I read THoHH recently and loved it - loved everything about it. Re-reading, I find it actually more spooky than the first time around because I am anticipating what is to come. 'Journeys end in lovers meeting.' How creepy that repeated saying is! I am also noticing foreshadowing that I didn't notice the first time around. It's all rather chilling.
I love the four characters here assembled - their dynamics and interactions are perfect. And I feel a lot of sympathy for Eleanor, as I believe we're supposed to. Early in ch 4, Eleanor wakes up and begins sleepily ruminating on the night before, worrying that she embarrassed herself in front of the others - determined to be more reserved from now on and less openly grateful to all of them for having her. (So relatable!) Next, this lovely paragraph: *Then, awakening completely, she shook her head and sighed. You are a very silly baby, Eleanor, she told herself, as she did every morning.*
I completely agree! This is a great novel for rereading. Apart from anything else you get a real sense Jackson’s assurance and how expertly she controls her craft . . .
Absolutely loved this! Although I confess that I deliberately read it at the hairdressers, first thing in the morning, so that I didn't freak myself out reading it at night, alone.
Such beautiful writing. I'm struck, at this point, by the strange confluence of different emotional currents - the fear is ramping up, but so is a tender sense of Eleanor finding herself, finding relief, finding community. At the moment, the house is both horrifying and a place of warmth and connection. A fascinating cocktail!
Need to think of another non-spooky place to read Chapters 4 and 5...
Ha! The hairdressers is perfect - although I can imagine Jackson turning even a hairdresser into a scary setting . . . I completely agree about the beauty of the writing – and I think you've put your finger on the exact combination (Eleanor's simultaneous fear and comfort) that fundamentally underlies the uncanny experience of reading this novel . . .
I’ve avoided this novel for years out of nervousness! But very much enjoying…so far. I love the quiet, creeping menace of the house - it feels like the characters are in an open fist that is about to close. The disturbing incidents at the beginning with Eleanor’s sister and the old lady give a great sense of why she is so keen to escape her normal life but her false comfort in the company of strangers is poignant and painful. Very cleverly done. By the end of the third chapter I felt like I was holding my breath. Masterful!
This novel is wonderful. Before reading it, I imagined a ‘straight forward’ ghost story. It is so much more than that. The family dysfunction is rendered so subtly yet powerfully. In chapter 2 one immediately understands Eleanor is looking for escape and has that vivid and fantastical imagination so characteristic of people who were unable to express their true selves when young: “…she had spent so long alone, with no one to love, that it was difficult for her to talk, even casually, to another person without self-consciousness and an awkward inability to find words.”
Every scene is slightly unsettling as you say Henry. All this is achieved with so little. Remarkable. My favourite line: (when Eleanor is briefly in Hillsdale) “A dog slept uneasily in the shade against a wall, a woman stood in a doorway across the street and looked at Eleanor, and two young boys lounged against a fence, elaborately silent.”
Elaborately silent…that conveys so brilliantly those types of situations that I’m sure we have all found ourselves in. And all of this is underpinned by a black humour that is exquisite. Looking forward to reading others thoughts.
Loving the read-along! This book is new to me, and I'm very much enjoying it. I was fascinated to read that the inspiration came from actual houses (seen on a journey or on a postcard). The idea that houses themselves have personalities is really interesting. Certainly makes me look differently at the built environment around me!
The name Theodora has such an obvious Greek meaning, "God's gift," it captured my attention right away (and in a sense, it was a gift from above the way Shirley Jackson found it waiting for her one morning.) I followed the pattern and looked up the others' name meanings: both Luke and Eleanor mean "light bringer" in Greek, which is fascinating. As for Montague, it means "steep hill", which seems apt. I still don't know what any of it means, but I'm sure there's something there. It seems to me that this is a book that rhymes, objects, people and situation mirror each other, and I'm not talking only about the stone lions. For example, Eleanor and Theodora playing in the creek like little girls, forming a sisterhood of sorts, and discovering later that there were two little sisters living in the house. Like I said, fascinating. I'm genuinely looking forward to read more.
Wow! Really fascinating connections. Montague especially! I suppose there's also the word 'ague' in there, so 'sick hill' . . . Jackson loved playing games, didn't she? There are several pairs of sisters cropping up . . .
This is my first time reading the novel and I am really enjoying it. I have watched several movie adaptations, they always land on my list of favorite spooky movies to watch (The Haunting, 1999, the Netflix series and Rose Red by Steven King which has very distinct pieces of characters and story lines).
The book gives every bit of that creepy, spine tingling feel. The characters,as written, are even more interesting, edgy and creepy. The presence of the house, quietly menacing.
Reading comments, I'm suddenly reminded of the Japanese movie "Pulse." The movie has this mysterious warning about a "forbidden room." It's precisely 'there' that one character thinks she's discovered a true place of human intimacy & connection in a world that completely lacks them. That sense of bait & trap are in both the book and "Pulse."
Very much enjoying this. My wife and I are taking turns to read it aloud to each other and I’m struck by how, even though it’s prose, Jackson uses some poetic devices like assonance and alliteration (the breath-stealing three H’s of the title). Also the mad number of repetitions of the house’s name, which increase the sense of threat and obsession.
I am too engrossed in this book. I absolutely love how she introduces the characters to one another. The characters descriptions of each other, settling us to be comfortable with them. I must say when Eleanor first knock at the front door, the description of the child face knocker started it all off for me. I am terrified of dolls. So you can imagine the hair at the back of my neck..!!!
Anyway, I am up to part where Dr Montague has given them the background story, which I am thinking a pretty normal family drama so far. I am not scared now.. or did I speak too soon?
I completely agree about the child's face! And I think you've identified exactly what Jackson is doing. This is what Ruth Franklin says in her biography:
"It took several tries – as was typical – for Jackson to settle on the exact source of Hill House's horror. In an early draft, the main character, arriving at the house, knocks on a heavy wooden door. In the next, she finds a knocker with a lion's head. In the final version, the knocker Eleanor uses has become a child's face. She is entering a family home, but it is a home that has gone badly wrong."
Thank you for this insight. Jackson gives every pieces of furniture a story and the hallways ( I have a phobia about long corridors after staying with a family friend in Cornwall) tensions . I like how she draws her readers to be part of the brick and ornated carvings of Hill House.
I remember seeing the older film version as a young person - I think around 11 or 12. I have just bits of images. When I found it was a novel as well, I was excited. I rarely read horror of any sort, but this is very different , just as Pride and Prejudice is and is not romance. The way in which I felt in tune with Eleanor who so deserves an escape and an adventure was impressive.
Thinking about film versions of her work, and why she’s so frequently adapted. Her work sits in an odd place: very concrete in terms of the imagery, for all the ambiguity and near-ineffability of some of the plot details. I suppose that must appeal to visual artists. But they don’t really capture Eleanor’s weird interior/exterior life, and how, almost from the start, her interior monologue is more like an out-of-body experience, regarding and constantly questioning herself.
We watched the Robert Wise a few years back and the (very loose) Netflix adaptation later. There’s also “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”. My wife was shown the 1969 version of “The Lottery” in school - aged about 10 or 11!
Tangentially we watched the film “Shirley” the other night. It’s set around the time she was writing “Hangsaman” but most of the details are made up (think of the Diane Arbus film, “Fur”.)
It’s my first time reading this book. As an American, I continue to picture this house as Edward Hopper’s 1925 painting called “House By the Railroad”. How do you picture it?
The "Garlic in Fiction" essay is excellent. In this first part, I enjoyed the way Shirley has some real zingers of opening lines that make you sit up and pay attention.
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality..."
"No human eye can isolate the unhappy coincidence of line and place which suggests evil in the face of a house..."
I read THoHH recently and loved it - loved everything about it. Re-reading, I find it actually more spooky than the first time around because I am anticipating what is to come. 'Journeys end in lovers meeting.' How creepy that repeated saying is! I am also noticing foreshadowing that I didn't notice the first time around. It's all rather chilling.
I love the four characters here assembled - their dynamics and interactions are perfect. And I feel a lot of sympathy for Eleanor, as I believe we're supposed to. Early in ch 4, Eleanor wakes up and begins sleepily ruminating on the night before, worrying that she embarrassed herself in front of the others - determined to be more reserved from now on and less openly grateful to all of them for having her. (So relatable!) Next, this lovely paragraph: *Then, awakening completely, she shook her head and sighed. You are a very silly baby, Eleanor, she told herself, as she did every morning.*
I completely agree! This is a great novel for rereading. Apart from anything else you get a real sense Jackson’s assurance and how expertly she controls her craft . . .
Absolutely loved this! Although I confess that I deliberately read it at the hairdressers, first thing in the morning, so that I didn't freak myself out reading it at night, alone.
Such beautiful writing. I'm struck, at this point, by the strange confluence of different emotional currents - the fear is ramping up, but so is a tender sense of Eleanor finding herself, finding relief, finding community. At the moment, the house is both horrifying and a place of warmth and connection. A fascinating cocktail!
Need to think of another non-spooky place to read Chapters 4 and 5...
Ha! The hairdressers is perfect - although I can imagine Jackson turning even a hairdresser into a scary setting . . . I completely agree about the beauty of the writing – and I think you've put your finger on the exact combination (Eleanor's simultaneous fear and comfort) that fundamentally underlies the uncanny experience of reading this novel . . .
I’ve avoided this novel for years out of nervousness! But very much enjoying…so far. I love the quiet, creeping menace of the house - it feels like the characters are in an open fist that is about to close. The disturbing incidents at the beginning with Eleanor’s sister and the old lady give a great sense of why she is so keen to escape her normal life but her false comfort in the company of strangers is poignant and painful. Very cleverly done. By the end of the third chapter I felt like I was holding my breath. Masterful!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying it — I love your very scary image of an open fist about to close . . .
This novel is wonderful. Before reading it, I imagined a ‘straight forward’ ghost story. It is so much more than that. The family dysfunction is rendered so subtly yet powerfully. In chapter 2 one immediately understands Eleanor is looking for escape and has that vivid and fantastical imagination so characteristic of people who were unable to express their true selves when young: “…she had spent so long alone, with no one to love, that it was difficult for her to talk, even casually, to another person without self-consciousness and an awkward inability to find words.”
Every scene is slightly unsettling as you say Henry. All this is achieved with so little. Remarkable. My favourite line: (when Eleanor is briefly in Hillsdale) “A dog slept uneasily in the shade against a wall, a woman stood in a doorway across the street and looked at Eleanor, and two young boys lounged against a fence, elaborately silent.”
Elaborately silent…that conveys so brilliantly those types of situations that I’m sure we have all found ourselves in. And all of this is underpinned by a black humour that is exquisite. Looking forward to reading others thoughts.
I'm so glad! I know - the psychological portrait of Eleanor feels really true and so poignant. And ah – 'elaborately silent' is marvellous!
Loving the read-along! This book is new to me, and I'm very much enjoying it. I was fascinated to read that the inspiration came from actual houses (seen on a journey or on a postcard). The idea that houses themselves have personalities is really interesting. Certainly makes me look differently at the built environment around me!
I know! I feel it makes the book even more sinister knowing a bit of the background!
The name Theodora has such an obvious Greek meaning, "God's gift," it captured my attention right away (and in a sense, it was a gift from above the way Shirley Jackson found it waiting for her one morning.) I followed the pattern and looked up the others' name meanings: both Luke and Eleanor mean "light bringer" in Greek, which is fascinating. As for Montague, it means "steep hill", which seems apt. I still don't know what any of it means, but I'm sure there's something there. It seems to me that this is a book that rhymes, objects, people and situation mirror each other, and I'm not talking only about the stone lions. For example, Eleanor and Theodora playing in the creek like little girls, forming a sisterhood of sorts, and discovering later that there were two little sisters living in the house. Like I said, fascinating. I'm genuinely looking forward to read more.
Wow! Really fascinating connections. Montague especially! I suppose there's also the word 'ague' in there, so 'sick hill' . . . Jackson loved playing games, didn't she? There are several pairs of sisters cropping up . . .
This is my first time reading the novel and I am really enjoying it. I have watched several movie adaptations, they always land on my list of favorite spooky movies to watch (The Haunting, 1999, the Netflix series and Rose Red by Steven King which has very distinct pieces of characters and story lines).
The book gives every bit of that creepy, spine tingling feel. The characters,as written, are even more interesting, edgy and creepy. The presence of the house, quietly menacing.
Reading comments, I'm suddenly reminded of the Japanese movie "Pulse." The movie has this mysterious warning about a "forbidden room." It's precisely 'there' that one character thinks she's discovered a true place of human intimacy & connection in a world that completely lacks them. That sense of bait & trap are in both the book and "Pulse."
I don’t know it! Thanks for the recommendation.
The title, even, evokes strangeness, with three breathy “h” sounds in a row.
Very much enjoying this. My wife and I are taking turns to read it aloud to each other and I’m struck by how, even though it’s prose, Jackson uses some poetic devices like assonance and alliteration (the breath-stealing three H’s of the title). Also the mad number of repetitions of the house’s name, which increase the sense of threat and obsession.
You're right - it is very poetic prose. I love the idea of you taking it in turns to read aloud - I can imagine it's scarier that way!
I am too engrossed in this book. I absolutely love how she introduces the characters to one another. The characters descriptions of each other, settling us to be comfortable with them. I must say when Eleanor first knock at the front door, the description of the child face knocker started it all off for me. I am terrified of dolls. So you can imagine the hair at the back of my neck..!!!
Anyway, I am up to part where Dr Montague has given them the background story, which I am thinking a pretty normal family drama so far. I am not scared now.. or did I speak too soon?
Thank you Henry!😱
I completely agree about the child's face! And I think you've identified exactly what Jackson is doing. This is what Ruth Franklin says in her biography:
"It took several tries – as was typical – for Jackson to settle on the exact source of Hill House's horror. In an early draft, the main character, arriving at the house, knocks on a heavy wooden door. In the next, she finds a knocker with a lion's head. In the final version, the knocker Eleanor uses has become a child's face. She is entering a family home, but it is a home that has gone badly wrong."
Henry,
Thank you for this insight. Jackson gives every pieces of furniture a story and the hallways ( I have a phobia about long corridors after staying with a family friend in Cornwall) tensions . I like how she draws her readers to be part of the brick and ornated carvings of Hill House.
Thank you Henry
I remember seeing the older film version as a young person - I think around 11 or 12. I have just bits of images. When I found it was a novel as well, I was excited. I rarely read horror of any sort, but this is very different , just as Pride and Prejudice is and is not romance. The way in which I felt in tune with Eleanor who so deserves an escape and an adventure was impressive.
We'll talk more about the 1963 film . . . Yes I totally agree! It is horror - but a whole lot more . . .
The Big Read is also reading The Haunting of Hill House, and Jeremy provided this link to an analysis of the first paragraph: https://medium.com/@penguinrandomus/shirley-jacksons-sublime-first-paragraph-in-hill-house-annotated-14834632fc61.
Great analysis!
Thinking about film versions of her work, and why she’s so frequently adapted. Her work sits in an odd place: very concrete in terms of the imagery, for all the ambiguity and near-ineffability of some of the plot details. I suppose that must appeal to visual artists. But they don’t really capture Eleanor’s weird interior/exterior life, and how, almost from the start, her interior monologue is more like an out-of-body experience, regarding and constantly questioning herself.
We watched the Robert Wise a few years back and the (very loose) Netflix adaptation later. There’s also “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”. My wife was shown the 1969 version of “The Lottery” in school - aged about 10 or 11!
Tangentially we watched the film “Shirley” the other night. It’s set around the time she was writing “Hangsaman” but most of the details are made up (think of the Diane Arbus film, “Fur”.)
It’s my first time reading this book. As an American, I continue to picture this house as Edward Hopper’s 1925 painting called “House By the Railroad”. How do you picture it?
The "Garlic in Fiction" essay is excellent. In this first part, I enjoyed the way Shirley has some real zingers of opening lines that make you sit up and pay attention.
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality..."
"No human eye can isolate the unhappy coincidence of line and place which suggests evil in the face of a house..."