Staff Pick
When a book so poetically written as The Haunting of Hill House can so deeply disturb, unsettle, and live inside of you like an invading yet welcome organism, you know true literary magic has been created. Such is the case with Hill House. You will not soon forget its odd angled walls and ill-fitting door frames, those ghastly noises that wake you, the malicious presence next to you. Not to mention that such a novel was written by a woman in the 1950s. A pioneer for women in horror literature, Shirley Jackson remains as relevant as ever; just like Hill House, she has stood for 100 years and will stand for 100 more. Recommended By Heather A., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
The classic supernatural thriller by an author who helped define the genre.
First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers — and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
About the Author
Shirley Jackson (1916–1965) received wide critical acclaim for her short story "The Lottery," which was first published in the
New Yorker in 1948. Her novels include
We Have Always Lived in the Castle,
The Sundial, and
The Haunting of Hill House.
Laura Miller is a cofounder of Salon.com, where she is a senior writer. She is the editor of The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors and the introducer of the Penguin Classics edition of The Haunting of Hill House.