The Haunting of Hill House

I was a little girl when I first watched "The Haunting" on TV with my cousin who just a few years older. We watched it again a few years later. I only remember giggling about some of the stuff and that Mrs. Dudley, the housekeeper, was really creepy. For some reason, my cousin and I referred to her as Winifred Dudley. (Was that her name in the movie? In the book she has no first name.) That made us giggle, too. I really don't remember being too scared, but maybe that's because I knew that my cousin would keep me safe.

My cousin loved all things haunted. Well, maybe not all things, but movies and TV shows. Hitchcock was one of her favorites. And I recall her telling me at least twice during the last years of her life that when she couldn't sleep that she watched "The Haunting" and thought of me. She'd then make some Winifred Dudley joke and we'd both giggle again.

It was really hard not to think of my cousin as I (finally) read Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. I felt her making silly remarks as I was reading. That's just what she would do.

Since I'm not a horror reader, I can't really say if this classic ghost story was typical. The Haunting of Hill House is a ghost story, but it's also a story about relationships. The plot involves a doctor studying haunted houses who has rented the empty house from the current owner and has invited three younger people (two women and the nephew of the house's owner) to chronicle their experiences in the house. The relationships between the three guests ebb and flow. I especially liked the banter between Eleanor, with her vivid imagination, and Theo, who is the more worldly of the two.

I plan to watch the original movie again sometime between now and our book club meeting. From the descriptions of the movie, it seems like it is very close to the book. And I might look into a new mini-series (either Netflix or Amazon Prime) which is very loosely based on Jackson's novel.

I was the one who suggested this book for our October title. I'm really glad this was the selection. I hope everyone else agrees.