The greatest haunted-house story

[chronicle]

(Wall Street Journal) - One morning in the 1950s, a housewife in
Vermont woke up, walked downstairs, and found a note on a desk in her
own handwriting. She didn't remember leaving it the night before. The
message was simple and stark: "DEAD DEAD."

These cryptic words would have unsettled a lot of people, but not
Shirley Jackson. She took them as a somnambulant inspiration and went
on to compose what is now widely regarded as the greatest
haunted-house story ever written. "I had no choice," she said. "The
ghosts were after me."

There are, in fact, no ghosts in "The Haunting of Hill House"
(Amazon.com: http://xrl.us/Haunting ) � or at least no garden-variety
specters that float down hallways in their luminescent gowns and
partial transparence. The novel, whose 50th anniversary is this year,
nevertheless unfolds in a familiar setting: the creepy house with a
sinister past, newly occupied by ghost hunters who seek to confirm the
presence of the supernatural. It's a well-worn trick. In the hands of
Jackson, however, it becomes a literary treat..

Continued: http://xrl.us/Haunting2