Monday, October 8, 2012

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

A classic ghost story which begins with the traditional telling of ghost stories on Christmas Eve by the stepsons of Arthur Kipps. Stories that have an increasingly unsettling affect on him and when asked to contribute he refuses and leaves the house.
" Yes, I had a story, a true story, a story of haunting and evil, fear and confusion, horror and tragedy. But it was not a story to be told for casual entertainment, around the fireside on Christmas Eve."
 In the hope of freeing himself from his past experience Arthur decides to write his story down.

He tells of a time when,as a young solicitor, he was sent to a remote village by his employer to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, an elderly recluse who lived at Eel Marsh House which stood isolated from the village at the end of a causeway. The sense of unease he feels when he sees a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral, is heightened by the villagers reluctance to talk of her and their efforts to dissuade him from spending the night at Eel Marsh House. 

Although no definite time period is indicated the writing has a late Victorian/Edwardian style reminiscent of ghostly tales of that era.
With great restraint the author provides a setting with a menacing Gothic atmosphere...............thick London pea-soup fog and drifting marsh mists, a grim and desolate old house, graveyards and abbey ruins........and a woman in black with an expression of 'a desperate, yearning malevolence.'

It has the effect of placing one firmly in Arthur's shoes, sharing the increasingly mysterious and frightening experiences that his rational mind can't explain..... feeling the slowly mounting terror as the story of the woman in black is gradually revealed.

The ending is devastating!

For me, the perfect ghost story. I loved it!



16 comments:

  1. This book was deliciously spooky, wasn't it? :)

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  2. This is one of my all-time favorite spooky reads! Glad you enjoyed it.

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    1. I've waited a long time to find a copy and I definitely wasn't disappointed.

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  3. You loved it more than I did by far. I think I may have just been the wrong audience.

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    1. It does seem as though you might be in the minority with this one. :-)Still, it would be strange if we all liked the same stories.

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  4. My favorite ghost story ever - so glad you enjoyed it, too!

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    1. I think this will be the one that comes to mind whenever anyone mentions ghost stories.

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  5. Oh, I must read this one day! I'm glad you had such a wonderful read :-)

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    1. I'm sure you'd like it, Missy......and it's very short, really only novella length and doesn't take long to read.

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  6. I really enjoy ghost stories, I will have to remember this one. It seems to be a favourite of many.

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    1. Add it to your list, Marce......a true British style ghost story.

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  7. I loved this book. Two reasons. first I think the author manages to capture the gothic style of writing - in fact her writing makes you think it's a book that is slightly older than it is. And, two, there's very little actual horror in the story and yet it is so creepy. The scenes with the dog scratching at the door, brrrr.
    Lynn :D

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  8. I loved it too! It really was the perfect ghost story.

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    1. I thought it was the perfect ghost story too.

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