For Halloween, we bring you the ultimate haunted-house story. The Haunting of Hill House is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar; Theodora, his assistant; Eleanor, a friendless fragile acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the heir of Hill House. Unexplained events occur and the house seems to become a living organism. Within a few days, the guests come to believe that Hill House will take one of them as its own. Using complex relationships between the events in the house and the characters’ psyches, the novel relies on terror rather than horror to elicit emotion in the reader.

Stephen King said, “Shirley Jackson’s Hill House is as nearly perfect a haunted-house tale as I have ever read.” It is widely regarded by many critics as the greatest haunted-house story ever written. The story has been made into two full feature films and a brand new TV series was just released.

Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) was an American writer known for her works in gothic horror and mystery. She produced over 200 short stories, six novels, and 2 memoirs during her lifetime. Her most famous story “The Lottery” won the 1949 O. Henry Prize and has been filmed three times.

If you like this book and want to help make more Canadian public-domain novels available to enjoy, join us and proof a few pages. For more information about how to volunteer, check out our companion site, Distributed Proofreaders Canada.