The Haunting of Hill House

by Shirley Jackson

Guillermo del Toro (Editor) and Laura Miller (Introduction)

Part of a new six-volume series of the best in classic horror, selected by award-winning director Guillermo del Toro.

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.

Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco in 1919. She first received wide critical acclaim for her short story 'The Lottery', which was published in 1948. Her novels - which include The Sundial, The Bird's Nest, Hangsaman, The Road through the Wall, We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House - are characterised by her use of realistic settings for tales that often involve elements of horror and the occult. Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages are her two works of nonfiction. Come Along With Me is a collection of stories, lectures, and part of the novel she was working on when she died in 1965.

• ISBN10: 0143122355
• ISBN13: 9780143122357
• Publish Date: 3 October 2013 (first published 1 January 1959)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Penguin Classics
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 208
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780143122357

Reviews

[thepunktheory]

Full book vs. movie review on my blog!


I was pretty excited to pick up the book but ended up very disappointed.
Why you may ask? First of all, the characters were pretty annoying. I didn't like any single one of them or cared in the slightest what happened to them. Especially, Eleanor was so much in her own headspace, constantly complaining about bullshit that I soon got very annoyed with her. Honestly, most of the characters seemed to be so bothered by entirely trivial things that I couldn't help but roll my eyes.
Had the story been intriguing enough, I would have been prepared to overlook that. However, the haunting remains rather ominous all the way through. There are some moments that seem to be building up to something but the big reveal I had been waiting for never came. Especially the ending was rather anti-climatic and really stretched what I would have been willing to accept.

[Leigha]

Four people gather at Hill House to explore its paranormal activity in this surprisingly good classic horror novel.

The Haunting of Hill House wasn’t on my radar to read until I watched the TV series on Netflix. Atmospheric and gripping, the show completely and totally immersed me into the story. I picked up the book on a whim afterwards, craving to be brought back into that world.

The book….well, it’s not the movie. That’s not to say it’s bad, but it lacked the character dynamics I loved from the show. When I stopped trying to compare it to the show, I was able to appreciate the slow descent of madness Eleanor experiences at Hill House. Her growing awareness of the house is like a haunting – subtle at first, but growing more pronounced as the story progressed.

It’s a fairly quick read with beautifully written language. The author is magnificent at creating a spooky mood and tone perfect for a haunted house. I will admit to being confused on the book’s classification as a horror novel. It has several horror elements, but it’s by no means what I would consider horror (at least by today’s standards). It’s a bit slow with few jump scares so do not go into this expecting to scream.

tl;dr A well-written spooky novel with a fascinating study of a woman’s mad decent into the depths of a haunted house.

[celinenyx]

Absolutely stunning.

[jeannamichel]

After finishing the Netflix show, I wanted to compare the two immediately. As much as I prefer the TV show, Jackson’s story grips readers in with a creepy narrative that is sure to give you chills.

[Silvara]

The first 16% or so of the kindle copy I read, is some lady (not the author) blathering on about how smart she is. And lots of spoilers as to what happens in the book itself. So if you aren't familiar with the story at all, skip all of that.

This is one of the extremely rare books where I actually like the movie version better (the version with Catherine Zeta-Jones). This wasn't bad, but it was just kind of meh. It wasn't scary, and the ending just left me going, "Really? All this build up for that?"

If you like the kind of scary stories that you don't want to read alone at night, this is NOT that book. Had I not seen the movie version it would have been DNF'd, but I kept hoping it would get better.

[Veronica 🦦]

A-/B+ | Spooky, haunting, and definitely one of those horror classics that every fan of horror and haunted houses should read. Not a spine-tingling spook, but a spook.

It took me a bit to get through this book - partially because of my classes and partially because of the fact that what time I had free I would either play video games or try to listen to the LOTR audiobook. I started this book because of the Netflix series. I was surprised about how different things were because I hadn't realized that the Netflix series was an adaptation, rather than a strict book-to-tv sort of thing. It was a good surprise though! It's actually what drove me to continue reading beyond the first few pages.

This book is absolutely deliciously spooky. Writing ghost stories is hard. Writing stories that make the hairs in the back of your neck stand up day or night is even harder. While I didn't get any goosebumps moments or hairs standing up, I did find this book to be spooky. Unfortunately, I was expecting spooks but I was a bit disappointed. I will say that it's less creepy than the stories my relatives have told me about the weird, creepy things they've experienced in the Philippines. Those make me shiver. This book? Not so much.

There are those times I found myself rereading sections because I felt like I missed something and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just me being scatterbrained.

Still, a little after the midway point and towards the end? I could not put the book down (well - my phone actually because I was reading this on my iPhone). I admit that I was sitting on my couch with my jaw dropped at the ending. (Although, I will say that Mrs. M and A.P. were pretty annoying).

I definitely say to give this book a chance. Nellie is interesting, and especially as the story goes on, the change in her adds to the spooks.

[leahrosereads]

I liked most of this - the setting of Hill House was exquisite! So haunting and creepy, with elements of eerie beauty, Jackson knows how to weave a tale, for sure.

I also really liked the plot and what the characters faced, I just didn't like the characters.

They were obnoxious and annoying and I wished for their demise more than once. I spent most of this rooting for the House, and I'm not sure I was supposed to.

[brokentune]

"NO LIVE organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream."

As I may have mentioned before, this must be one of the most perfect opening lines in literature. And it is so befitting of the book...

Allright, I dragged my heels reading this book. Not only am I not a fan of horror, I had also had a disappointing experience with Shirley Jackson in the past which left me dismissing her other books.

However, Halloween was approaching and The Haunting of Hill House seemed to make its annual appearance on the reading lists of friends and trusted reviewers, and I guess I felt like submitting to the curiosity of wanting find out why people think it's such a great book.

Anyway, once started I found it hard to put the book down - except after sundown. No way am I reading books about haunted houses and creepy appearances and blood soaked rooms after dark - even if it is all in my head.

"NO HUMAN eye can isolate the unhappy coincidence of line and place which suggests evil in the face of a house, and yet somehow a maniac juxtaposition, a badly turned angle, some chance meeting of roof and sky, turned Hill House into a place of despair, more frightening because the face of Hill House seemed awake, with a watchfulness from the blank windows and a touch of glee in the eyebrow of a cornice."

But that is just it, all the horror - or in this case - terror that is described in the book left me wondering whether it was in my head or that of the young protagonist who seems to be most affected by the goings on at Hill House, where she has been invited to stay with a group of other strangers to investigate if there is any presence of the supernatural.
In a way this set up is quite fun - like an Agatha Christie mystery, the inevitable house party that ends in murder, except that there is no formula to Jackson's story. Nor is there one clear solution that will convict the guilty and grant peace of mind to the innocent. Much throughout the book it is not even clear whether there are any innocent or guilty parties. As with much else, there are rather blurred lines with respect to truth, reality, fact and the perception that ultimately leads to the terror invoked in the characters and the reader.

So, no, The Haunting of Hill House is not your usual ghost story or horror flick. It is not a gory tale of slashing and screaming but a tense psychological experience that is written so well that you can actually feel the chilly drafts, smell the moldy scents, and hear the doors falling shut.

And, yet, there is more to the story still. Jackson's characters were rather charming and there is something playful about the setting and the interaction between the house guests and the cook, whose only only concern throughout the book seems to be ensuring that her daily schedule is adhered to. It is this lighthearted attitude to the whole experiment that lends even more significance to the odd behaviour and experiences of the young woman who seems most affected by the house. Is what she describes really happening or is it only an illusion?

[wyvernfriend]

Now I'm curious to see the film.

I didn't find it all that terror filled or horrific, it was the story of edge of sight stuff and fairly scary but nothing exceptional for the genre. If there had been less reviewers saying things like keeping your nightlight burning if you read it in bed etc I might have enjoyed it better.

Yes the disintegration of a person because of a malicious feeling in a house, or perhaps it was that person disintegrating by their own, is pretty horrific. I'm sure the house was involved but still it's kinda questionable as to whether or not it was the only source of the disintegration.

Not really one of my favourite reads but interesting in it's own right.

[empressbrooke]

I'm a huge fan of books where houses are one of the characters (see: House of Leaves, for example). I'd recently Tivoed The Haunting (the 1999 version) and was annoyed that while there were some good underlying ideas, the execution was cheesy and over-the-top. While browsing the horror aisle at a used bookstore, I saw Shirley Jackson's original novel, which is considered a classic ghost story, and decided to give it a try in hopes that it would retain the good parts of the movie and eliminate the Hollywood cheese.

In short, The Haunting of Hill House is about a scientist who invites people who had previously experienced paranormal events to stay in Hill House and help him scientifically prove that it is haunted. It was written back in 1959, so a lot of the dialogue and ideas seems outdated. I was able to overlook this most of the time, but sometimes I just had to raise an eyebrow and thank the heavens I didn't live in such a conservative time.

While the movie relies on in-your-face scares, such as phantoms floating down from the ceiling, the book goes in the opposite direction and keeps the horror mostly psychological. The supernatural events at times seem to be taking place solely in the main character, Eleanor's head; much of the book is ambiguous and leaves it up to the reader to determine whether the hauntings are real, or if Eleanor is going insane, and whether the house is the blame for her insanity, or if she's finally breaking down after an isolated life. The supernatural events are also only half described; a character sees something and screams for everyone to run, but the "something" is never described. In some ways it has a Jaws-like effect of heightening the terror, but on the other hand, left me desiring more.

The final plot twist in the 1999 movie version regarding why Eleanor was invited to Hill House was not included in the book, which disappointed me. I was looking forward to reading a better-executed version of the concept, but it definitely would have been at odds with the subtle and ambiguous style of the rest of the novel.

The Haunting of Hill House is a quick read for anyone looking for something creepy, but if you like a little bit more certainty to your novels, it might be a little too draw-your-own-conclusions for you. I'll probably reread it again in the future, now that all the expectations I had due to the movie have been stripped away. I expect I'll take something different from it now if I read it while trying to decide if Eleanor is insane or if the hauntings are real, instead of waiting for the scenes from the movie to occur.