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

Product Description
The classic supernatural thriller by an author who helped define the genre

First published in 1959, Shirley Jacksons 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 powersand soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

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 denouement 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.


one of two books which have genuinely scared me   February 26, 2000
 43 out of 44 found this review helpful

I saw "The Haunting", the movie version of the book when I was in high school and I remember, quite vividly, how much it scared me. What's so ironic, taken in the context of today's effects and fireworks shows, is that back then, in the early '60s, this movie never shows a monster...or anything else that would OBVIOUSLY frighten. The breathing doors and sounds in the hall were more than ample to illustrate fear. The book is much richer in detail and includes, especially, two scenes which I feel really should have been included in the movie. The first is when Eleanor and Theo take a stroll around the grounds of the house with Luke and Theo and Luke pair off and Eleanor thinks they are right behind her. They are some distance away, yet she senses them (or something) close by. The second is after an altercation one night Eleanor stalks out of the house and Dr. Marquay sends Theo after her to bring her back. The two of them are so wrapped up in their respective inner turmoil they fail to notice how far they've walked from the house(and at Night!) They notice, suddenly, that the landscape has become like a negative photograph, with light and dark reversed...they continue on and come upon a happy scene, in bright color, of a family having a picnic. The description of this made my hair stand on end. The horror is implied and erupts only occasionally but always with tremendous effect. This is truly a modern classic of the genre...the opening lines as memorable as "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again" or "Call me Ishamel"..."Hill House, not sane, had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more...within, floors were firm, windows sensibly shut, and whatever walked there, walked alone." My suggestion...don't read this book alone, but read it!


JACKSON'S CLASSIC WITCH'S BREW   January 26, 2000
 40 out of 44 found this review helpful

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE is one of the most subtle yet disturbing ghost stories ever written. Deservedly a true classic of the genre and a fine piece of modern American literature, the genius of Jackson's writing is in her SUBTLETY. Generally I find that readers who don't like or understand the book don't realize that all the while they're under Jackson's spell. (it's a book many people need to read over again) This short novel is one of the RARE FEW which will LINGER in the psyche LONG after it's been read! In the previous reviews, approximately 90% of the readers who were "disappointed" felt there was SOMETHING unique about the book. Eleanor. Eleanor was never "normal" to begin with; in Hill House she was like a kid in a candy store! Unable to relate to people, the house becomes her lover and her best friend; they become as ONE. I have to admit that I would have liked the book to have been longer, but I suspect Jackson's sudden ending was her style of "shock". Shirley Jackson knew what she was doing; this book is a classic witch's brew of symbolism and, boy, does it prey in the hallways of the mind! Forget what the previous scoffers say: read this alone in bed on a stormy night and I GUARANTEE you'll agree that Jackson was a master of her craft!


Absolutely wonderful-nothing like the remake!   January 18, 2000
 32 out of 32 found this review helpful

Shirley Jackson is truly the master of horror. She weaves a dark tale of loneliness, depression, sadness, obsession and fear. Most readers, who have seen the remake, seem to be impressed with special effects and cheesy plots. This story is chilling not because of the supernatural themes, but because of the dark recesses of human nature. People don't seem to realize that the ending (without giving too much away) depicts Eleanor's response towards her feelings of isolation and depression. Who knows if she did what she did because of a ghost or because she was truly mad? was she trying to stay in the only place that understood her or was the house trying to keep her? Please, don't base this literary masterpiece on a REALLY bad movie. read the book and decide WHO was in control-Eleanor or Hill House?


Twisted & Unsettling   April 28, 2007
 18 out of 20 found this review helpful

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.