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The classic ghost story by Susan Hill: a chilling tale about a menacing spectre haunting a small English town.
Arthur Kipps is an up-and-coming London solicitor who is sent to Crythin Gifford--a faraway town in the windswept salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway--to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of a client, Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. Mrs. Drablow's house stands at the end of the causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but Kipps is unaware of the tragic secrets that lie hidden behind its sheltered windows. The routine business trip he anticipated quickly takes a horrifying turn when he finds himself haunted by a series of mysterious sounds and images--a rocking chair in a deserted nursery, the eerie sound of a pony and trap, a child's scream in the fog, and, most terrifying of all, a ghostly woman dressed all in black. Psychologically terrifying and deliciously eerie, The Woman in Black is a remarkable thriller of the first rate.
Jannes: No sure if it is a coincidence, but the two perhaps best ghost stories ever written are both by women, in a genre otherwise mostly dominated by men.
Both are superb explorations of death, loss, fear, and all those other elementsthat make up the good supernatural tales.… (more)
The Woman in Black is a ghost story which tells the tale of Arthur Kipps, a young lawyer from London who is sent to the countryside to go through the papers in the house of the recently deceased Mrs. Drablow. The story is told by an older Arthur, who believes by recounting his tale of horror, that he will be freed from its burden.
I had a lot of problems with this book. First of all, the story really drags on. It probably did not need to go for the 160-odd pages of which it consists – especially since I know you can tell very terrifying stories in half, or less than half that many pages, (see H.P. Lovecraft). But The Woman in Black does drag on. You're constantly being built up to something scary that's about to happen... and when the "scary" thing happens, you're left wondering, "Wait, am I supposed to be scared right now?" Truly, the parts that were supposed to be scary didn't even get a rise out of me. Ooooh something bumped.... Should I have chills right now...? The other aspect that I didn't like was that you're constantly being reminded that Arthur is a logical, scientific London gentlemen who isn't given to country superstitions and the idea of ghosts. This reminder happens every few pages. We get it. Sadly, The Woman in Black ends up being just another run-of-the-mill ghost story. Not a lot of originality is in play.
What I did appreciate about Ms. Hill's writing, is that she at least has a fantastic descriptive style. She really knows how to set the mood. You can definitely feel and smell the sea fog rolling it. You can imagine yourself in the muddy, dank marshes on an early winter day. It's these instances of her writing that make the novel mildly enjoyable. It's honestly a shame that you don't get the effects of the horror that the novel promises. Overall, I will probably give Susan Hill's other stories a try, but if I want to be scared... I think I'll stick to Lovecraft, August Derleth, or Stephen King. ( )
So, I read this as filler, inbetween my reserved library books as I was expecting to get really into it and finish it in one go. Didn't like it much, unfortunately! ( )
The fog, the mist, the marshy moors, a wraith and a mysterious house that could be in the Poe portfolio, The Woman in Black has all the classic gothic ingredients. "A rattling good yarn, the sort that chills the mind as well as the spine", so goes the blurb on the back cover (Guardian); and indeed this is an eerie tale rather than a full-on horror. It reads slightly like a short-story that goes on too long. However, it is an achievement in gathering classic Victorian gothic motifs, whilst maintaining some 'modern' sensibilities (the book was first published in 1983). In this respect, it is slightly mannered; in the vein of a TV costume drama, suited to viewing on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I did love the London Particular though, how did a thick fog get that appellation! Susan Hill's greatest achievement here is in her descriptions of an oppressive and foreboding landscape. The Woman in Black won't give you nightmares - at least I hope not... ( )
I will admit that I started listening to this on the way to the airport for my holiday, nodded off, half listed to it, and have then spent the next month or so getting round to completing listening to it.
That perhaps gives a poor reflection on the book (it should give more of a reflection on that fact I can fall asleep on a 3 hour coach journey to Gatwick). The story is spooky and mysterious and the narrator (Paul Ansdell) ably contributes to the ambiance and is written in the fine tradition of gothic horror novels.
Mrs Alice Drablow lived and died at Eel Marsh house, and Arthur Kipps is sent to the house to represent his firm at her funeral, and afterwards clear up her papers. At the funeral, he spots a woman dressed in black, with a wasted face behind her veil, and soon becomes aware of a malaise that inhabits the house. Searching through the papers, he pieces together a sad story, and he begins hearing and seeing things, and it soon pushes him to the edge of sanity. The Woman in Black has a reputation and it comes to haunt Kripps when he least expects it ( )
I love this style of writing... very detailed and descriptive. Although some of our students have said that they had a hard time getting through the first few chapters, I was immediately captivated.
But gradually I discovered for myself the truth of the axiom that a man cannot remain indefinitely in a state of active terror. Either the emotion will increase until, at the prompting of more and more dreadful events and apprehensions, he is so overcome by it that he runs away or goes mad; or he will become by slow degrees less agitated and more in possession of himself.
A man may be accused of cowardice for fleeing away from all manner of physical dangers but when things supernatural, insubstantial and inexplicable threaten not only his safety and well-being but his sanity, his innermost soul, then retreat is not a sign of weakness but the most prudent course.
The classic ghost story by Susan Hill: a chilling tale about a menacing spectre haunting a small English town.
Arthur Kipps is an up-and-coming London solicitor who is sent to Crythin Gifford--a faraway town in the windswept salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway--to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of a client, Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. Mrs. Drablow's house stands at the end of the causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but Kipps is unaware of the tragic secrets that lie hidden behind its sheltered windows. The routine business trip he anticipated quickly takes a horrifying turn when he finds himself haunted by a series of mysterious sounds and images--a rocking chair in a deserted nursery, the eerie sound of a pony and trap, a child's scream in the fog, and, most terrifying of all, a ghostly woman dressed all in black. Psychologically terrifying and deliciously eerie, The Woman in Black is a remarkable thriller of the first rate.
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Arthur Kipps in an up-and-coming London solicitor who is sent to Crythin Gifford-a faraway town in the windswept salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway-to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of a client. Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. Mrs. Drablow's house stands at the end of the causeway, wreathed in fog and mystyery, but Kipps is unaware of the tragic secrets that lie hidden behind its sheltered windows. The routine business trip he anticipated quickly takes a horrifying turn when he finds himself haunted by a series of mysterious sounds and images-a rocking chair in a deserted nursery, the eerie sound of a pony and trap, a child's scream in the fog, and, most terrifying of all, a ghostly woman dressed in black. (96780307950215)
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I had a lot of problems with this book. First of all, the story really drags on. It probably did not need to go for the 160-odd pages of which it consists – especially since I know you can tell very terrifying stories in half, or less than half that many pages, (see H.P. Lovecraft). But The Woman in Black does drag on. You're constantly being built up to something scary that's about to happen... and when the "scary" thing happens, you're left wondering, "Wait, am I supposed to be scared right now?" Truly, the parts that were supposed to be scary didn't even get a rise out of me. Ooooh something bumped.... Should I have chills right now...? The other aspect that I didn't like was that you're constantly being reminded that Arthur is a logical, scientific London gentlemen who isn't given to country superstitions and the idea of ghosts. This reminder happens every few pages. We get it. Sadly, The Woman in Black ends up being just another run-of-the-mill ghost story. Not a lot of originality is in play.
What I did appreciate about Ms. Hill's writing, is that she at least has a fantastic descriptive style. She really knows how to set the mood. You can definitely feel and smell the sea fog rolling it. You can imagine yourself in the muddy, dank marshes on an early winter day. It's these instances of her writing that make the novel mildly enjoyable. It's honestly a shame that you don't get the effects of the horror that the novel promises.
Overall, I will probably give Susan Hill's other stories a try, but if I want to be scared... I think I'll stick to Lovecraft, August Derleth, or Stephen King. (