A short
novel written by
Shirley Jackson and published in 1957. It's the
story of four people who go to a
notorious haunted house to attempt to prove the
existence of
ghosts. In the process, they (in particular, the very
nervous Eleanor) are
preyed upon by
something that wants to
terrorize and
destroy them. Is it a
ghost? Or is it just Eleanor's over-active
imagination?
No one knows for sure...
Jackson's
book succeeds because of the skillful
subtlety that pervades the story. We never
see any ghosts. We
hear them -- or something that might be
ghostly. There are never any
gruesome shocks -- no
grand guignol moments. The whole thing is incredibly
creepy, and that
eerie creepiness sticks with you for years, usually rearing its head before
bedtime on
cold, windy nights...
It's been made into
movies twice -- once in the
brilliant and
understated "
The Haunting" in 1963 and again in the
ham-fisted and
moronic "The Haunting" in 1999. Rent the first one. Do not watch the second one.