Picnic At Hanging Rock

Aug 12, 2012 mark monday rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: alpha-team, into-the-past

ah! and there you are, my perfect little novel! it has been some time since last we've embraced. come, let us reacquaint ourselves.

but what is that you say, and so modestly? what is so perfect about you? my sweet darling, don't be so shy! you are indeed a wondrous creation.

here, let me count the ways...

1. your mystery is timeless. three schoolgirls and one schoolmistress disappear on Valentine's Day afternoon, in 1900, in australia, at the mysterious Hanging Rock. where did they go? did Nature...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Mickey rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2-star, adult-fiction, books-i-will-re-read, books-read-2012, books-to-movies, crime, cult, horror, novel, suspense

Ok, what to say about this book?
I should probably just mention quickly that it's actually 2.5 stars out of 5.

The Plot:
In 1900, a class of young women from an exclusive private boarding school- Appleyard's College- go on an excursion to Hanging Rock which is deep in the Australian bush. The excursion ends horribly when three girls and a teacher mysteriously vanish. Only one girl returns having lost any memory of what happened...

My thoughts:

Some words were hard to read and understand.
The College g...more Ok, what to say about this book?
I should probably just mention quickly that it's actually 2.5 stars out of 5.

The Plot:
In 1900, a class of young women from an exclusive private boarding school- Appleyard's College- go on an excursion to Hanging Rock which is deep in the Australian bush. The excursion ends horribly when three girls and a teacher mysteriously vanish. Only one girl returns having lost any memory of what happened...

My thoughts:

Some words were hard to read and understand.
The College girls were, to put it bluntly bitches, or to put it nicely annoying and extremely posh (it was as if they thought they owned the place, they also picked on one of the younger girls).
I can't really relate to any of these characters as I'm not a teacher, a student at a boarding school (and do not wish to be) or have ever been in a situation like this peculiar one.
I am however intrigued about the history of Hanging Rock and wouldn't mind visiting when I'm older.
The headmistress is just as posh and annoying as the girls. I just can't stand her. She makes things sound so dull and boring, over-exagerating and makes the students do so much at the school it is NOT funny. One particular child was not able to go on the picnic (which turns out to be a good thing later on) because she could not memorise a really long poem. The girls who are going are told by the headmistress;
"...Once again let me remind you that the Rock itself is extremely dangerous and therefore you are forbidden to engage in any tomboy foolishness... However, it is a geological marvel on which you will be required to write a brief essay on... vicinity renowned for its venomous snakes and poisonous ants of various species..." And she continues on... and on... and on...
Just before this the reader is given a quick description of what some girls are wearing which in my opinion seem deeply inappropriate for actually climbing the rock (which some of them stupidly do) but are perfect for a picnic which is why they were there in the first place.

Overall:
The storyline was good, there was no horror for me, the characters were well described but none in my opinion were likeable and the writing, although good, I had trouble reading some of it.(less)

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Jun 12, 2012 Maggie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: aussie-authors, books-for-challenges, historical, crime-mystery-suspense

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 4 and 1/2 stars.

So much better than I remembered having read it in the 1970's when the film was released. I began this book a few days ago and, having reached the point early on in the story when the girls disappear, remarked to my brother that "from now on the book is all conjecture". How wrong I was, how faulty my memory. The book itself doesnt enter into much conjecture, that all occurs in the mind of the reader. The book continues on to tell a mysterious tale revolving around the staff of th...more

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Jul 09, 2008 _inbetween_ rated it 1 of 5 stars

Surprisingly superficial. Instead of "a sense of evil" and "inexplicable terror", Lindsay has all her bad characters be ugly (ie. big or fat) and all her pretty characters be good (ie. lovely, beautiful, elegant, slim). Not a mention goes by without Miranda's shining hair, Irma's lovely curls and stunning face or Madame's slim figure. I was hoping for irony, but Lindsay seriously stipulates that Irma's loving nature makes her deride unattractive(ly dressed) people, and it's completely okay that...more Surprisingly superficial. Instead of "a sense of evil" and "inexplicable terror", Lindsay has all her bad characters be ugly (ie. big or fat) and all her pretty characters be good (ie. lovely, beautiful, elegant, slim). Not a mention goes by without Miranda's shining hair, Irma's lovely curls and stunning face or Madame's slim figure. I was hoping for irony, but Lindsay seriously stipulates that Irma's loving nature makes her deride unattractive(ly dressed) people, and it's completely okay that the driver despises Edith, because she is fat, and therefore whenever she says something (very similar to what others also say) it's marked as stupid and vile. Each single time. The bad guys come to gruesome ends that makes me think Lindsay was trying to exact revenge on some of her own teachers, because the headmistress was no better or worse than any of her ilk for most of the book. The pretty ones all marry and the ugly ones die young, as even a later "newspaper article" reaffirms.

The mystery - what mystery?. I had known the story for decades, seen most of, if not all of Weir's famous film, and I had read the real background (IIRC there was no fact at all, it's based on a poem) a few years ago. The book is as vague as the articles and the film promised, but unlike them I now no longer care or want to know what "really" happened, mainly because I'm convinced it isn't smarts and literariness but rather shallowness that made Lindsay make it mysterious - the story of Sara is blatantly obvious, appearances by ghosts ridiculous, and a scene with a policeman and his wife towards the end straight out of an afternoon TV series.

"Dainty female rituals" are also hardly the focus, the purposely impossible mention of lost corsets aside, and while I liked how Lindsay created "atmosphere" on the way to the picknick ground, this description of nature, and a second one as the two young men ride to the rock on a different road, are all that make it "Australian". Nature is simply described as it is, and it could have been done so much more harrowingly or frighteningly (the only spider that actually appears is at the very end *g*). It was enjoyably described, but certainly not a cause for anything like horror.

The only thing I would like to know is if Lindsay intended for the two young men to end up as a m/m couple or not. While the toff had fallen in love with the elegantly lovely owner of the shiny hair, the grunt had fallen for the ravishingly beautiful owner of the raven ringlets - who in turn had realised the toff was her love at first sight. This may be the reason they don't marry - or the way the two young man admire and praise each other, and how grunt lies naked as toff visits him. The pretty women are "saved from lesbianism" by their rewards, ie. marriages, but the closest bonds and most mentioned love in this book is always between friends of the same sex. There is NO hint whatsoever of anything sexual there, but I'll leave you with the possibility so there's at least something not wishy-washy Mary Sue about the story.(less)

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Jan 17, 2013 Ruby Tombstone marked it as unread-but-acquired · review of another edition

Shelves: aussie-aussie-aussie, rockin-the-classics

I had a weird little moment a couple of weeks ago. I was on the ferry from Townsville, heading towards Magnetic Island for the first time. When the boat picked up speed, there was a strange high-pitched whistling of wind through a metal fitting. The whistling and the wind whipping our faces made it impossible for any of the passengers to talk, so we were silent. Looking around at the sparse, rocky piece of coast ahead, distant islands blobbing the horizon, I was suddenly acutely aware of how far...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Debbie Johansson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourite-books

This is one of my favourite books; I've always loved the film and the mystery. The reader gets a wonderful sense of that period in history; including that of the differences in the class system. I enjoy Joan Lindsay's descriptions and her use of witness statements and newspaper articles as a way of telling the story.

The girls disappearance causes a large domino effect, altering people's lives and displaying their true natures. The college girls are more horrible to each other in the book than in...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, classics, mystery

I almost want to give this book 5 stars, something I never would have expected when reading through the first few chapters, or even after finishing the book entirely for god's sake, but I won't. As much I eventually grew to not quite love (but something close to it) this book, it has infuriating characterisation. Ugly characters being "bad" and pretty characters being "good" is just unforgivably lazy writing, though it does rather unfortunately have the energy to remind you of these character fa...more I almost want to give this book 5 stars, something I never would have expected when reading through the first few chapters, or even after finishing the book entirely for god's sake, but I won't. As much I eventually grew to not quite love (but something close to it) this book, it has infuriating characterisation. Ugly characters being "bad" and pretty characters being "good" is just unforgivably lazy writing, though it does rather unfortunately have the energy to remind you of these character faults and perfections every other page.

And yet, as much as the characterisation can be stupid, it must also work on some level because the missing girls DO seem otherwordly, and their "perfection" is surely a contribution to that. In fact I was reminded a lot of Twin Peaks when reading this book. Not just by the similar moody, dream-like atmosphere, but in how the townspeople of Twin Peaks kept lamenting how beautiful and wonderful Laura Palmer was, many of them haunted some way by her tragic death, much like how the characters in PaHR felt towards the missing girls. Unfortunately, there are no puzzle pieces in PaHR that reveal another side to the lives of the missing school girls and their teacher. They were simply always too good for this world apparently, which, while kinda boring, is still effective.

What really makes PaHR memorable for me is its atmosphere (something I thought the movie captured really well, incidentally). Even when the story began to follow Mike and Albert, neither of whom I particularly liked, there was still this foreboding, melancholic tension that wouldn't let up, and made their story that much more interesting, and even the parts with Irma became far more tolerable than they might have been because you know there will be no insipid happy endings (well, not quite). When the story followed Mrs Appleyard, it only got darker, more disturbing, and thoroughly unsettling.
It all stayed with me much longer than I thought it would, after I'd prematurely wrote the book off as "pretty good, but not something I'd read again". I think about it a lot now, not something I can say about many books I've read recently.

It was brilliant.(less)

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Jan 30, 2013 Eleanor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: aussie-adult, favourites-of-all-time

This is my second re-read of this book and I admit I loved it even more than the first time. There's just something so magnetic and resonating that I think every subsequent foray into it will further stamp it into my mind that this is an Australian classic.

I feel the circumstances of the story - about a group of boarding girls and their governesses going on a picnic at the Hanging Rock and not all of them returning - is pretty much stamped into the Australian psyche, so I won't elaborate. What...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Rhiannon rated it 2 of 5 stars

When I saw this book sitting on a table in a bookshop I was immediately drawn to it. The cover picture was intriguing and the title was suggestive of adventure and things going wrong. When I read the blurb on the back cover I thought, 'yes! This sounds exciting, the kind of book that will keep me on tenterhooks and send shivers down my spine.' as I started reading the opening pages I was charmed by the prose, the attention to detail and the characterisation. This is an author who manages to capt...more

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Apr 03, 2012 Ih8booksmischa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Being a fan of the movie, it was with great delight I came across the actual book for a very good price and certainly couldn't pass it up. Maybe you'd have to be Australian to appreciate the whole back story surrounding the thing, this site gives a brief overview to the whole thing - http://www.castleofspirits.com/picnic... , and I would suggest, well I guess that is what I'm doing, having a look at this, and perhaps the truth has been covered up due to the discovery of some heinous crime, a la...more

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Mar 13, 2012 Donovan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller

As I grew up with Hanging Rock pretty much in my backyard, it's not surprising that I read this novel. I later saw the authorised theatrical production that explains what happened to the girls.
What I like most about the story is how accurately it portrays the life and times of 1900 Victoria (Australia) and the school system. The setting is accurate with many of the features described still there today. It is a thrilling read and will have you reading in to the early hours before you can put it...more As I grew up with Hanging Rock pretty much in my backyard, it's not surprising that I read this novel. I later saw the authorised theatrical production that explains what happened to the girls.
What I like most about the story is how accurately it portrays the life and times of 1900 Victoria (Australia) and the school system. The setting is accurate with many of the features described still there today. It is a thrilling read and will have you reading in to the early hours before you can put it down. The writing flows well and touches on a number of emotional hooks that will leave an impression on you long after you've finished reading it.
It's a great Australian read.

Plot ***Spoilers***
Picnic at Hanging Rock centers around a trip by a party of girls from Appleyard College, a fictitious upper class private boarding school, who travel to Hanging Rock in the Mount Macedon area, Victoria, for a picnic on Valentine's Day 1900. The excursion ends in tragedy when three of the girls, and later one of their teachers, mysteriously vanish while climbing the rock. No reason for their disappearance is ever given, and one of the missing girls who is later found has no memory of what has happened to her companions. A fourth girl who also climbed the rock with the group is of little help in solving the mystery, having returned in hysterics for reasons she cannot explain.

The disappearances provoke much local concern and international sensation with sexual molestation, abduction and murder being high on the list of possible outcomes. Several organised searches of the picnic grounds and the area surrounding the rock itself turn up nothing. Meanwhile the students, teachers and staff of the college, as well as members of the community, grapple with the riddle-like events. A young man on a private search locates one of the missing girls, but is himself found in an unexplained daze – yet another victim of the rock. Concerned parents begin withdrawing their daughters from the formerly prestigious college and several of the staff, including the headmistress, either resign or meet with tragic ends. We are told that both the College, and the Woodend Police Station where records of the investigation were kept, are destroyed by fire shortly afterwards.(less)

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Aug 25, 2009 Stuart rated it 5 of 5 stars

It is very rare that you can say a book is "exquisite" but there is really no other words for this little gem by Joan Lindsay. Short and sweet, eerie and elegant all at once, this book is part romance, part comedy of manners, part horror story. Three schoolgirls and their teacher go missing during a picnic and the impact of the mystery reverberates throughout the small rural community they live in, negatively and positively changing the lives of a variety of characters from different social and...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Jaqueline rated it 2 of 5 stars

Bleahhh! Evidentemente é troppo complicato e noioso per una 15enne....
Peró se prendiamo la trama a parte é abbastaza intrigante... Insomma tre ragazze si perdono sulla roccia di Hanging Rock, vi sono segnali misteriosi come gli orologi che si bloccano tutti allo scoccare delle 12, le tre ragazze sembrano quasi ipnotizzate dalla roccia e per questo si avventurano sempre di più al suo interno...
Ma detto cosí puó sembrare un bel libro, ma non l'ho é!!! Non vi parlo delle descrizioni infinitamente l...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Truehobbit rated it 5 of 5 stars

Brilliant, tense, beautiful and tightly-woven.

The movie had had me seriously spooked when I was a kid, so of course I was interested in reading the book. However, I'd not heard of the author or the book for their own sake, so I didn't expect it to be very good - and was very pleasantly surprised to find it brilliant.

Lindsay creates a 1900-atmosphere so closely, I would have easily believed the book was actually written about that time. I also liked the way she leads you to doubt that it is ficti...more

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Feb 13, 2010 Jay rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: australian-authors, books-i-own, classic, historical-distant, tampon-theatre, australian-setting-and-characters

This book can be reviewed from two angles.

It can be reviewed as a mystery novel and the investigation that went into trying to find the girls. The second way is that it can be viewed as the events that occur after someone's (or multiple someones) disappearance. Rather, Picnic at Hanging Rock is a book about both sides, with, in my opinion, an emphasis on the latter. Granted the first third of the novel is focused on finding the girls and retracing their steps, and the last chapter (in this copy-...more This book can be reviewed from two angles.

It can be reviewed as a mystery novel and the investigation that went into trying to find the girls. The second way is that it can be viewed as the events that occur after someone's (or multiple someones) disappearance. Rather, Picnic at Hanging Rock is a book about both sides, with, in my opinion, an emphasis on the latter. Granted the first third of the novel is focused on finding the girls and retracing their steps, and the last chapter (in this copy- let's ignore Chapter 18 for the time being) sums up the investigation, I felt the novel is about the shattered emotions that come after the death or disappearance of a loved one. It is stated time and time again about Miranda's wonderful personality, beloved nature and beautiful looks. She is the apple of everyone's eye. Little is said of Miss McCraw and even littler of Marion. Irma would have disappeared entirely if she hadn't been found.

The world at Appleyard College changes abruptly after the disappearance of the girls and governess. If they had all been found- dead or otherwise- maybe things wouldn't have changed so drastically. More deaths, strange behaviours and the like. And what of the fires and girls attacking Irma when she returns? That leads into a possible third way to review the book: that of a fantasy novel.

In this edition of Picnic, I find it difficult to review it as such. Yes, there are possibilities- ghostly swans, fires, mood changes. But without the mysterious Chapter 18, it doesn't seem likely. It can all be explained away- concussions, emotional stress and turmoil, PTSD, that sort of thing. Lindsay may have intended for all this to be read as a fantasy element. I know I felt shivers while reading that chapter wherein the girls climb Hanging Rock and get pulled into the chilling Australian geography. Mrs Appleyard is apparently approached by Sarah's ghost and jumps- or falls- off Hanging Rock to her death. And what of the stopped clocks? That's perhaps one of the more eerie, fantasy-related elements to the book.

Now, about Sara. I haven't seen the movie in about six years, so I can't talk about that interpretation of her death. But in the book, I choose to read it that she was killed. There are reasons to point to her suicide- her return to the orphanage for instance, and the note that Appleyard found- but why would Appleyard hide it? Of course students and staff were leaving, and more scandal would be provoked because of another death, but there was no reason to hide it, nor pretend that her caregiver had picked her up. And why would she avoid going to the police and instead head to Hanging Rock (unless she had a ghostly calling- another fantasy element). I don't see Appleyard as intentionally or maliciously becoming a killer- if it was meant to be read as Sara being killed- but on the suicide/murder coin toss, I'll place my bets on murder.

This can also be read as a reflection on the Australian landscape. The haunting rock formations, the skyline, the shifting shadows and designs. The rainbow of colours of sunrise and sunset, the fauna. It's beautiful- even if Lindsay's prose does drift into the purple variety.

But it's such a shivering, beautiful, haunting read. (less)

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Sep 09, 2009 Sean Kennedy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of my favourite books.

Four girls and one of their governesses climb Hanging Rock on St. Valentine's day. One returns immediately, scared out of her mind and with no memory of why she is in such a state. Another is found later, also with no memory of what happened to her during her time on the Rock. The other two girls and their teacher are never seen again.

One of Australia's most enduring, and fictional despite it being so ingrained our cultural memory it often is mistaken for being real, m...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

See my full review here (which is mostly about Bruce Springsteen - for good reason!) - http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...

I’m not terribly good at reviewing re-reads and this is no exception. My feelings about this book have built gradually, after countless readings, the enchanting movie version directed by Peter Weir in 1975, and of course the fuss when the final chapter was released (I do remember going to the bookshop immediately after school and standing there to read it!).

So why do I l...more See my full review here (which is mostly about Bruce Springsteen - for good reason!) - http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...

I’m not terribly good at reviewing re-reads and this is no exception. My feelings about this book have built gradually, after countless readings, the enchanting movie version directed by Peter Weir in 1975, and of course the fuss when the final chapter was released (I do remember going to the bookshop immediately after school and standing there to read it!).

So why do I love this story? Part of it is purely nostalgic but what truly stands out is Lindsay’s description of the Australian bush – you can feel that summer day and the descriptions of Hanging Rock are intimate -

“Confronted by such monumental configurations of nature the human eye is woefully inadequate…. Does Marion Quade note the horizontal ledges crisscrossing the verticals of the main pattern whose geological formation must be memorized for next Monday’s essay? Is Edith aware of the hundreds of frail star-like flowers crushed under her tramping boots, while Irma catches the scarlet flash of a parrot’s wing and thinks it a flame amongst the leaves? And Miranda, whose feet appear to be choosing their own way through the ferns as she tilts her head towards the glittering peaks… So they walk silently toward the lower slopes, in single file, each locked in the private world of her own perceptions, unconscious of the strains and tensions of the molten mass that hold it anchored…”

Lindsay is often criticised for creating ‘obvious’ characters – the beautiful, whimsical Miranda; delicate and doting Sara; ugly, plodding Edith; and the nasty Mrs Appleyard. Yes, the line between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ characters is clear but I think it adds to the fairytale quality of the story.

Small details unfold to add to the mystery – Irma’s missing corset; the mass hysteria of the school girls akin to scenes from the Salem witch trials; visions of white swans and so on. Each detail is doled out gradually and skillfully, causing readers to lose their footing.

It is impossible to visit Hanging Rock without thinking about this story, although I suspect this is largely due Weir’s critically acclaimed film and its haunting soundtrack.

4/5 For the sense of place and time, for the lingering mystery.(less)

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Aug 11, 2010 Debbie Robson rated it 5 of 5 stars

I belong to a book/movie club and the book of the month this month was Picnic at Hanging Rock. Well I’m not sure but I think it was around 20 years ago that I read the book. This time around it struck me as being so much more well written than I remembered. Joan Lindsay was obviously fascinated with Time (with a capital T) as I am and this is an echoing thread (and possible explanation to the mystery of the disappearance of the girls). Another theme presented in the book is man against nature, p...more

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Sep 18, 2010 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Bettie

Shelves: audio-books, hf-australia, read-2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 16, 2013 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, australasia-oceania, classics-and-modern-classics

It was wonderful to finally read this book and realise it had all the delightful mystery of the movie I so loved. I grew up with the movie, and read the movie script multiple times. Of course, if you know me, it goes without saying how much I adored the costumes, and that I plan to eventually get around to making them!

This is a story that drove the Australian public crazy for years wondering is it true? Is it at least based on true events? I know the mystery rather haunted me as a child. I remem...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Daniel G. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: australian, classics, fiction, 50-australian-books-you-must-read-b

I read this because it was one of the choices on the First Tuesday Book Club's "50 Australian Books You Must Read Before You Die". Even though I saw the movie when I was a boy, and later got to know one of the actors from the film, the book had never appealed to me and even though I plan to read anything on the Book Club list, I wasn't looking forward to this one.

It tells the tale of three schoolgirls and their mistress who go missing on a picnic at the haunting Hanging Rock. Only one girl retur...more

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Mar 17, 2011 Delilah rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Feeling guilty about not reading enough Australia or female authors, I picked up Picnic at Hanging Rock, by Joan Lindsay. My only knowledge of this book is the shrill screaming of “Miranda!” from poor renditions and drama eisteddfods.

I didn’t like this book. The descriptions of the landscape didn’t arouse any sense of pride in my country. There we many unnecessary details of characters that I didn’t need to know. The plot was strong to begin with but then had unnecessary twists and turns added i...more

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Nov 14, 2010 Narib rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of the rare cases where the cinema version enhances the written version—and vice-versa. Anyone who wants a clearer picture of either should read and see both versions.

The story concerns an outing at an Australian private school that goes unexpectedly awry. Like a rock dropped into a still pool, the ripples from the incident radiate outward, some of them finding shores, some of them vanishing into the ocean. Do not expect find anything explicit or explained—the veil of mystery is tigh...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Christopher Rex rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book is OK. Referring to it as "Australia's Greatest Mystery"....well, I dunno about that. Not having read many (any?) Australian Mysteries, it's hard for me to say one way or the other. The cool element of the book is the characters. Very well developed (especially the Headmistress) and believable throughout. The problem is simply that the story doesn't carry the reader along at a "page-turning" pace, which is what I really want from a mystery.

The story surrounds the mysterious disappearanc...more

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Feb 02, 2008 Michalle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Stayed up until 4:30 a.m. reading this book, even though I knew it wouldn't have a conventional resolution. One of the few books to deal convincingly with friendship, both between men and between women, and the way a single piece of misfortune can undo even the hardest of work and the most carefullly put together of lives (Mrs. Appleyard's).

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Mar 04, 2013 Kiwiflora rated it 4 of 5 stars

Way back in the mid-1970s my high school English class did a class trip to see this movie. Oh my goodness, did it leave an impression on a bunch of 14 year old teenage boys and girls! Take a look on You Tube at a film clip of the four school girls walking up the tracks around the rock on Valentine's Day 1900 - beautiful, scary, ethereal, and oh so sinister. And three of the girls, plus one of the teachers simply disappeared into thin air. Poof! One is found a few days later by a besotted young m...more Way back in the mid-1970s my high school English class did a class trip to see this movie. Oh my goodness, did it leave an impression on a bunch of 14 year old teenage boys and girls! Take a look on You Tube at a film clip of the four school girls walking up the tracks around the rock on Valentine's Day 1900 - beautiful, scary, ethereal, and oh so sinister. And three of the girls, plus one of the teachers simply disappeared into thin air. Poof! One is found a few days later by a besotted young man: unconscious, injured and her memory wiped of whatever had happened.

Set in a rural community in Australia, the film very closely follows the plot line of the book, which was first published in 1967. At an elite girls' boarding school, the girls are preparing to go on a Valentine's Day picnic to Hanging Rock. It turns into a day they will never forget. The ripples from the strange events of that day spread rapidly through the local community, affecting people in different and disturbing ways. The story actually ends up being more about the remaining characters rather than the three who disappeared forever that day.

Although Hanging Rock is is real place, the book is a work of fiction. However the author opens the book with a very cryptic comment - "'Whether Picnic at Hanging Rock is Fact or Fiction or both, my readers must decide for themselves. As the fateful picnic took place in the year nineteen hundred, and all the characters who appear in this book are long since dead, it hardly seems important". As a result of this peculiar statement many, many people apparently believe that the events described in the story really took place. The author didn't actively discourage such belief, but she certainly didn't go out of her way to dispel the mysterious events of that day! In 1987, three years after the author's death, in accordance with her wishes, the final chapter - Chapter 18 - of the novel was published. This reveals what really happened to the girls. It can be viewed in the author link.

Throughout the story, from the very beginning to the very end, the tension is kept at a high level. It is almost if, as readers, we are entering some sort of unreal dream like world where time ceases to matter. But apparently the author was a stickler for time, and this is seen in the constant reminder to the reader of what day of the week we are on, the number of days elapsed since the picnic, and often the time of day. Almost as if we also are in some sort of time warp. It is spooky to read, you know bad things are going to happen, but, much like the girls drifting up the tracks on a lazy hot day, you are slowly sucked into whatever this mystery is. Trekking through the internet, the film seems to have almost reached a cult status and I think is a very fitting tribute to the book.

(less)

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Mar 12, 2012 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Picnic at Hanging Rock, by Joan Lindsay, Narrated by Jacqueline McKenzie, Produced by Bolinda Audio, Downloaded from audible.com.

This is the haunting story, tol in novel form but apparently true, of a picnic of young girls from a girls school in Australia. The picnic was organized in 1900 for Valentine’s day and was to take place just below Hanging Rock, a volcanic site. Four girls and two faculty ultimately wandered off to climb the rock, and some of them were never seen again. This is an inter...more

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Feb 01, 2012 Kerstin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, borrowed-from-library, read-in-2012

3.5 Stars

I finally got my hands on a copy of "Picnic at Hanging Rock", which I meant to read for the longest time. I went in with rather high expectations...and I'm not quite sure if they were met. I was ready for an eerie and creepy atmosphere throughout the book, surrounding the disappearance of the three girls and their teacher. A spooky horror/mystery story. Not sure why I expected all that, probably all the tidbits I heard about the book and the movie (which I haven't seen yet).
Instead thi...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Belle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3.5 stars.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is an iconic Australian story. The disappearance of three girls and one woman from a “civilised” picnic into the mysterious Hanging Rock plays on the worst fears of the landscape that are ingrained in the Australian psyche, which is why I think it has become such a classic. The tension between the European settlers and the harsh Australian bush depicted in the story is central to our cultural heritage. It’s an important story, so it makes me cringe to admit that...more
3.5 stars.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is an iconic Australian story. The disappearance of three girls and one woman from a “civilised” picnic into the mysterious Hanging Rock plays on the worst fears of the landscape that are ingrained in the Australian psyche, which is why I think it has become such a classic. The tension between the European settlers and the harsh Australian bush depicted in the story is central to our cultural heritage. It’s an important story, so it makes me cringe to admit that I didn’t love it.

I’ve always been fascinated by the central mystery itself, but this book is less about the actual disappearance of the girls and more about the effects the event has on those connected. It was interesting to see the “ripples” come into play, although it sometimes took a while to get there. I found the beginning quite good and the ending great, but the whole middle section was pretty tedious for me. I’m not sure if it’s because I knew what was going to happen (or rather, what wasn’t going to happen), but I just wasn’t compelled to pick it up. In fact, I kind of dreaded it, because every time I did, I’d get two pages in before I started to do this:

Maybe it’s the magic of Hanging Rock, which makes anyone who comes into contact with it sleepy and delirious. Maybe it's just a boring book. It doesn’t help that it’s more character than plot focused, when many of the characters are two-dimensional stereotypes. There’s the perfect, pretty, popular girl; the fat, ugly, dunce; the strict and frugal headmistress; the pretty young French governess… none of these characters had any real depth, and I didn’t particularly care about any of them.

What I did love was the vivid imagery and evocative atmosphere, which was by turns dream-like and oppressive. The contrast between the open and uncontrollable Hanging Rock and the repressive, closed-in boarding school is powerful. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to make me really enjoy Picnic at Hanging Rock. Am I going to be kicked out of the country now?

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Sep 27, 2009 Blake rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-classics

Immediately one thinks of this title and thoughts of the mystery contained therein follow. What does not always seem apparent - though it was Lindsay's intention for the book, just as it was Weir's stated intention for the film - is that great melancholy that attends it's most affecting chapters. It is in the flush of Australian life that colours the picnic grounds about the rock, in the unforgiving harshness of the pristine college and between the two men (whose conflicting desires form a compl...more Immediately one thinks of this title and thoughts of the mystery contained therein follow. What does not always seem apparent - though it was Lindsay's intention for the book, just as it was Weir's stated intention for the film - is that great melancholy that attends it's most affecting chapters. It is in the flush of Australian life that colours the picnic grounds about the rock, in the unforgiving harshness of the pristine college and between the two men (whose conflicting desires form a complex and almost stand-alone friendship, which cannot overcome it all) that Lindsay paints something deserving of the beautiful legacy that this book and its film has thus garnered.

Behind all this mystery is Miranda: a girl whose character is barely sketched and whose last name is never mentioned, she still becomes the fine music to which these words are set. I can suppose that it is not unusual, during reading, to find the second movement of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto whispering in your ear or even to be imagining those memorable rock monuments to be standing before you. It is a unique experience in literature or cinema to be so enthralled by four girls exploring a formation of rock, but we all know who have witnessed it that there is more to this strange formation than all the dreams within dreams that we see.

Note: Having learned the solution to the mystery (not from this particular volume) that Lindsay originally intended, I cannot say whether this deilcate rose would have lived so healthy a life had not that petal been plucked. It is an ending I found perfectly fitting with the story, which does not relent from the beautiful and almost metaphysical nature of the work, but it is a solution nonetheless. I can fairly say that it satisfied my hopes (for it did not do away with its strangeness in any way), but to those who would seek it out and finally know what happened, I recommend that you be thoughtful and perhaps reluctant. Most reactions to this story are unique. That it only enhanced my experience may no be so for yours.(less)

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