The Haunting of Hill House

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Summary: Shirley Jackson's masterful haunted house novel
Review: In one of her best works, Shirley Jackson introduces us to a haunted, evil house that brings out the worst in the four---later expanded to six--people who agree to gather there. In the interest of science, Professor Montague invites a group of people to participate in a study of the psychological effect of the house. His group is winnowed down to himself; Luke, the flippant young grandson of the present owner of Hill House; the enigmatic, beautiful Theodora; and Eleanor, the repressed, 32 year old spinster who has spent the last 11 years taking care of her mother. Later they are joined by Montague's wife, an ardent spiritualist and ouija board devotee, and her bluff, hearty friend.

With a set of characters like this, Jackson's compact novel cannot fail to intrigue and satisfy. Readers who have seen the 1962 movie will find inevitable differences in plot and emphasis in the book. Jackson's carefully crafted prose will hook you from the first page to the last. Highly recommended.

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Summary: great
Review: This was a work of literary genius, but why did thy have to make 2 movies that totally stank. The crummy actors and smelly directors made this book look bad

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Summary: Not so haunting hill house
Review: I, like the vast minority, do not understand all this lavish praise heaped upon Ms. Jackson. I've read literary crictism and essays about the book, and see what they're talking about--and agree with most points--but Hill House just isn't that great. In fact, it isn't great at all.Simply put, Hill House is a mediocre thriller, chiefly inhibited by Jackson's writing stlye, and a supreme lack of anything actually happening. I'm not saying she sucks, but the prose was a bit too choppy, the dialog was silly (and yes I understand all the nonsense about the characters creating fictious lives for themselves--it's still silly and unbelievable, and the fatal flaw:Jackson pulls the plug to early on many scenes just when they were getting interesting (the worst was the Theo and Nell storm off into the Don't Go Out After Dark Woods and happen upon a picnic and Theo yells from out of nowhere "Run Away and Don't look back." What scared her? Without that crucial "little" detail, the scene is a waste of space, and makes no sense. My point is that stuff like the preceding happened way too much, while nothing of any real interest did. I liked the booming door knocking bit, but that was the House's (or Eleanor's) best trick, and I thought it was just sad when Jackson repeated it later.
In summary, Hill House looked promising in the beginning, but never achieved anything. Maybe I'm just sick of the Female goes Crazy routine(which was done better in Yellow Wallpaper). Read The Shining instead.

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Summary: Looking deeply into the abyss............
Review: It took 2 readings for me to appreciate this book, the first time I read this about 2 years ago I just didn't get it, perhaps I was waiting for something more typical to happen. My second reading just recently was more productive, I see the subtle horror of this story now. Eleanor, a woman whose life has always been repressed in a dysfunctional family setting, had developed a fantasy life in her own imagination to cope. When she visits a "haunted house" with others there to study & record occult phenomena in a scientific way, she rapidly loses her mind and her already weak sense of self into the house.

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Summary: Are the Ghosts Real?
Review: Were the ghosts real at the Haunting of Hill House or was it just Eleanor's descent into madness? This is up to the reader to decide upon this thrilling piece of psychological terror.

The Haunting of Hill House does not describe the ghosts. It does not throw the ghosts at the reader. It only describes what the residents experience in the house: the noises, the turning of the door knob, the grasp of a clenched fist. This book makes the reader use his or her imagination what terrible secrets lie within the house. Are they ghosts?

I read this book after I saw the first movie. Do not see the second movie, please! The first movie with Julie Harris is so much better than Lily Taylor was in the second movie. (Lily Taylor is a great actress in her own right--but not in this movie). The first movie, though, clearly captures the essence of the book. But that is not to say the book is not good. I found The Haunting of Hill House to be one best examples of modern horror literature in that it can scare "bejeebers" out of the reader with its nuances of sounds and noises.

Great reading, and beware if you read it late at night.

Rating:
Summary: The Haunting of Hill House
Review: The Haunting of Hill House is a very suspensful book. When I was reading this story it keeped me on the edge of my seat and my eyes wide open. I thought this book was writen very well by Shirley Jackson. It was a good book but I only gave it four stars because I thought there could have been even more suspense and spookiness. I like this book a lot. It kept me readind and made me want more. It was easy to read and not too long. The plot is about how four peoplestay in a haunted house for a summer. I think it was a great horror story.

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Summary: My view is don't watch the film before you read this!
Review: 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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Summary: Even the words on the pages are haunted
Review: The Haunting of Hill House remains one of the most important horror novels of all time and certainly one of the most singular haunted house tales ever written. It is certainly worth mentioning that at no time do we or the characters actually see any sort of visible ghostly manifestation; the phenomena are limited to cold spots, spectral banging on the walls and doors, messages written on walls, and torn, blood-spewed clothing in one room. If Jackson had compelled Hugh Crain (the main who built Hill House) to pop out of the woodwork and say Boo!, this story would have been long forgotten. Still, it quite amazes me that Shirley Jackson has met with such critical success and eternal popularity; I say this only because her writing style is unique and rather off-the-wall. Truly, Jackson's writing itself is haunted, and she herself almost surely was in some manner. There is a degree of insanity in every page; the characters often engage in dialogue that is childish of a sort and certainly different from normal adult conversation. I would think such idiosyncratic writing would appeal only to those like myself who are different, somewhat kooky, outsiders looking at the real world through thick-paned glass that sometimes fogs over or plays tricks with our eyes depending on the angle in which the sun hits it or does not hit it.

Eleanor is an especially appealing character to me because I share many of her doubts and fears: I don't belong, what are people saying about me?, are people laughing at me behind my back?, why am I here and where am I going?, etc. No one rivals Jackson in the ability to paint a deeply moving, psychologically deep portrait of the tortured soul. The fact that so many people praise this book must mean that most people are plagued with self-doubt, which I find sadly comforting. In any event, Eleanor is a perfectly tragic heroine; those who can't relate to her must surely at least pity her. The character of Theodora is also fascinating, as she largely represents Eleanor's opposite: a vibrant personality, full of life and a need to be in the middle of it, probably insecure inwardly but strikingly bold outwardly. This dichotomy between two "sisters" is a constant theme in Jackson's work. The Eleanor-Theo relationship is reflected and honed against the relationship of Hugh Crain's two daughters, twin souls who grew up the dark mansion as loving sisters but who eventually came to hate each other and fight for ownership rights to the house. Eleanor and Theo also have a subtle love-hate relationship, the conflict between the two representing a jealousy over the house. Both want to be the center of attention, although Eleanor would never admit such a desire, and the fact that the house itself obviously harbors a strange enchantment for Eleanor bothers Theo and enchants Eleanor. When Theo's room and clothing are painted in blood, the house clearly signifies the soul with whom its sympathies lie, and this marks a turning point in the text. Eleanor's rapid descent into madness seems a little sudden to me at times, and the exceedingly nonsensical conversations between all of the characters strikes me as quite mad. Of course, at the end, one wonders just which of the later conversations actually happened outside of Eleanor's own mind.

The introduction of the doctor's wife in the closing section of the book effects a radical change in the mood of the novel. Mrs. Montague and her associate Arthur are incredibly annoying people. Their professed beliefs in the paranormal and attempts to contact spirits by way of a planchette clearly upset the mood of both the house and its occupants (and the reader). Their over-the-top belief in spirits and determination to contact them using parlor-method techniques serve to ridicule the house and Eleanor and quickly usher in the dénouement of the story. Eleanor's sense of belonging to the house takes precedence over everything else in her life; she has come home, and the house's wish in this regard is fulfilled. The ending itself is striking and perfectly fitting, I feel, and does much to keep the spirit of this wonderful novel in your mind and soul for a long time. This is not a novel to cast aside and forget; long after you have finished the book, Eleanor and Hill House will haunt your mind and soul.

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Summary: "...and whatever walks there, walks alone."
Review: Jackson's greatest strength was the psychological portraiture of women either on the edge, or over it. Though Hill House is usually taken to be a superior supernatural novel, it is actually far more a study of a woman succumbing to suicidal impulse. The notoriously haunted house has something of a resonant vibration with lonely and unloved spinster Eleanor Vance, who finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into its diseased fabric. Jackson skillfully never discloses whether the ghostly house is itself the cause of Eleanor's ruin, or whether Eleanor's own psyche is simply amplified within its walls to the point that she collapses in upon herself.

The Haunting of Hill House is deservedly a classic, and superbly written. It suffers somewhat by comparison to the superior 1963 film version, which better streamlined Jackson's plot and gave the story an added atmospheric dimension beyond even her own excellent descriptive skills. But the book has unquestionably one of the most famous and well-written opening and closing paragraphs in literature, and is worthy of continued readership.

Whether you're looking for a good, creepy ghost story, or a brilliantly drawn portrait of a woman fighting incipient madness, this book will satisfy in either case, and provide many hours of food for thought.

Rating:
Summary: The haunting of Hill House
Review: I did not find this book very scary, I was only mildly amused by this book. If you want a really scary book, I still have not been able to top The Amityville Horror.