The Uninvited

Rating:
Summary: A CLASSY ENGLISH GHOST STORY.
Review: I first read this book at about the age of ten, after watching the 1944 film on late night on television (I was enthralled). There are sub-plots and characters which weren't included in the movie version, but Macardle's fluid writing style keeps one's interest until the last page. The story is about strange ghostly disturbances at "Cliff End" (in the movie, the Georgian house was re-named "Windward"). There are wonderful characters: the Fitzgeralds (Pamela and Roderick) who are siblings, Stella Merideth, the young moonstruck girl who's enchanted by the dangers which lure her into her mother's past. Commander Beech is gruff and Miss Holloway is cold and rather heartless (especially towards Stella; her supposed mother was an "intimate friend" of Holloway's). The Spanish Gypsy - Carmel Casada - whom Llewellyn used as a model for his paintings holds the key to the puzzle....Macardle uses plenty of exclaimation marks throughout the book and her writing style is a wee bit dated - but this story has an ingeniously unique twist in which readers of the ghost genre should appreciate. The Irish Ms. Macardle also wrote THE UNFORESEEN, (about a woman with "second sight") DARK ENCHANTMENT (about witchcraft in France) and a non-fiction book entitled THE IRISH REPUBLIC.

Rating:
Summary: A CLASSY ENGLISH GHOST STORY.
Review: I first read this book at about the age of ten, after watching the 1944 film on late night on television (I was enthralled). There are sub-plots and characters which weren't included in the movie version, but Macardle's fluid writing style keeps one's interest until the last page. The story is about strange ghostly disturbances at "Cliff End" (in the movie, the Georgian house was re-named "Windward"). There are wonderful characters: the Fitzgeralds (Pamela and Roderick) who are siblings, Stella Merideth, the young moonstruck girl who's enchanted by the dangers which lure her into her mother's past. Commander Beech is gruff and Miss Holloway is cold and rather heartless (especially towards Stella; her supposed mother was an "intimate friend" of Holloway's). The Spanish Gypsy - Carmel Casada - whom Llewellyn used as a model for his paintings holds the key to the puzzle....Macardle uses plenty of exclaimation marks throughout the book and her writing style is a wee bit dated - but this story has an ingeniously unique twist in which readers of the ghost genre should appreciate. The Irish Ms. Macardle also wrote THE UNFORESEEN, (about a woman with "second sight") DARK ENCHANTMENT (about witchcraft in France) and a non-fiction book entitled THE IRISH REPUBLIC.

Rating:
Summary: Genuine chills of the old fashioned kind. Cuddle up!
Review: I have been reading this book for about twenty years and have enjoyed the film for about thirty years! Both are fantastic, but the book goes far beyond the characters and plot of the film, and gives us fully developed personalities and complex plotting. If you are a fan of mysteries, especially English mysteries, you will not be disappointed in this puzzler. As you read along, you can almost feel the wind on the cliff, hear a mournful sigh, and smell the mimosa!

Rating:
Summary: Hoping to read it
Review: I haven't actually read it yet but can imagine it would get the 5 stars. I have been searching for this book for 11 years through various search agencies, every book stall, fair, library even our British Library hasn't got a copy as theirs was destroyed in the 2nd world war. So to have finally ordered it is so amazing and something I thought I would never do. So unexpressable thanks Amazon best wishes Nat

Rating:
Summary: I've revisted this novel a half dozen times since I was 16
Review: If you've seen the movie and know the plot twist, you'll still enjoy the book. Some interesting sub-plots were dropped from the screenplay and they add to the supernatural atmosphere of the story. Picturing Ray Milland as Roderick, Ruth Hussey as Pamela and Gail Russell as Stella as you read helps, since the three actors were perfectly cast.

The story follows a brother and sister who buy an old seaside house in England and begin to investigate the spooky occurances they experience. They delve into the history of the house and its past inhabitants as the haunting becomes more intense, figuring that by discovering the reason behind it, they can lay the spirit to rest. The story unfolds as both a neat little English mystery as well as a chilling ghost story.

Be sure you are buying the novel and not the play by Tim Kelley. That's okay in itself, but is nowhere as good as MacArdle's book; sometimes it's not easy to tell here on this site which version you are reading about.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful ghost story
Review: Saw the movie when I was a kid - read the book at the library, then finally bought the republished edition from Amazon. Characters are beautifully drawn, and the love story is great. A great English mystery novel.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful ghost story
Review: Saw the movie when I was a kid - read the book at the library, then finally bought the republished edition from Amazon. Characters are beautifully drawn, and the love story is great. A great English mystery novel.

Rating:
Summary: Solid play if a good novel and a fine film
Review: This is a solid play of a good novel, but it is unlikely that any viewer can see it without having first seen the film version with Ray Milland. The surprises and twists are all there and the dialogue works well. A solid play.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best ghost stories ever!
Review: When Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald (brother and sister) move into an old house called Cliff End on the north Devon coast, they are not worried by the rumors of strange occurrences in the past. However, it is not long before their nights become sleepless nightmares. And when Stella, a new young friend, visits the house, the horrible manifestations intensify. She had lived here as a baby, and her saintly mother died in a fall from the cliff, possibly pushed by a wild young Spanish girl who served as a model for Stella's artist father. Soon it becomes apparent that there are two spirits in the house, one warm and the other terrifyingly cold, and they seem to be battling over Stella. So it becomes a case of abandoning the house or taking extreme measures to determine the truth of the cause of the hauntings and of that tragic occurrence from Stella's infancy. The suspense and the terror build as the brother and sister, with the aid of friends, try to solve the mystery and to protect Stella from unknown dangers. This is one of my top 3 all-time favorite books, and I have reread it every couple of years since I was a teenager. Oh, I don't suppose that it is a classical masterpiece, but it is as believable a ghost story as ever was written. The handling of characters and atmosphere are exquisitely done. The movie is all right, but it cannot begin to capture the intensity of this excellent suspense novel.