Wednesday Wisdom from The Haunting of Hill House

Posted October 19, 2022 by elzaread in Book Review, Wednesday Wisdom / 7 Comments

Wednesday Wisdom from The Haunting of Hill HouseThe Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Published by Penguin Classics on October 16th, 1959
Genres: Horror
Pages: 242
Format: eBook
Source: My Kindle
Goodreads

The greatest haunted house story ever written, the inspiration for a 10-part Netflix series directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, and Timothy Hutton

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.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.The greatest haunted house story ever written, the inspiration for a 10-part Netflix series directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, and Timothy Hutton

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.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Greetings you guys! Welcome to Wednesday Wisdom. I know, I know – today’s voice of wisdom is from a rather unlikely source, but just hear us out!

It’s that time of the year. Everyone is obsessed with ghosts, vampires, zombies, pumpkins and of course – haunted houses. Are there a more well-known haunted house than Hill House? Even if you’ve never read the gothic classic by Shirley Jackson, I bet you’ve heard of it. Even more so with the hit series streaming on Netflix. W haven’t watched it yet, will get to it soon.

We are slam-dunk in the middle of the Fraterfest Readathon 2022,  and what better time to read this novella. It was my first time reading it and I started reading in bright daylight, because I was scared the book might just go bump in the night. I ended up not being scared, but rather psychologically spooked. I strongly suspect that has been the main aim of the book for the last 60 years.

It’s not about what happened, rather about what you thought and perceived. Aaaah perceptions and interpretations. Are you ever really wrong?

But maybe it really was just a haunted house. Some houses are just not fit for human habitation.

“It was a house without kindness, never meant to be lived in, not a fit place for people or for love or for hope. Exorcism cannot alter the countenance of a house. Hill House would stay as it is until it was destroyed. “

Then again, can a house really possess such power? After all, it’s only a house. It cannot possibly come alive without a living organism taking residence.
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”
Maybe it’s not about the house at all. Maybe it’s more about what comes with the living organisms.
 
“To learn what we fear is to learn who we are. Horror defies our boundaries and illuminates our souls.”
 
“Fear,” the doctor said, “is the relinquishment of logic, the willing relinquishing of reasonable patterns. We yield to it or we fight it, but we cannot meet it halfway.”
 
Or is the whole book just a decent into madness?

 

 

Whatever my perception and interpretation, I’m still glad I finally read it and got some words of wisdom from it. Understanding, not so much.
I’m very thankful that my house is friendly, colorful and fit for human, feline and canine habitation.
Have you read this classic? Want to share your perception or interpretation with me?

 

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7 responses to “Wednesday Wisdom from The Haunting of Hill House

  1. I’ve read Haunting of Hill House a few times and enjoy it but don’t really have the slightest idea what is truly going on in the book! I just follow along and enjoy the creepiness. I really should pick it up again. It’s been far too long since I’ve read it.

  2. Diane

    I’ve enjoyed Shirley Jackson in the past and this sounds like an awesome series to be enjoyed in October. I didn’t realize this was written that long ago (1959).