seen the movie "Legend of Hell House" be warned: The book is much more violent and sexual. I agree some people may be dissapointed with the end -although I think it's quite good-; but I sure think the journey is worth it. You won't have to wait ages for something to happen, for every page is full of excitement.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is easily the best horror novel I have ever read - and I have read a few. It was terrifying, but also, as with all of Matheson's books, very moving, humane and concerned with oldest questions of good vs evil.
What makes the book so effective is its realism and the psychological stories attached to its characters. Matheson seems to have done a lot of research into psyschic phenonemon, as the way he deals with the intuitions and powers of his characters as they confront the dark, malevolent Freudian morass of the House is brilliantly done. He makes you care about his protagonists and become deeply involved with their battle against the ultimate darkness, both within and without.
I cannot recommend this novel too highly. Its a masterpiece. I will never forget the experience of reading it one night in bed and having at one point to stop, lower the book and look squarely around the room just to be sure that nothing sinister was going on. The grip the book has on your mind is that powerful....
What makes the book so effective is its realism and the psychological stories attached to its characters. Matheson seems to have done a lot of research into psyschic phenonemon, as the way he deals with the intuitions and powers of his characters as they confront the dark, malevolent Freudian morass of the House is brilliantly done. He makes you care about his protagonists and become deeply involved with their battle against the ultimate darkness, both within and without.
I cannot recommend this novel too highly. Its a masterpiece. I will never forget the experience of reading it one night in bed and having at one point to stop, lower the book and look squarely around the room just to be sure that nothing sinister was going on. The grip the book has on your mind is that powerful....
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
which being as it is 'from the author of I Am Legend' and being called Hell House raises expectations probably too high. Any book with that title needs to be good to even stand a chance with the anticipation it could create.
The story is solid enough, a wealthy dying man engaging 4 parapsychology related individuals to prove if there is an afterlife before he dies. A scientist and his wife assistant, a spiritualist medium and a surviving physical medium from a previous fatally failed study 30 years earlier all brought together in the house of the depraved owner who died along with his guests 41 years earlier.
The atmosphere is set quickly and well, but again raises expectations too high as very little happens over quite a long period and there is mostly only inference of menace. The odd event does occur, but most of the story is taken up by scientific investigation and speculation and some medium sittings that don't actually prove or lead to anything.
It is only in the last fifth of the book that things actually start to happen, but this tails off quickly leading to quite an anticlimactic finish.
I had read it once before and was as disappointed as other reviewers were, but kept it on my shelf to give it another chance. Having reread it it is better the second time as you expect less, but ultimately it isn't up to what I consider a keeper, so it is going to the charity shop.
Worth reading if you get a chance and curtail your expectations, otherwise I don't think you are missing that much.
The story is solid enough, a wealthy dying man engaging 4 parapsychology related individuals to prove if there is an afterlife before he dies. A scientist and his wife assistant, a spiritualist medium and a surviving physical medium from a previous fatally failed study 30 years earlier all brought together in the house of the depraved owner who died along with his guests 41 years earlier.
The atmosphere is set quickly and well, but again raises expectations too high as very little happens over quite a long period and there is mostly only inference of menace. The odd event does occur, but most of the story is taken up by scientific investigation and speculation and some medium sittings that don't actually prove or lead to anything.
It is only in the last fifth of the book that things actually start to happen, but this tails off quickly leading to quite an anticlimactic finish.
I had read it once before and was as disappointed as other reviewers were, but kept it on my shelf to give it another chance. Having reread it it is better the second time as you expect less, but ultimately it isn't up to what I consider a keeper, so it is going to the charity shop.
Worth reading if you get a chance and curtail your expectations, otherwise I don't think you are missing that much.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A 15 year old boy's dream.
This book reads like the tacky and camp horror films of the 1960s and 70s, full of tired 'Hammer Horror' cliches and of course women getting their thrupennies out at every... Read more
Published 19 months ago by B. E. A. Dixon
Enjoyable, but unsatisfying
This is not a roast dinner, it's a hamburger. It's actually not a particularly good hamburger. You'll probably enjoy eating it though... but you'll be hungry later.
Published on 14 Oct 2009 by dead joe
Hell Has No Fury
This rather cliche ridden story of a scientist, a spiritualist and a medium's exploration of a notorious haunted house does not reach the heights of Matheson's most famous work :... Read more
Published on 18 Nov 2008 by Rotgut
Not the best haunted house story ever written...but almost!
Far more brutal and intense than the film version, this novel moves along at a great pace, thanks mainly to Matheson's crisp, no-nonsense prose and the fact that the entire action... Read more
Published on 5 Dec 2007 by Jack
A classic horror tale of mystery and ungodly events.
For over twenty years, Belasco House has stood empty. Regarded as the Mount Everest of haunted houses, it is a venerable mansion whose shadowed walls have witnessed scenes of... Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2006 by Chris Hall
good, but not as good as the film.
I read this solely because I had liked the film "The Legend of Hell House" so much. I didn't feel though that it was as effective at creating a disturbing atmosphere as the film... Read more
Published on 6 Nov 2003 by S. Hapgood
Very good, but perhaps not the classic I was expecting
"Hell House is the scariest haunted house novel ever written. It looms over the rest the way the mountains loom over the foothills. Read more
Published on 29 Sep 2002 by Docendo Discimus
A classic horror tale.
This book has it all: A haunted house, a group of people who wish to dispel the evil that resides in it and a sinister presence behind the haunting. Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2001 by Christine
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