- Paperback: 246 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books (July 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140287434
- ISBN-13: 978-0140287431
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 978,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Four seekers have arrived at the rambling old pile known as Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of psychic phenomena; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Luke, the adventurous future inheritor of the estate; and Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman with a dark past. As they begin to cope with chilling, even horrifying occurrences beyond their control or understanding, they cannot possibly know what lies ahead. For Hill House is gathering its powers - and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco in 1919. She first received wide critical acclaim for her short story 'The Lottery', which was published in 1948. Her novels - which include The Sundial, The Bird's Nest, Hangsaman, The Road through the Wall, We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House - are characterised by her use of realistic settings for tales that often involve elements of horror and the occult. Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages are her two works of nonfiction. Come Along With Me is a collection of stories, lectures, and part of the novel she was working on when she died in 1965.
--This text refers to an alternate
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Doctor Montague has a passion for studying the paranormal and hopes his doctorate in philosophy and degree in anthropology will lend his work in this area an air of respectability. He has rented a haunted house for the summer and, from his list of possibly psychically turned-on individuals, he has selected the most promising candidates and invited them to join him there to stimulate the monstrous pile into providing him with material for his 'definitive work' on the subject. Two of the candidates, Eleanor and Theodora, duly arrive and immediately start as they will go on, with the house and its old retainers, the Dudleys, kicking off their sense of unease. Montague and Luke (not one of the psychically sensitive chosen, but a relative of Hill House's owner) arrive later. As they get to know each other, the house gets to know them and to find and exploit their weaknesses. Poor, lost and lonely Eleanor feels she has found friends - a family even. The house performs for them and terrorises them, but Eleanor begins to enjoy the frisson of terror which gradually diminishes as she feels chosen by the invisible powers within Hill House. She has a growing sense of belonging, not to the new friends from whom she feels more and more alienated, but to the house. The signs of Eleanor's mental disintegration eventually become obvious enough to alarm Montague and the team and the decision he takes in order to remove Eleanor from harm's way, provides the final push as she teeters on the edge.
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.
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I think where some people are nonplussed by this novel is that they come to it expecting a classic haunted house story, and it is that of course, but it's also a subtle look at the steady disintegration of a young woman's mind. I first read it myself several years ago and didn't like it, I was expecting it to be more like the film. I came back to it again recently and have been completely swept away at Ms Jackson's skill as an author.
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.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Yes I know I made the basic error, but I couldn't really avoid it. I was very young when I saw the excellent original black and white film. So I only learned then that it was based on a book.
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Creepy but not scary
I read Hill House for a bit of a pre-haloween scaring but was disappointed to find that despite its reputation as a classic ghost story it was only mildly creepy and trickled along... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Manda Moo
:)
if your going to read this book i think you are going to watch the film both films i think are amazing there is one made in the 60s i think and there is a remake of it from 1990... Read more
Published 8 months ago by simon
Simple claustrophobic terror
Often emulated and translated this is the original and best.
Rose Red, The Haunting, Hill House...the list is endless. Read more
Rose Red, The Haunting, Hill House...the list is endless. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Jackiesmackie
Over rated and a big dissappointment
This book has a reputation for being the best haunted house story ever. While I didn't pick it up expecting to be overly frightened, I did expect some classy writing, strong... Read more
Published 12 months ago by T. Brison-Main
Great Build Up But not so Great Finish
The Robert wise film of this book is my favourite horror film so I was really looking forward to reading this even though I knew the story and probably the surprises. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Hagrid's Umbrella
Haunted by Luke's bland nature
The Haunting of Hill house feels incredibly dated; all the characters are very prim and proper, though very few of them are fleshed out in any great detail. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Will
as scary as a bag of old hair clippings
I have to be honest, I haven't finished the book but I've only got 2 pages left and I somehow don't think it's going to perk up in that time. Read more
Published 17 months ago by G Rees
Short and sweet
The Haunting of Hill House is a well written well paced psychological journey. The atmosphere created by Shirley Jackson, seen through the eyes of her protagonist is skewed and... Read more
Published 17 months ago by S. Mcfarlane
coolly spooky
It's difficult to do justice to this book's characters and atmosphere in a short summary. It pulls you in odd directions, wrong-footing the reader in strange ways rather like Hill... Read more
Published on 18 April 2010 by Sarah A. Brown
Nonsensical
What a silly book. Poorly developed characters, nonsensical and childish
conversation, flimsy plot and at times it was so bad that it was almost hilarious. Read more
conversation, flimsy plot and at times it was so bad that it was almost hilarious. Read more
Published on 26 Mar 2010 by S. Mulay
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