With Halloween just around the corner, I thought I’d feature one the best horror novels I’ve ever read. Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House (1959), is certainly the most influential haunted house tale of all time. It was a finalist for the National Book Award and has been made into two feature films (The Haunting, directed by Robert Wise, and its remake), a play, and is the basis of a Netflix series.
Jackson sets up a scary situation when a group of four supernatural phenomena researchers stay at a haunted house. The reader is confronted with the question: do ghosts really exist? The researchers all perceive the haunted house in different ways with plenty of dread and horror.
In 2018, The New York Times polled 13 writers to choose the scariest book of fiction they have ever read, and Carmen Maria Machado and Neil Gaiman both chose The Haunting of Hill House. You can add me to that list! Are you a fan of Shirley Jackson? GRADE: A
Loved it. And also thought the original movie did a terrific job adapting it. Great choice for Halloween week.
Jeff, you’re right. The original movie version of THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE captured the spirit of the book. What’s Halloween without a haunted house?
Yes, I’m a big fan of Shirley Jackson’s, including her humorous LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES and RAISING DEMONS, and her short stories.
Jeff, Shirley Jackson is best known for “The Lottery” but she wrote plenty of work well worth reading.
A strange woman who wrote strange stories, except for the ones Jeff mentioned.
Patti, I saw the Shirley Jackson biopic and enjoyed it. “Shirley is a 2020 American biographical drama film directed by Josephine Decker and written by Sarah Gubbins, based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Susan Scarf Merrell, which formed a ‘largely fictional story’ around novelist Shirley Jackson during the time period she was writing her 1951 novel Hangsaman. The film stars Elisabeth Moss as Jackson, with Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young, and Logan Lerman in supporting roles. Martin Scorsese serves as an executive producer.”
Love Shirley Jackson! Loved the first Haunting of Hill House movie with Julie Harris and Claire Bloom.
The Bird’s Nest revolves around a girl with multiple personalities and the names are all variations on Elizabeth (you can understand the appeal).