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.
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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Readers say *The Haunting of Hill House* is a literary classic praised for its masterful atmosphere and psychological depth, especially in portraying ...
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.
I had heard a lot about his book as one of the classics in Horror fiction. But I gotta say, except for maybe one or two instances, where a cold chill runs down your spine, there isn't anything scary about the book. I even made it a point to read the book only in the night after I turned out the lights, but still it wasn't as scary. The story too seems a little incomplete. It was building up pretty nice, and the Author should have gone in more details and brought out more paranormal activities.
One thing I really liked was the voice of the narrator, Bernadette Dunne (I read this as an audiobook on Audible). It is raspy and creepy and perfect for a Horror book.
It is definitely a one-time read for horror fiction fans, but I don't think this one's anywhere close to Stephen King
One thing I really liked was the voice of the narrator, Bernadette Dunne (I read this as an audiobook on Audible). It is raspy and creepy and perfect for a Horror book.
It is definitely a one-time read for horror fiction fans, but I don't think this one's anywhere close to Stephen King
To be perfectly honest, I don't know what to say about this book!
I went back and forth between giving it three stars or four and I'm still not sure how I feel, really! I wanted to come away from this book and say that I was scared, but it would take a lot to get under my skin. Spirits and hauntings have never been frightening to me. I'm the type of person that would probably enjoy old houses with histories. However, I'm not entirely certain that this was a haunted house book! I mean, there were definitely elements of a haunting within the pages of the book, but I saw this as more of a story of a woman - Eleanor - who has been cloistered up all her life, looked down upon, and made to feel so insecure that she was bound to try and run from what she knew in search of something to make her happy only to descend into some form of madness. Eleanor, to me, was such a damaged character that there was no way her story was going to end well. So, yeah, I don't know if this was three stars or four stars. Either way, it was very well written and I went from liking the characters, hating them, and then back to liking them over and over. This is one of the few novels where I just simply don't know how I feel!
Recommended for those that do like a good haunting!
I went back and forth between giving it three stars or four and I'm still not sure how I feel, really! I wanted to come away from this book and say that I was scared, but it would take a lot to get under my skin. Spirits and hauntings have never been frightening to me. I'm the type of person that would probably enjoy old houses with histories. However, I'm not entirely certain that this was a haunted house book! I mean, there were definitely elements of a haunting within the pages of the book, but I saw this as more of a story of a woman - Eleanor - who has been cloistered up all her life, looked down upon, and made to feel so insecure that she was bound to try and run from what she knew in search of something to make her happy only to descend into some form of madness. Eleanor, to me, was such a damaged character that there was no way her story was going to end well. So, yeah, I don't know if this was three stars or four stars. Either way, it was very well written and I went from liking the characters, hating them, and then back to liking them over and over. This is one of the few novels where I just simply don't know how I feel!
Recommended for those that do like a good haunting!
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