 |
 |
Sign in/joinLanguage: English [ others ]
Over forty million books on members' bookshelves.
|
Loading... The Haunting of Hill Houseby Shirley Jackson
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendations
Loading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No gore here, but all the same this book is terrifying. (  )kren250 | Jun 11, 2009 |   I've enjoyed some of her others stories much more. It wasn't nearly as haunting as I had expected. I don't think I've ever read such a short book with so many semicolons in it; perhaps, the driving test I took when I was sixteen compares. I really like Jackson's writings, but this one just didn't sit well with me. (  )Voracious_Reader | Mar 30, 2009 | One of those classic stories that everyone raves about, I found the story to be rather blah. The book was good, but the movies were better. Of course, soundtracks with just the right spooky music and the subtle shadows of film really brought the story to life for me, so I think the fact that I've seen both film adaptations might have ruined the written word just a little bit. I found myself comparing scenes from the book to scenes in the movie and found the book lacking that chill factor. Overall, the writing was good, but I was expecting more. (  )DanaJean | Feb 19, 2009 | The Haunting by Shirley Jackson I listened to this book narrated by David Warner as I read along on the page. The narration definitely added to my enjoyment of this novella, with Warner's voice keeping the tension high and a few notes of ominous music at the beginning of each chapter offering a few tingly feelings all their own. The story is not 'horror' by modern standards but more an eerie character study of self confidence in mysterious circumstances. Throw a little insinuation into the mix and it's amazing where the human mind can take us. Is the house haunted? Is it all a suggestive reaction by those who stay there? Would you stay there overnight to find the answer? Rating: Good stuff! ( )BritAnnia | Feb 17, 2009 | 1  This is reminiscent of [[Henry James]]' [Turn of the Screw], the biggest difference being that this is actually good. I distinguish terror (personal threat) and horror (vicarious terror). This story actually evoked both, which is really rare in my experience. This story accomplishes it by keeping you ignorant of what may happen until it does, and even then you don't know what it is. Sometimes oblique reference is made to things happening but you never learn what they are, which just adds to the scariness. I thought the main-est character was treated with an extraordinary degree of sympathy, especially for a horror story, and I don't mean just of the "get out before it's too late" variety. I think it is this sympathy that makes the book remarkable. It also makes the ending horrible far out of proportion to the actual event (it may be important in this connection to know that I consider the dénouement to occur in the penultimate, or possibly antepenultimate {don't remember for sure}, paragraph — the three sentences that begin with "Why".) I see that many reviewers consider the horror in this book to be psychological (deriving from the principal protagonist's state of mind), at least in part; but to my mind, it's at least as much sociological (deriving from the protagonists' behavior toward one another), particularly in the way that social norms can inflict subtle cruelties upon people on the margin, and expose them to manipulation by others. ( )drbubbles | Jan 28, 2009 | 1 0.087 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (ISBN 0140071083, Paperback)Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has unnerved readers since its original publication in 1959. A tale of subtle, psychological terror, it has earned its place as one of the significant haunted house stories of the ages.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 (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:03 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
Abebooks |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
