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Product Description: The classic supernatural thriller by an author who helped define the genre
First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own. Amazon.com: Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has unnerved readers since its original publication in 1959. A tale of subtle, psychological terror, it has earned its place as one of the significant haunted house stories of the ages. Eleanor Vance has always been a loner--shy, vulnerable, and bitterly resentful of the 11 years she lost while nursing her dying mother. "She had spent so long alone, with no one to love, that it was difficult for her to talk, even casually, to another person without self-consciousness and an awkward inability to find words." Eleanor has always sensed that one day something big would happen, and one day it does. She receives an unusual invitation from Dr. John Montague, a man fascinated by "supernatural manifestations." He organizes a ghost watch, inviting people who have been touched by otherworldly events. A paranormal incident from Eleanor's childhood qualifies her to be a part of Montague's bizarre study--along with headstrong Theodora, his assistant, and Luke, a well-to-do aristocrat. They meet at Hill House--a notorious estate in New England. Hill House is a foreboding structure of towers, buttresses, Gothic spires, gargoyles, strange angles, and rooms within rooms--a place "without kindness, never meant to be lived in...." Although Eleanor's initial reaction is to flee, the house has a mesmerizing effect, and she begins to feel a strange kind of bliss that entices her to stay. Eleanor is a magnet for the supernatural--she hears deathly wails, feels terrible chills, and sees ghostly apparitions. Once again she feels isolated and alone--neither Theo nor Luke attract so much eerie company. But the physical horror of Hill House is always subtle; more disturbing is the emotional torment Eleanor endures. Intense, literary, and harrowing, The Haunting of Hill House belongs in the same dark league as Henry James's classic ghost story, The Turn of the Screw. --Naomi Gesinger Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-02
Excellent
I have been fascinated with Hill House since my teens. This was an amazing story then and it remains a classic with good reason. It's dark and atmospheric with just enough suspense. It's thoroughly engrossing. Jackson was a forerunner of female horror authors during this era and her material matched that, if not exceeded, those from her counterparts.
Eleanor is a beaten character at the start of the book. She was under the rule of an overbearing mother and upon her death, Eleanor goes directly to the overbearing rule of her sister.
Her hopeless existence is interrupted by a unique opprotunity to leave it all. She seizes the chance and enters Hill House.
This is an excellent read. Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-18
Horror Classic
Shirley Jackson's 'The Haunting of Hill House' is the classic modern haunted house story. I was assigned to read this in high school many years ago and I never got past the first couple of pages; not unusual for high school students I guess, but unusual for me. Now I have picked it up again and I don't know why I never finished before. It isn't long or complex, but is instead a readable story with a few really gripping scenes. However is is somewhat episodic. Jackson ratchets up the suspense, then lets it deflate the next chapter, requiring the suspense to be built up again almost from scratch again. I have heard it compared to Henry James's 'Turn of the Screw' and I believe the comparison to be apt, as it is very ambiguous how many of the events are real and how many are occurring only in the mind of Eleanor. Rating:
Date: 2008-06-16
My favorite horror film ever made.
The original version of The Haunting is in my opinion the best horror film I've ever seen. The characters are introduced successfully one at a time. It is filmed in black and white which seems appropriate for 1963. Ones imagination is allowed to run wild through the scarey bits as the "monsters" are heard but not seen. I reccommend that every one who loves horror films see this one. The book is good, quick reading. and the 1990 re-make is so-so. So ask for the original "The Haunting (of Hill House)" T.E.Montecillo Rating:
Date: 2008-06-05
The Premier Haunted House story
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."
That is the chilling opening paragraph to this classic novel by master wordsmith Shirley Jackson. How could that not compel you to read the rest? It sets the mood for what became the premier haunted house story, the novel that inspired a whole new sub-genre of horror. Novels such as Richard Matheson's HELL HOUSE to movies such as Tobe Hooper's POLTERGEIST all pay homage to this masterpiece.
It is not nearly as daring a novel as what you might imagine. It does not explicitly describe gore or violence. In fact the novel is really more of a character portrait for Eleanor ("Nell"), a socially backward woman who had spent her life taking care of her sick mother until she died, and who then found herself in the care of her despising sister. Because of an event in her past in which stones rained on her house for days, perceived by others to be a poltergeist incident, a parapsychologist invited her to spend the night with other subjects in a large old house. As gothic and uninviting as Hill House turned out to be, she felt herself enjoying the notion that she had friends and a place to go that wasn't her mean sister's house. The reader is taken into her head, into her unbalanced psychological state, for the entirety of her stay in the house, because it was her actions in the end that needed to be explained. She killed herself in order to stay with the house. In order to haunt it.
THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE was adapted into a motion picture twice. The first time was a most successful and faithful adaptation by director Robert Wise, resulting in a black and white horror classic THE HAUNTING in 1963, starring Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson and Russ Tamblyn. Using monologue voice over to substitute Nell's thoughts, the movie wisely captured the spirit of the novel. (Forgive the pun.) They made a few changes in order to move the plot forward, as the novel tends to linger for long periods of time in what appears to be meaningless dialog and chit-chat between the four who stayed in the house. Most of the time it was nervous chatter, small jokes to lighten their anxiety. The house, in turn, did haunt them. Rating:
Date: 2008-05-19
A Ghost book that is wonderfully enchanting but scary!
Ever since my teens I have engaged watching the evocative black and white film based on Shirley Jackson's book. Recently I aquired thanks to Amazon this classic and if ever I would like to have to start reading a book again this would be one of my favourites. The book holds you spellbound as you turn each page, the conversations are stimulating and Elenore is so very appealing with her sad but lovely innocent ways. The book keeps you enthralled with it's spooky events and even more so what you guess is sometimes going on but not written down. It was like a breathe of fresh air to relax and unwind with such a book and Shirley Jackson created a masterpiece in this respect. The only downside being the fact that this work is in paperback and although it's a nice little paperback,certainly her work deserves to be bound in a wonderful cloth bound edition(publishers please note!) Yes! a classic and if you enjoy reading a good supernaturual yarn I can recomend "The Haunting of Hill House" as a must buy! |
