The Haunting of Hill House

182 pages

English language

Published Sept. 10, 2006 by Penguin Books.

ISBN:
978-0-14-303998-3
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5 stars (1 review)

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.

4 editions

Review of 'The Haunting of Hill House' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

It seems strange to review a universally hailed classic, but here it is: this is a truly, deeply unsettling novel. Apart from the ghost story, the social horror they Jackson also brought to The Lottery is what gets under the skin. How much of Eleanor's story is real? How much of Eleanor herself is real?

The doubt is as pervasive as the dread, and the dread runs very deep.

Subjects

  • Haunted houses -- Fiction.