Four seekers have arrived at the rambling old pile known as Hill House: Dr Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of psychic phenomena; Theodora, his lovely assistant; Luke, the future inheritor of the estate; and Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman with a dark past.
'As nearly perfect a haunted-house tale as I have ever read' - Stephen King Four seekers have arrived at the rambling old pile known as Hill House- Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of psychic phenomena; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Luke, the adventurous future inheritor of the estate; and Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman with a dark past. As they begin to cope with chilling, even horrifying occurrences beyond their control or understanding, they cannot possibly know what lies ahead. For Hill House is gathering its powers - and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
Details
ISBN13: 9780141191447
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 256
Edition:
Publication Date: 09 Nov 2009
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 19.9(H)x12.8(L)x1.5(W)188
Weight (gm): 188
Author Biography
Shirley Jackson was born in California in 1916. When her short story, 'The Lottery', was first published in the New Yorker in 1948, readers were so horrified they sent her hate mail; it has since become one of the most iconic American stories of all time. Her first novel, The Road Through the Wall, was published in the same year and was followed by Hangsaman, The Bird's Nest, The Sundial, The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, widely seen as her masterpiece. In addition to her dark, brilliant novels, she wrote lightly fictionalized magazine pieces about family life with her four children and her husband, the critic Stanley Edgar Hyman. Shirley Jackson died in 1965.
Reviews
The scariest book I’ve ever read ... I read it one night next to my sleeping wife and
found myself unable to move, unable to go to bed, unable to do anything except keep reading and praying the shadows around me didn’t move -- Carmen Maria Machado * The New York Times *
the haunted house novel. All others stand in its shadow -- Paul Tremblay * author of A Head Full of Ghosts *
Shirley Jackson’s
“The Haunting of Hill House” beats them all: a maleficent house, real human protagonists, everything half-seen or happening in the dark.
It scared me as a teenager and it haunts me still, as does Eleanor, the girl who comes to stay -- Neil Gaiman * The New York Times *
The Haunting of Hill House rewrote horror’s rules -- Alison Flood * Guardian *
Stepping into Hill House is like stepping into the mind of a madman; it isn't long before you weird yourself out * Stephen King *
The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable ... She is a true master -- A. M. Homes
One of the twentieth century's most luminous and strange American writers -- Jonathan Lethem
Her books penetrate keenly to the terrible truths which sometimes hide behind comfortable fictions, to the treachery beneath cheery neighborhood faces and the plain manners of country folk -- Donna Tartt
She is the finest master...of the cryptic, haunted tale * The New York Times Book Review *
A novel which at one stroke puts her unquestionably among the great masters of the genre . . . as spine-chilling . . . as anything Edgar Allan Poe dreamed up. -- Peter Green * Daily Telegraph *