Book Review

Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House
Penguin Classics

I'm not sure what to make of this novel. First of all, this is my first reading of Shirley Jackson other than the short story "The Lottery" so I'm not sure how to take her writing. All I can do is react honestly like I don't know her because I don't! The other thing is that I have no experience reading ghost stories, and that's what this story is supposed to be, other than Henry James and The Turn of the Screw. What am I to make of ghost stories in general? What to make of haunted houses?!

Psychic phenomena occur. What is the explanation? Is the house symbolic? All of the characters are strange and funny. Yes, funny. The two girls alternate between scared and being happy and laughing all the time. It's hard to take anyone seriously in this novel.

According to critic Laura Miller (in my printing), the prevailing mood is psychic and physical claustrophobia. In the final analysis, my prevailing mood, probably very non-standard, is one of comedy.

Dr. Montague is an anthropologist who studies supernatural manifiestions. Such an anthropologist would be laughed out of academia today. When Eleanor is first introduced, here is the second sentence:

"The only person in the world she genuinely hated, now that her mother was dead, was her sister. She disliked her brother-in-law and her five-year old neice, and she had no friends."

This strikes me as funny. In first describing a character, it's just funny to say in the second sentence who she hates.

At one point in the book, Dr. Montague remarks that he puts himself to sleep by reading Richardson's Pamela and that he means to try this on children. I agree: reading Richardson would put anyone to sleep.

The character Luke says that the weird goings on in the house allow him the luxury of drinking in the middle of the night.

The book is full of funny lines like this.

Although the ending for Eleanor is not funny, I see the novel as a whole as a comedy. I laughed throughout more than anything.