The Haunting of Hill House is the first book I’ve completed for my RIP event over at Stainless Steel Droppings (and for those of you who haven’t yet signed up there’s plenty of time to do so.  Details here) and I thought it was great.

Now, firstly I should probably point out that this book was written in the late 50s and so if you’re expecting some sort of horror along the lines of the most recent movie then you’ll probably be disappointed.  (Although I would say that the earlier black and white version does a much better job of portraying the book – even if it doesn’t appeal to horror fans.  (Basically, think along the lines of reading I am Legend and then comparing it to the recent movie – not really anything alike).

For me, this was much more psychological and, if you’ve already read other Jackson stories this will probably ring true for you.

Hill House starts off as an experiment by Dr Montague.  He invites people who he thinks have psychic abilities to come and stay at Hill House, which he believes to be haunted, to see and record their various experiences.  Two of these people respond.  Eleanor and Theodora.  Luke, the heir apparent also joins the cosy little party.

There’s such a lot that I enjoyed about this story.  Jackson is excellent at setting up characters.  Eleanor is, of course, the main character.  She’s lead a strange and inhibited life.  At the constant beck and call of her mother and since her mother’s death seemingly living in the shadow of her sister. At the opposite end we have Theodora with her extrovert nature, beautiful and flippant and frankly the complete opposite of the shrinking violet Eleanor.  Step into their lives two different males characters.  Dr Montague, who acts like the fatherly, wise teacher to the group – although he seems a little out of his own comfort zone – and Luke, who seems to be the object or toy of Theodora’s attention.

So, all of these characters diverge upon Hill House – the only other characters are the gatekeeper/groundsman and his wife – both leave the property locked when they go at 6.00 pm (or when it goes dark – and, by the way, they can’t hear the inhabitants screams from where they live!).  There seems to be a sort of hysteria about Hill House with the villagers – who simply don’t acknowledge it’s presence, let alone speak of it.  Even Eleanor, upon arrival, has an overwhelming fear of the house.  It’s shape, it’s proportions, the way it seems to watch her.

As you read the story you wonder how much of this is a ghost story and how much is a prank on the part of someone else and yet certain of the occurrences can’t so simply be explained away.  All of the guests experience something strange and yet Eleanor seems to be the target.

Is it simply that Eleanor is a little unhinged herself?  I’m not sure even now and am going round in circles thinking about it.  She certainly seemed to lack anything of her own and seemed to come into her own at Hill House.  I definitely had a few moments of thinking maybe she was the perpetrator of certain ‘elements’ of the story in order to gain attention yet as the book progresses I began to think that her behaviour was as a result of the house and certainly some of her thoughts were quite strange to read.

Everything about the house is evil, apparently.  It was built at strange angles so that everything you see is not quite where it should be.  All the doors mysteriously shut by themselves as they seem to be hung on a slant.  The contents are dark and they add to the general feel of foreboding.  The rooms fan out from a central location with no apparent reason, lots of doors from each room lending an overall impression of confusion.

The long story short on this one is simply was Eleanor paranoid delusional or was she influenced by the house.  Given the last thoughts in the book I think the latter but let me know what you think.

This is definitely a good read.  It’s not horrendous or terrible but it definitely has it’s chilling moments and seeing how Eleanor develops and changes and being privy to her sometimes rather strange thoughts was quite fascinating.

I read this as part of my RIP and also my Classics list.