false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171163490m/89717.jpg 89717 18 Shirley Jackson's <i>The Haunting of Hill House</i> 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. <p> 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 <i>big</i> 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. <p> 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...." <p>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, <i>The Haunting of Hill House</i> belongs in the same dark league as Henry James's classic ghost story, <i>The Turn of the Screw</i>. <i>--Naomi Gesinger</i> 3627 1959 The Haunting of Hill House (Penguin Classics) total:2860|5:56|4:72|3:76|2:26|1:4| 2860 11089 4165 420 5 8 false false Mon Dec 29 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 09 10:35:36 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 09 11:47:30 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 6 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 24 20:16:30 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 26 17:56:19 -0700 2007 The Haunting Of Hill House is so much more than a haunted house story. At it's heart it's a psychological profile of a very troubled woman trying to find a place in the world. I'm sure it's chock full of symbolism, if you're one of them literary nerd types. Symbolism is all well and good, but if ...more...]]> 5 5 false false Mon Nov 12 10:35:37 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 13 10:25:31 -0800 2007
"Don't do it, Eleanor told the little girl; insist on your cup
of stars; once they have trapped you into being like everyone
else you will never see ...more...]]> 3 3 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Jun 12 11:47:27 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 12 11:47:36 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 3 false false Mon Jan 19 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 14:30:11 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 00:46:57 -0800 2009
So, just having finished it, I'm already forgetting having read it. The two stars it gets are because, quite literally, "it was ok" -- Jackson has an interestin...more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 25 14:22:26 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 01 08:28:24 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Aug 25 18:43:45 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 18 05:48:31 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Sep 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 14 13:10:07 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 22 11:11:56 -0700 2008 "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty mo...more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Apr 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri May 02 09:38:07 -0700 2008 Fri May 02 10:00:36 -0700 2008 that story that I tend to forget she wrote anything else, and I was surprised to find her as the author of this bo...more...]]> 4 1 false true Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 23 10:25:46 -0700 2008 Tue May 13 09:31:06 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 17 09:12:18 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 23 14:59:24 -0700 2007 The Haunting Of Hill House” is atmospheric, and intensely creepy. The slow building horror is primarily psychological, but there are a few truly disturbing moments: holding hands with someone in the dark, footsteps left by an invisible person along the riverbank, a pounding in the...more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Aug 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 20 13:14:38 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 20 18:23:54 -0700 2008
"The Haunting of Hill House" is morbidly funny and imaginative, spookier than it is scary, and more eerie and blood-chilling...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Feb 10 15:31:59 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 15:33:32 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sun Aug 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 29 21:34:18 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 30 16:43:53 -0700 2009
Four disparate people are gathered together to study Hill House. They are Dr. Montague, a researcher; Theodora, a telepath - the pretty girl; Luke - the heir to Hill House; & Eleanora - a sheltered...more...]]> 5 0 false true Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 16:16:05 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 16:42:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 15 13:22:06 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 15 13:27:48 -0700 2009
My mother has a yearly tradition, begun when I was very small, that for almost holiday, we'd watch the old black and white classics for that season. We watched A Miracle on 34th St, and It's a Wonderful Life...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Nov 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 08:59:20 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 09:04:46 -0800 2009
I'd seen the movie, and I knew the basic story, but this was the first time I'd read the book. There are serious problems with i...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Oct 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 14:36:37 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 10:35:29 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false true Sun Apr 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 17:48:26 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 12 19:24:13 -0700 2009 2 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Mar 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 01:15:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 02:23:36 -0700 2009 The Haunting of Hill House , despite being a haunted house story, does not read like a typical horror story. It does not feel like i...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=89717