Hay Festival Book Club - October 2024
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The best-known of Shirley Jackson's novels and a major inspiration for writers like Neil Gaiman, Donna Tartt, and Stephen King as well as the hit Netflix series, The Haunting of Hill House is a chilling story of the power of fear.
Alone in the world, Eleanor is delighted to take up Dr Montague's invitation to spend a summer in the mysterious Hill House. Joining them are Theodora, an artistic 'sensitive', and Luke, heir to the house. But what begins as a light-hearted experiment is swiftly proven to be a trip into their darkest nightmares, and an investigation that one of their number may not survive.
This definitive horror novel blurs the lines between reality and imagination, between dream and nightmare. Beautiful, atmospheric and utterly terrifying, Jackson’s magnum opus examines the shadows that lurk not just in cobwebbed corners, but in the facets of our very minds.
Read it? Let us know what you think on TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram using #HFBookClub.
Further reading
“She exposed the fragility of so-called civilised life”: why Shirley Jackson’s horror speaks to our times, The Guardian
Shirley Jackson: celebrating 75 years of taut, ambiguous, disturbing stories, The Conversation
About the author
Shirley Jackson was born in California in 1916. When her short story, The Lottery, was first published in the New Yorker in 1948, readers were so horrified they sent her hate mail; it has since become one of the most iconic American stories of all time. Her first novel, The Road Through the Wall, was published in the same year and was followed by Hangsaman, The Bird's Nest, The Sundial, The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. In addition to her dark, brilliant novels, she wrote lightly fictionalized magazine pieces about family life with her four children and her husband, the critic Stanley Edgar Hyman. She died in 1965.
About Hay Festival Book Club
Timeless titles to offer you a break from the day to day. Can't decide what to read next? Follow your curiosity and join Hay Festival on a journey to imagine the world anew through great literature. Unconstrained by genre or form these are our monthly picks of great books worth reading (or re-reading) right now.
Throughout the month, we'll share interesting links and articles relating to our selection on social media using #HFBookClub and invite you all to get involved with your questions and comments. Each selection will also be marked with a free online event.
If you'd like to recommend a book for consideration, get in touch via bookclub@hayfestival.org.
Happy reading!