Image by @niamh_stroud
“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.”
— From the opening of The Haunting of Hill House (1953) by Shirley Jackson"
For our next Zoom book club, kindly supported by Treadwell’s books, we’ll be reading Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House. Jackson’s work is often reduced to a single short story, “The Lottery.” But there is more to Jackson. She was expert at revealing everyday evil, both in her characters and herself; you could say she was in touch with her shadow. Her novel Hangsaman is based on The Hanged Man card, its protagonist Natalie Waite a homage to Arthur C. Waite, who conceived the classic Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Constantly re-visiting the scapegoat archetype, she was inspired by grimoires and James Frazer’s The Golden Bough. Shirley Jackson was marketed as a witch, a persona she sometimes wore with zeal, other times denied. Her biographer Ruth Franklin emphasises that “…on some level writing was a form of witchcraft to Jackson—a way to transform everyday life into something rich and strange, something more than it appears to be.”
Recently there’s been a Netflix series loosely inspired by the book, though the 1963 The Haunting is more in keeping with Jackson’s subtle psychological terror. Apparently the film Shirley, starring Elisabeth Moss as Shirley Jackson, is coming out on streaming on June 5. We Have Always Lived in the Castle has also been adapted into a film. Now is a good time to step into Jackson’s haunted mind. The Haunting of Hill House has inspired many authors, including Sylvia Plath, Stephen King, Carmen Maria Machado and Neil Gaiman. Now it can inspire you.
Join us on Monday 13 July at 6 pm (GMT) via Zoom from anywhere in the world. Access this book club and support our content by signing up to our Patreon. We have a few book giveaways lined up and other online workshops for patrons.