ghosts

At first glance, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE seems like the typical haunted house story. That is, a group of strangers assembles in a house to study ghostly phenomena. However, this book is much deeper and therefore much more disturbing. The main character is Eleanor Vance, a lonely and dispirited young woman who has never really done much in her life. She jumps at the chance to go to Hill House, and inevitably, she begins to fall under it's spell. The ways in which the house affects her are rather hearbreaking, while also being fairly creepy and scary. Some fans of modern scary stories may be a bit offput by the dialogue - the characters sound like they're from a 50s sitcom. However, it really is a terrific book, and the oppressed 50s style just adds to its claustrophobic feeling.

This novel is the first I've read from Jackson (aside from her famous short-story "The Lottery"), and I look forward to reading more. Highly recommended for fans of psychologically complex ghost stories.

The Haunting Of Hill House opens with a very observant comment on sanity. It's a truly great opening line. Most of the book is superb. In an age of gore and one-dimensional characters, Jackson's old novel is a breath of fresh air. Jackson creates an opiate-like dreamstate that holds you to the plot development. Unfortunately, this spell is shattered by the arrival of Dr. Montague's wife & her driver. They are abrasive and crude and have no place in the atmosphere created by Jackson's earlier pages. Luckily, they don't arrive until late in the book. She had me completely until their arrival. After that, the story becomes disjointed and erratic. I do think this book is worth a person's while, though I don't feel that it lived up to its reputation. It was beautifully constructed...it just wasn't completed in the same style. It's sort of like seeing a wonderful Victorian house completed with a tin roof. It could have been more appropriately entitled The Hauntings Of Hill House's Inhabitants' Heads. The tension and comraderie between the characters intrigued me more than any supernatural threats. There are some wonderful insights to the human mind hidden in these pages.

though the book does leave you a little dissapointed from the lack of frightening scenarios it does make you think. From the beginning you have anticipation for something frightening then it leads you with an explanation that you have to think for.