The Haunting of Hill House (Penguin Classics) by Shirley Jackson
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Book Reviews of The Haunting of Hill House (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: A powerful, ambiguous, and groundbreaking work.
Summary: 5 Stars
If you've read a "haunted house" story written in the 52 years since Shirley Jackson's catastrophically fragile novel, The Haunting of Hill House, came out, then some of its revolutionary appeal is lost to you. I, certainly, couldn't stop comparing it to King's The Shining. While writers like Edgar Allan Poe had no trouble creating evil houses that destroy their inhabitants, Jackson took the additional step of routing the evil entirely through her character's perceptions. Even if there is little doubt that we are witnessing supernatural events, we can't understand their meaning except through the eyes of unstable and (fatally) flawed characters. This, above all, is what makes Hill House such a groundbreaking work.
Dr. Montague, a professor eager to prove the existence of "supernatural manifestations" has recruited a party to spend a summer at the reportedly-haunted Hill House. Among this group of four is Eleanor, a bitter and reclusive woman in her early thirties who has spent her young adulthood caring for her acerbic mother. The mother has died, and the story picks up steam with Eleanor's departure for Hill House. Her journey prompts a series of enchanting fantasies, various "happily ever afters" that Eleanor imagines but cannot act upon. By the time she has arrived at Hill House, we understand her as unhappy and vulnerable, craving attention and affection but socially unable to command it, and above all filled with longing for the happiness and exuberance that has been almost entirely absent from her actual life.
Hill House itself strikes her with immediate dread, and as the other three members of the group arrive, they share in this apprehension. While the house has certainly partaken of a grisly history, its beginning is within memory, and all of the characters accept the notion that it was "bad" from the beginning; its evil was not prompted by the trace element of evil deeds from the past, but it inherent in the house itself. And for that matter, we are given some compelling explanations for this feeling. Built in a voluminous Victorian style, the house is filled with embellishments and folds, so that windowless rooms are enclosed within other rooms. The doors are constructed to close on their own, and even more striking, the floors are not level and walls do not meet at right-angles, skewing lines-of-sight and keeping the residents literally off-balance.
Some reviewers of this novel have argued that the house may not be literally haunted; that its manifestations are a product of the characters' imaginations. I disagree. For all of the care that Jackson put into developing her characters, and the evocative and exacting description of Hill House and its environs, there is nothing that seems designed to throw skepticism on the actual occurrence of the supernatural. We are certainly meant to question the nature of the supernatural in this story, but not its actual existence. And I think this is a habit, by which literary critics try to purge quality writing of "authentic ghosts." But however we resolve this issue, the central drama is a question of life and sanity, and given the care and precision in Jackson's writing, the issue is immediate and plausible.
In short, maybe we can predict the plot of Hill House, and guess its literary tricks and themes well in advance, but the depth, composition, and richness of the story makes it a worthwhile read today.
Book Review: "Journeys End in Lovers Meeting"
Summary: 5 Stars
Eleanor Vance was a thirty two when she received an invitation from Dr. Montague to join him and others at Hill House to observe its alleged paranormal activities. She was chosen for her notable abilities in experiencing such events. The invitation was a godsend, Eleanor thought. After caring for her invalid mother for years and hating every minute of it, she was now living with her sister, brother-in-law and niece, whom she equally despises. She had no friends, no lovers, no plans and none but one dream--that one day something will come along to free her from her life. She believed that Hill House was that something. Without a second thought, Eleanor left all behind and accepted the invitation. She went to Hill House with a strong conviction that it would free her, and with that the chilling events of this haunting novel start to slowly unravel.
The writer, Shirley Jackson, created a lyrically terrifying story in which the feared is unseen but starkly perceived (i.e. cold spots, banging on doors, writings on walls, blood on cloths, ...etc.) The imagery in the book is so exceptional that it can turn something so innocuous as a picnic into an ominous event all without once describing it that way. Most of the events are told from a character's perspective and what he or she believes they're experiencing. It's almost impossible to know whether the spine-chilling event you just gasped at with terror is actual or imaginary, which adds another layer of uncertainty to the reader's perception of what really is going on. The genius of Jackson's writing is evident from the very first paragraph:
"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 the 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 some of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."
The mood is set from the get-go and we--the readers--are instructed to look at Hill House as a living being and not just an inanimate object.
In addition to diffident Eleanor, Dr. Montague invites two more people to join them for an extended summer stay at Hill House: Theodora and Luke. Theodora is recklessly carefree and provides much needed comic relief throughout the story, and Luke is a liar, a thief and the sole heir to the house. The four have to contend with the house--the living house--and with each other. The result is a gripping story that will keep haunting you for a while.
The book carries within its text many rich subtexts. I won't go into them here and will leave that up to you--the reader--to figure out when you read it. You might come to realize that what makes this book a classic isn't just the simplicity of the story or that it blazed the trail for the horror genre or anything like that. I truly believe that it's Jackson's writing that made this book a classic. Her writing in and of itself is haunted.
"Journeys End in Lovers Meeting" indeed.
Book Review: Twisted & Unsettling
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very strange book. Everything seems off kilter and half mad. Jackson's style, her characters, nothing seems right, normal or sane. Miss Jackson (as she was known) is widely and rightly regarded as one of the greatest American horror writers. But do not expect a Stephen King or an Anne Rice, although both writers are said to have been influenced by her. This stuff is completely psychological and really bizarre and twisted. Miss Jackson prefers her characters to be odd and isolated and out of touch with reality. This book, written from the viewpoint of Eleanor, who is a completely unreliable narrator, is that and more. The house as a character in itself is absolutely evil. Things happen which are truly horrific but then everything settles down and one can't be sure of exactly what *has* happened. Everything falls neatly back into place until the next time. The characters visiting this house, brought together for an "experiment in the occult", regularly turn on one another and play up faults and speak behind the other's back. Friendships and kinships fall in and out, everyone generally acts completely horrible. The house has them in its grasp, they appear to have fallen under the spell of two sisters who lived in Hill House with their deranged, fanatical father. The guests in the house speak to each other childishly, they play silly games, they tease and bully and bait. There is more than an insinuation of overt sexuality, of a kind of undetailed love affair between Eleanor and Theodora, Theodora and Luke (who stands to inherit the house), and Luke and Eleanor. The doctor who initiated the experiment wavers between clarity and delusion, and when his wife turns up late in the book with her creepy assistant Arthur, everything flies to pieces and the end of Eleanor is at hand. This book will unsettle and unnerve and stick with you.
A bit about Jackson might be in order, as the woman accurately reflected her writings. Jackson wrote "The Lottery," the most controversial story ever published by The New Yorker Magazine. She had four children, was married to teacher and critic Stanley Edgar Hyman. Hyman supported his wife's writing talents, but was typical of the time and helped little in domestic affairs. Jackson was a devoted mother, interested in magic and witchcraft, and by all accounts a delightful hostess and witty conversationalist. She was also exceedingly troubled. She had many health problems and eventually became a recluse. She smoked too much, ate too much, was addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs. She suffered from intense anxiety and depression and felt persecuted by the citizens of the small Vermont town in which she lived. The fears that plagued her became a prime source of her creativity. In an unsent letter to poet Howard Nemerov she wrote, "...I have always loved to use fear, to take it and comprehend it and make it work and consolidate a situation where I was afraid and take it whole and work from these...I delight in what I fear. ..it is about my being afraid and afraid to say so, so much afraid that a name in a book can turn me inside out."
Well said.
Book Review: The Premier Haunted House story
Summary: 5 Stars
"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.
Book Review: These words are precious, take them in leisurely...
Summary: 5 Stars
The rich character development in this stunning story drips off the pages like the sweetest nectar as the reader is teleported into a gut wrenching, eerie tale of a forlorn house looking for new blood.
When doctor Montague decides to stay at a very famous haunted house he doesn't wants to go alone. For the ride he picks three people who have tempted fate with strange happenings in hopes of bring the house to life with the sensitive receptors they might poses. He invites Luke, the estate's future heir, Theodora, an artist with many vain talents and Eleanor, a woman who has no real bond with the society and her own identity.
Each day in the house brings new development to light, and all in an articulate and beautiful way with which the author built each character. She has cleverly breathed so much life into them that I felt a deep and rich connection with each one and enjoyed finding out what happened to them. Waking up with the characters, having breakfast, discussing the appropriate outfits and mood, having bourbon after dinner, playing chess and talking about books was done colorfully but in a swift manner. The colors, textures, mood and ambiance was a rich soufflé of words that were soon interrupted by the house itself.
Together they faced the Hill House, build on crooked angles and with doors that naturally closed on their own with dark, oppressive interior design and overall feel of repulsion. When all quiet gets violently interrupted the residents start questioning whether it's real of whether one of them is playing tricks in order to get attention and to stir their sanity. The house has many deaths on its conscience and Leo, Eleanor, Theodora and Dr. Montague want to merely observe if they are true because of the house, little do they know that they are flies sitting on a big wet spider web. As their isolation from safety of the real world thickens, their courage wears thin as noises and fracas through the night bring the impossible to life. This story is another trap the house sets up for its guests, another chapter in the blood soaked pages of the Hill House tale, one that will never cease to happen again and again as long as the house stands.
This book was very short yet it feed me like the biggest opus. The buildup I got from the characters and their past was a marvelous back drop to a creepy house that was manifesting something truly dark and ugly. I have enjoyed this book tremendously and will wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a chilling read.
- Kasia S.