Speculation, Fact and Fiction

The Haunting of Hill House, (Shirley Jackson, 1959)was certainly a worth-while read. The premise is simple enough. A paranormal researcher invites three people to stay with him in a supposedly haunted house, to try and find out what, if anything, is happening there.

Scary? Not in the schlock/slash horror sense. More in the unnerving, leaving you with a persistent feeling of disquietude. Which is not to say there aren't some very scary bits - all the more so when you don't actually 'see the monster'. It's not going to turn your stomach with gore, just twist it into knots with apprehension.

Just what is going on with the central character, Eleanor? Is she an unreliable narrator - though the book's written in the third person, it's from her point of view and we spend a lot of time inside her head. It's not an especially comfortable place to be. Or is she the only one who's really seeing what's going on, or the only one who's prepared to admit it? One of the most striking things about the story is the way the reader is left to ponder possible answers to these and other key questions once they've finished the book.

I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling it for those who haven't read it. If you are interested in writing dark fantasy, horror or psychological crime, then I'd agree with those folk who told me it is well worth tracking down. It's certainly given me some new perspective on the contemporary project I'm contemplating.

I'm glad I read it in the garden, in bright sunlight, in firmly analytical-author mode. I'm also glad that in some ways, that it is now quite noticeably dated, which does increase the distance for the modern reader. I wouldn't have wanted to read it all alone in a Victorian house with dark wooden panelling... Fortunately I live in a thoroughly modern suburban house with none of those resonances.

As it was, I still did wake up in the middle of the night wondering just whose hand Eleanor had been holding at one particular point.