The Haunting of Hill House (Stephen King Horror Library) by Shirley Jackson

Four seekers have come to Hill House, a scary old abandoned mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar who had been looking for an honestly haunted house all his life; Theodora, a lovely and lighthearted girl there mostly on a lark; Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House; and Eleanor, a strange and lonely woman well acquainted with poltergeists and other psychic phenomena. At first their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and slamming doors. But Hill House is gathering up powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own.
The Haunting Of Hill House is full of horror and mystification and a wit that mixes laughter with chills. Its publication in 1959 confirmed Shirley Jackson as a master at portraying the secret vagaries of the mind, and as a brilliant stylist capable of interjecting the conventions of horror with a psychological complexity not encountered since Henry James. "It is the character of Eleanor and Shirley Jackson's depiction of it that elevates The Haunting Of Hill House into the ranks of the great supernatural novels," Stephen King writes in the introduction to this exclusive Stephen King Horror Library edition. "Indeed, it seems to me that it and James's The Turn Of The Screw are the only two great novels of the supernatural in the last hundred years.”


“Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked thee, walked alone.”

So begins, and ends, the story of Hill House, and no more frightening words have been written. They give the reader a template of what is to come. What is real and what is imagination is always in question; is Eleanor crazy or being controlled by the house? Is Hill House evil or merely a scapegoat of its damaged occupiers? The answers depend on the reader.

And for the reader’s further enjoyment, there is an absolutely wonderful movie that’s just about as good as the book. Not the truly terrible 1999 remake, but the beautifully filmed 1963 version.




( TBR Book Links 1-55 )

56. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
57. The Haunting of Hill House (Stephen King Horror Library) by Shirley Jackson






Free But Halloweeny - The Haunting of Hill House (Stephen King Horror Library) by Shirley Jackson




I Read Horror Year-Round List

*Winter Theme, or winter appearance on the cover (snow, ice, etc.):
1. Ararat by Christopher Golden

*Ghosts or spirits:
1. The Family Plot by Cherie Priest
2. Gad’s Hall by Norah Lofts

*Psychological:
1. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
2. The Hiding Place by C. J. Tudor

*Monster or Monsters:
1. Snowblind by Christopher Golden

*A body of water (featured in story, on cover, or in title):
1. Duma Key by Stephen King
2. The Listener by Robert McCammon

*Really scary book cover:
1. The Breach by M.T. Hill
2. Pet Sematary by Stephen King

*Woman on cover:
1. Later by Stephen King
2. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

*Written by a woman:
1. The Mummy (Ramses the Damned #1) by Anne Rice
2. The Burning Girls by C. J. Tudor
3. Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

*Written by a best-selling horror author:
1. If It Bleeds by Stephen King
2. The Shining by Stephen King
3. The Cleanup by John Skipp and Craig Spector

*Written by an indie author:
1. Echoes of Home by M.L. Rayner

*Historical horror (must be an historical novel written by a contemporary author):
1. Last Train From Perdition by Robert McCammon

*Folk horror:
1. Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon