The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
October 31, 2023 1:19 PM - Subscribe
Eleanor Vance, a timid single woman, is invited by Dr Montague to an investigation of Hill House, a house with a very dark history.
First published in 1959, it is the story of four people who arrive at the notoriously malevolent Hill House. Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, a bohemian clairavoyant; Eleanor, an isolated young woman with an event in her past that hints at psychic abilities; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
First published in 1959, it is the story of four people who arrive at the notoriously malevolent Hill House. Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, a bohemian clairavoyant; Eleanor, an isolated young woman with an event in her past that hints at psychic abilities; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
I read this book for the first time in college and that ending hit me like a ton of bricks. Reread it recently for a book club, and it hit me all over again. No matter how you think it ended, it was the fulfillment of Eleanor's fear.
posted by miss-lapin at 4:00 PM on October 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by miss-lapin at 4:00 PM on October 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
Fantastic book.
And the queerness is much less subtextual than I had expected it to be.
posted by kyrademon at 4:56 PM on October 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
And the queerness is much less subtextual than I had expected it to be.
posted by kyrademon at 4:56 PM on October 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
An absolute masterclass in how to write a terrifying novel without describing any of the terrifying things. You wind up haunting yourself.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:20 PM on October 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by thomas j wise at 6:20 PM on October 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
A true masterpiece. I'm not generally a fan of horror lit or ghost stories (unless they go full fantasy) but this one hit hard.
I had this sense that it was a game for everyone else, and when it got too scary they just stopped playing. Eleanor . . . didn't.
posted by mark k at 8:06 PM on October 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
I had this sense that it was a game for everyone else, and when it got too scary they just stopped playing. Eleanor . . . didn't.
posted by mark k at 8:06 PM on October 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
I finished reading this book while being alone at home at night, and wow, I don't recommend this particular way of going about it.
Tell me about it. I first read this book back in the summer of 2001, shortly after buying my first place, a condo. As I began to read in bed one evening, I congratulated myself on living in a modern condo instead of an old house, as I wouldn't get spooked. Did that ever not prove to be the case.
One of the features of Hill House was that the doors would never stay open. No matter how many times the characters left them open or how heavy a doorstopper they used upon leaving a room, they would always find the door closed when they returned to it. And it so happened that one of the little quirks of my condo was that it had such airflow through its hallway when the condo windows were open that the three bedroom doors would never stay open unless they were doorstopped. So, as I read about the Hill House doors closing, I kept hearing my door or the door to one of the other two bedrooms slam shut.
I read the book in one sitting, and by bedtime I was so freaked out that although I normally was able to walk around in the condo with the lights off without it bothering me at all, I had to "relay" myself back to my bedroom from the kitchen by first turning on the hallway light before I turned out the kitchen light, then turning on my bedroom light before switching off the hallway light.
posted by orange swan at 9:02 PM on October 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
Tell me about it. I first read this book back in the summer of 2001, shortly after buying my first place, a condo. As I began to read in bed one evening, I congratulated myself on living in a modern condo instead of an old house, as I wouldn't get spooked. Did that ever not prove to be the case.
One of the features of Hill House was that the doors would never stay open. No matter how many times the characters left them open or how heavy a doorstopper they used upon leaving a room, they would always find the door closed when they returned to it. And it so happened that one of the little quirks of my condo was that it had such airflow through its hallway when the condo windows were open that the three bedroom doors would never stay open unless they were doorstopped. So, as I read about the Hill House doors closing, I kept hearing my door or the door to one of the other two bedrooms slam shut.
I read the book in one sitting, and by bedtime I was so freaked out that although I normally was able to walk around in the condo with the lights off without it bothering me at all, I had to "relay" myself back to my bedroom from the kitchen by first turning on the hallway light before I turned out the kitchen light, then turning on my bedroom light before switching off the hallway light.
posted by orange swan at 9:02 PM on October 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
I read the book for the first time in High School, 40 years ago, and I've read it maybe a half dozen times since. I simply love it. I think that it might be the best thing Mrs. Jackson's written.
While I thought that the Netflix series of the same name had a lot of really good bits in it, it's fundamentally different from the source book. I know people who were really angry with it for using the book's name to tell a really different story.
posted by Spike Glee at 7:14 AM on November 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
While I thought that the Netflix series of the same name had a lot of really good bits in it, it's fundamentally different from the source book. I know people who were really angry with it for using the book's name to tell a really different story.
posted by Spike Glee at 7:14 AM on November 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Oh, this is my all-time favorite scary book! I love the 1963 movie, too -- I just did my annual reread/rewatch. LOVE it. I swear, every single sentence of the book is perfect.
posted by maryellenreads at 1:20 PM on November 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by maryellenreads at 1:20 PM on November 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
I actually just read this for the first time just a few weeks ago, it's amazing. I'm a big fan of the 1963 movie adaptation too. It's very faithful, right down to the queer subtext.
I have read that Shirley Jackson seems to have continually denied the existence of a queer reading of the novel, despite it seeming quite plain to modern eyes. I haven't really been able to track down a direct quote about this, though. Has anyone has read her biography who would care to comment?
posted by whir at 2:50 PM on November 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
I have read that Shirley Jackson seems to have continually denied the existence of a queer reading of the novel, despite it seeming quite plain to modern eyes. I haven't really been able to track down a direct quote about this, though. Has anyone has read her biography who would care to comment?
posted by whir at 2:50 PM on November 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
And the queerness is much less subtextual than I had expected it to be.
Right?? I’m honestly not sure how it makes sense any other way! That fraught walk they take in the garden where they’re both too afraid to say what they’re both feeling so they say nothing - maybe I’m just being homonormative but I can’t see a platonic reading of that scene that makes any sense.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:03 PM on November 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
Right?? I’m honestly not sure how it makes sense any other way! That fraught walk they take in the garden where they’re both too afraid to say what they’re both feeling so they say nothing - maybe I’m just being homonormative but I can’t see a platonic reading of that scene that makes any sense.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:03 PM on November 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
> "I have read that Shirley Jackson seems to have continually denied the existence of a queer reading of the novel"
I haven't read the biography, but this would really surprise me, given that (a) it's not at all subtle, and (b) Jackson kind of famously didn't like to explain her books.
With a search of the web (which very likely did not turn up everything relevant), I haven't found any direct quotes, but some people -- accurately or not -- have indicated that Jackson may have at some point denied that *Eleanor* was explicitly lesbian so much as someone whose sexuality was still being formed. Which... well, sure. On the other hand, again without direct quotes, I've also seen people claiming that Theodora was presented as being even more of an explicit lesbian in at least one prepublication draft.
Take all of this with many grains of salt, since it's based on Internet People Saying Stuff.
posted by kyrademon at 5:43 PM on November 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
I haven't read the biography, but this would really surprise me, given that (a) it's not at all subtle, and (b) Jackson kind of famously didn't like to explain her books.
With a search of the web (which very likely did not turn up everything relevant), I haven't found any direct quotes, but some people -- accurately or not -- have indicated that Jackson may have at some point denied that *Eleanor* was explicitly lesbian so much as someone whose sexuality was still being formed. Which... well, sure. On the other hand, again without direct quotes, I've also seen people claiming that Theodora was presented as being even more of an explicit lesbian in at least one prepublication draft.
Take all of this with many grains of salt, since it's based on Internet People Saying Stuff.
posted by kyrademon at 5:43 PM on November 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
I posted the biography Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin here a couple years ago. The New Yorker review linked in that post is a good in depth description of Jackson's life and writing in regards to feminist themes; it doesn't delve into sexuality except to describe the relationship with her husband, a chronic womanizer. In the biography there are several points that mention Shirley's friendships, and how she often felt trapped in marriage and society expectations of the day, and that she might have had some experience with lesbian encounters. As I recall, she was aware that Theodora would read as lesbian, and she wanted it so, as that was another aspect of life that was denied to Eleanor: not just romance but "forbidden" romance. In several ways Jackson wrote about women who were ultimately free not just of the strictures of the time-- children, family, being the perfect wife and mother-- but free of men.
posted by winesong at 2:16 PM on November 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by winesong at 2:16 PM on November 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
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posted by sohalt at 3:35 PM on October 31, 2023 [5 favorites]