Summary:
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, the 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.
My take: 4 looks
I have come to know that anything written by Shirley Jackson is going to be beautifully crafted. The characters come alive, the story builds layers upon layers, and there is always a wonderfully complex and satisfying ending.
And The Haunting of Hill House was no different. As we are introduced to the four main characters, it becomes more and more obvious that the main character is, in fact, the house.
The organizer of the group, an academic, Dr. Montague is at first all business. Two vastly different women, Theodore is an artist and Eleanor is a mousy woman dominated by her sister and late mother, the latter for whom she cared for, for years. Luke is the heir to Hill House, and is there at the request of the current owner, his aunt. On the periphery are caretakers Mr. and Mrs. Dudley, surely an odd pair. They refuse to be at the house after dark, and Mrs. Dudley repeats the same sentences over and over. I found that odd, disconcerting, and it served as a red herring in the plot for me. Surely the house had possessed her. However, when Dr. M’s overbearing and boorish wife shows up with her traveling companion, Arthur, we see that Mrs. Dudley can, indeed, make conversation.
And so the story is set. You have the requisite “things that go bump in the night” occurrences, words written on walls as a warning, and other trappings of a good ghost story. However, it’s when the personalities of the guests start to change that things get really interesting. Then phantom scenes appear out of doors. A warning to run, and not look back … but she does look back …
And the splendidly delicious ending, complete with a short final paragraph, as a sort of epilogue. It was the perfect October read for this lover of horror.
Highly recommended.
