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The Woman in Black A Ghost Story Susan Hill John Lawrence 9781567921892 Books

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The Woman in Black A Ghost Story Susan Hill John Lawrence 9781567921892 Books

The Woman in Black is one of those rare instances of watched film before reading book. It doesn’t happen often. And I feel confident in saying that in this case it had no affect on my experience. Admittedly, it has been several years since I have watched the film, but still I think that my previous statement would hold true regardless of time passed. I may re-watch this weekend to test that (no scratch that – nonhusband is leaving for week, no ghost stories. Probably will anyways. I live to torment myself apparently.)

Told through the recounting of a very pragmatic narrator Arthur Kipps, this is a classic tale of the paranormal. Attending the funeral of Mrs. Drablow and her estate affairs at Eel Marsh house, the young solicitor is visited by an unwelcome guest, the Woman in Black. As Mr. Kipps discovers the purpose of this visit and its significance, it soon comes to a conclusion in one final moment that will forever alter his life. Now, years later he has decided to commit the events that transpired during his time in Crythin Gifford to pen and tell his story.

“I have sat here at my desk, day after day, night after night, a blank sheet of paper before me, unable to lift my pen, trembling and weeping too.”

I find it important to mention that while this is a dark and eerie tale, it moves at a very slow but not intolerable pace. This is not a thriller. We are gifted with a writing style that is elegant and effortlessly transports the reader into Victorian era England, setting the stage for a wonderfully traditional ghost story. The author utilizes all elements available to construct a remarkably atmospheric and melancholic read.

Admittedly this is not the “terrifying” read one might expect. Shelving it as horror is an undoubted stretch. But do not discredit its merit as far as ghost stories are concerned. First published in 1983, the author has brilliantly established the air of a true classic read. While it does not harbor the gruesome components we have come to know and expect from such a story today, if you allow yourself to be fully immersed within the successful world building and story telling, you soon discover that the underlying plot of revenge is haunting enough in its own right.

“It was true that the ghastly sounds I had heard through the fog had greatly upset me but far worse was what emanated from and surrounded these things and arose to unsteady me, an atmosphere, a force – I do not exactly know what to call it – of evil and uncleanness, of terror and suffering, of malevolence and bitter anger”

Cleverly narrated and written to read as having been authentically conceived in the 19th century, there is a lot to be appreciated and admired within the pages of this chilling tale of revenge. And therein lies the real accomplishment of The Woman in Black. This somewhat Gothic tale is likely to find a welcomed home among the many fans of Poe and more classic tales of fright. A slow burn with a dramatic ending, I can only recommend experiencing The Woman in Black personally to fully understand all that it has to offer. This is what ghost stories are made of.


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The Woman in Black A Ghost Story Susan Hill John Lawrence 9781567921892 Books Reviews

Luckily, it's short, but it could have been even shorter. There is an effort made to invoke a Victorian sensibility or manner of writing, which is a cute conceit. It's not scary. The protagonist is really dense--you'll figure out the mystery 'way before he does, but there is a twist that's imparted at the end that you probably won't figure out. I'm upset that I paid $10 for a edition of this book. It should have been one of the $1.99 Goodreads.
I bought this after seeing the movie starring Daniel Radcliffe. I wanted to see what the director and scriptwriters had started with.

I was astonished. This book could have been written in the mid-20th century, or much earlier. The style is very gothic and dark, and -- in some ways -- a throwback to the 19th century. I liked it.

In fact, I liked it better than the movie, though the film was extremely stylish and Daniel Radcliffe did a remarkable job with a role involving little dialogue.

The book is a different story. It contains similar elements, and shares a lot of plot elements with the movie, but... it's a different story with a different outcome.

If you're a fan of gothic novels by Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, Phyllis A. Whitney, and so on, you'll probably like this book, too. It doesn't have the romance of those authors, but the darkness and suspense are definitely in the same genre.

This story is told in the first person, with considerable style. Some sentences run on forever. Others are clipped short. The emotions are conveyed as much by the words as the writing style itself.

This book isn't for everyone. If you hate, say, Dickens or novels by the Brontes, this may not be your cup of tea.

Otherwise, if you like dark tales and sweeping gothic suspense, this is a good choice.
Susan Hill writes about an unwed mother in the late 19th Century, forced to give up her child to adoption. The father refuses to marry her and bolts. She gets her childless married sister to adopt the baby as her own. She moves to the nearest village to be able to visit him. Her sister agrees on condition she never reveals her true relationship to the boy. The 6-year old child drowns in the marshes as she watches from his nursery window. She is horrified, angry and crushed. She rages at an unfair society and cruel fate. She suffers a wasting disease for another 12 years before dying heartbroken. Her soul returns to avenge her wrongs, by taking the children of other mothers. Susan was writing in the mid-1980s when the Thatcher government was promoting a quasi-Victorian Puritan ethic. By reversing the pain, she holds a mirror up to a censorious society, to reflect on its unthinking cruelty to unwed women.
Though apparently this was first published in 1983, it's written in the style of a late-nineteenth-century novel. This isn't necessarily a good thing. At times I felt I was wading through an over-complicated story. The story is atmospheric; it's easy to feel that you are shut in to this old house along with the characters. I liked the little dog, and was impressed that he wasn't killed off just because that's a popular thing to do in spooky stories. At times I found the lead character rather obtuse. Not a bad book, and smoother reading than novels that really ARE nineteenth-century publications, but if you lack patience with that sort of writing, you may want to just settle for watching the movie.
The Woman in Black is one of those rare instances of watched film before reading book. It doesn’t happen often. And I feel confident in saying that in this case it had no affect on my experience. Admittedly, it has been several years since I have watched the film, but still I think that my previous statement would hold true regardless of time passed. I may re-watch this weekend to test that (no scratch that – nonhusband is leaving for week, no ghost stories. Probably will anyways. I live to torment myself apparently.)

Told through the recounting of a very pragmatic narrator Arthur Kipps, this is a classic tale of the paranormal. Attending the funeral of Mrs. Drablow and her estate affairs at Eel Marsh house, the young solicitor is visited by an unwelcome guest, the Woman in Black. As Mr. Kipps discovers the purpose of this visit and its significance, it soon comes to a conclusion in one final moment that will forever alter his life. Now, years later he has decided to commit the events that transpired during his time in Crythin Gifford to pen and tell his story.

“I have sat here at my desk, day after day, night after night, a blank sheet of paper before me, unable to lift my pen, trembling and weeping too.”

I find it important to mention that while this is a dark and eerie tale, it moves at a very slow but not intolerable pace. This is not a thriller. We are gifted with a writing style that is elegant and effortlessly transports the reader into Victorian era England, setting the stage for a wonderfully traditional ghost story. The author utilizes all elements available to construct a remarkably atmospheric and melancholic read.

Admittedly this is not the “terrifying” read one might expect. Shelving it as horror is an undoubted stretch. But do not discredit its merit as far as ghost stories are concerned. First published in 1983, the author has brilliantly established the air of a true classic read. While it does not harbor the gruesome components we have come to know and expect from such a story today, if you allow yourself to be fully immersed within the successful world building and story telling, you soon discover that the underlying plot of revenge is haunting enough in its own right.

“It was true that the ghastly sounds I had heard through the fog had greatly upset me but far worse was what emanated from and surrounded these things and arose to unsteady me, an atmosphere, a force – I do not exactly know what to call it – of evil and uncleanness, of terror and suffering, of malevolence and bitter anger”

Cleverly narrated and written to read as having been authentically conceived in the 19th century, there is a lot to be appreciated and admired within the pages of this chilling tale of revenge. And therein lies the real accomplishment of The Woman in Black. This somewhat Gothic tale is likely to find a welcomed home among the many fans of Poe and more classic tales of fright. A slow burn with a dramatic ending, I can only recommend experiencing The Woman in Black personally to fully understand all that it has to offer. This is what ghost stories are made of.