The Haunting of Hill House (Penguin Classics)

The greatest haunted house story ever written—the inspiration for the hit Netflix horror series!

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

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.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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Published Nov 28, 2006

208 pages

Average rating: 6.72

718 RATINGS

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84 Charing Cross Road Classics Book Club

Welcome to 84 Charing Cross Road Classics Book Club of Springfield, MO. We meet face to face the 2nd or 3rdTuesday of each month at 7 pm Central.

Spooky Readers Book Club

Explore the eerie and mysterious in the Spooky Readers Book Club! Share your passion for the spooky and the unknown with like-minded readers.

Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *The Haunting of Hill House* is a masterpiece of psychological horror and a foundational haunted house story, praised for its masterful at...

BMC
Mar 21, 2025
7/10 stars
The Netflix Hill House series is one of my favourite so I wanted to read the inspiration. It was hard to read this without comparing, but ultimately I didn't enjoy it as much. It did have the spookies and the setting and the character. However, it felt a little flat and I didn't love the ending.
Thriller Crush
Feb 23, 2025
10/10 stars
2026 Review 📚👏🏻: Fascinating knot between supernatural & psychological trauma. Hill House has perception & will creep into your mind through the thinnest crack. Beware! I loved it more the 2nd time around. I was able to view this novel as a documentation of Shirley Jackson's fears & wondered if writing this helped ease her anxiety. I didn't think it was frightening rather an interesting view on how you shouldn't be fooled into trusting houses. Their evil voices from their walls, ceilings & floorboards will manipulate you & turn you to hurt yourself or others. 2024 Review 😬: I wondered if this story was a hallucination in Eleanor's mind while institutionalized in a psychiatric ward. Hill House could be the asylum where Eleanor is locked up. Creating this paranormal study led by Dr. Montague is her only way to cope. What if Dr. Montague is her real life Psychiatrist? There are many parts implying that it could all be inside her own head. Enjoy & decide for yourself.
Katie Grandprey
May 26, 2026
10/10 stars
Loved every second of this book.
Cynthia M.
Mar 28, 2026
6/10 stars
"The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson is a masterpiece of psychological horror and the foundational modern haunted house story . Its power lies not in monsters or gore, but in the masterfully crafted, all-pervading atmosphere of dread. The house itself, described as "not sane", is the main antagonist
Chance Meek
Mar 02, 2026
4/10 stars
People rave about this book as being the most scariest book they’ve ever read, and it was an utter bore. The writing was ok, just didn’t captivate me.

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