Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Haunting of Hill House cover art

The Haunting of Hill House

By: Shirley Jackson
Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

We Have Always Lived in the Castle cover art
Hell House cover art
Something Wicked This Way Comes cover art
Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection cover art
The Turn of the Screw cover art
Kill Creek cover art
The Edgar Allan Poe Complete Works Collection - Stories, Poems, Novels, and Essays cover art
Celia's House cover art
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Stories cover art
Fahrenheit 451 cover art
The Bell Jar cover art
The Haunting cover art
The Vanishing cover art
Blackwater: The Complete Saga cover art
The Four Last Things cover art
The Handyman cover art

Summary

Now a hit Netflix miniseries directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, and Timothy Hutton

Past the rusted gates and untrimmed hedges, Hill House broods and waits.

Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and self-closing doors, but Hill House is gathering its powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own.

This classic horror novel has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror.

©1959 Shirley Jackson; renewed 1987 by Laurence Hyman, Barry Hyman, Sarah Webster, and Joanne Schnurer (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Makes your blood chill and your scalp prickle…Shirley Jackson is the master of the haunted tale.” ( New York Times Book Review)
“Now widely regarded as the greatest haunted-house story ever written.” ( Wall Street Journal)
“Shirley Jackson is unparalleled as a leader in the field of beautifully written, quiet, cumulative shudders.” (Dorothy Parker, Esquire)

What listeners say about The Haunting of Hill House

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    578
  • 4 Stars
    400
  • 3 Stars
    266
  • 2 Stars
    108
  • 1 Stars
    69
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    669
  • 4 Stars
    325
  • 3 Stars
    164
  • 2 Stars
    59
  • 1 Stars
    32
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    506
  • 4 Stars
    319
  • 3 Stars
    230
  • 2 Stars
    124
  • 1 Stars
    75

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Unsettling and spooky story excellently performed

I like to listen to something spooky at Halloween and have wanted to read this for a while. What I like about this story is the fact that so much is left up to the reader to decide. The narrator is so obviously unreliable that it's never clear if we can trust a thing she says. Who has seen what? Is everyone in the house experiencing the same thing? Hill House itself has a strong presence as a character and even the dimensions and angles of the rooms seem to be inherently evil. I was reminded a bit of H.P. Lovecraft's non-Euclidean geometry in Dreams of the Witch House (one for the fans there).

If you've seen the truly dreadful film with Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta-Jones, please rest assured that it bears almost no relation to this source material.

Bernadette Dunne is a great narrator who manages to portray the apparent malice of the house and really seems to get inside Eleanor's head.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Stunning

I knew nothing about this book other than it has a high-standing reputation. I wanted a 'ghost story' for Christmas. I listened to it lying in bed with no distractions and, boy, did I get my money's worth. The atmosphere and descriptions are powerful enough, but it is the psychological portrait of, and interaction between the characters which takes this book far beyond 'genre' into a 'classic'. Unsettling and scary because it insinuates itself into you, rather than frightening with shocks. And though her voice may be an acquired taste I thought that Bernadette Dunn's reading is extraordinary.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Couldn’t wait for it to finish!

The first I knew of “The haunting of Hill House” was the Netflix TV series, which I adore, and from there I was very happy to discover that there was a book!

I read some of it on my kindle and was very disappointed and gave up on it. Since then though I’ve got into audible and thought I’d try again.

I hate to be disrespectful to authors and I have tried to bear in mind that this was first published in 1959 and that horrors and psychological thrillers have changed a lot since then but for me this book was neither. It was just dreadful!

Eleanor’s constant inner monologue is maddening, so much so that I felt that if I read/heard “Journeys end in lovers meeting” one more time, I would scream!
The book is mostly comprised of Eleanor’s thoughts, for example:
‘She had awakened with a thought of going down to the library and her mind had supplied her with a reason. “I cannot sleep” she explained to herself “and so I am going downstairs to get a book. If anyone asks me where I am going, it is down to the library to get a book because I cannot sleep”’

The majority of the novel is filled with asinine monologue like this. The story is weak, I felt indifferent to the characters and I had to force myself to listen to the whole thing. I feel in some way that I’ve wasted an audible credit.

Narration: It was okay but the narrator croaked her way through the elderly male part and sounded like an old woman. To be fair though, even Morgan Freeman narrating this particular story couldn’t have made it any better.

If you want to read this because of the Netflix TV series then please trust me, and don’t bother.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Not bad, but has its drawbacks

The story itself isn't too bad. It has a high-ranking place in ghost story lore so that's why I thought I'd give it a go.



It took me absolutely ages to get through it, purely because of two reasons:



1. The narrator, in my opinion, does the story no justice. Her voice for Eleanor sounds dreadful. I just can't describe how much her voice irks me.



2. The characters don't act or even talk like real people would in certain places. I think my main problem is the character of Eleanor.



But this is just my opinion. Other people have given it good reviews, so I think Haunting on Hill House really is one of those that you have to try for yourself.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic novel and fantastic narration

I had always known about the Haunting of Hill House however, it was its namesake show on Netflix brought me here. Stephen King was right-it is brilliant! I love the chilling reliance on terror as opposed to horror. The narration by Bernadette Dunne is simply fantastic. She captures the essence of each character so well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

You are invited...

Take a tour of Hill House, and experience the chilling, bizarre events it encloses!

Eleanor’s invitation to Hill House by Dr.Montague is one she most likely wouldn’t have accepted, had she been aware of its looming consequences, but longing for new adventure, and “borrowing” her sister’s car, she finds her way there. At the house, despite a gloomy welcome, she eventually starts to feel safe, and quickly makes new friends in the other guests. But all is not what it seems, and soon she is entwined in a web of otherworldly encounters. Despite looking terror in the eye, Eleanor seems eventually to overcome her fears inside Hill House…or does she?

I enjoyed how the story went from a classic ghost story to a deeper, darker, and more surreal twist of events. The narration to me seemed a little contrived in parts, but otherwise I thought it flowed well.

Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel is a perfect listen for a perfect, moody night, and will make you stay awake if you need to!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Canonical, but somewhat dated

This is a classic ghost story by a talented author, and the the way she evokes an atmosphere of dread is truly impressive. But however skilfully Jackson employs terror, rather than horror, they novel falls short of being "scary", and becomes simply interesting fit what it has to say about human nature under extreme duress. This is actually Jackson's speciality. Where the novel also excels is in characterization. The four principal characters are excellently drawn, with Theodora and, especially, Eleanor, possessed of such a rich inner life that they truly live. Even minor players such as Mrs Dudley, Mrs Montague, and Arthur, transcend their function as caricatures and become believable.

But to me this ends up feeling more like a story about mental illnesses than the supernatural.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

The problem with the book is that although it has a good starting point and promising story, the characters and dialogues are completely unbelievable. Maybe it's because the book was written over 50 years ago, but now it just feels artificial.
Nonetheless there are a few twists and the ending is quite surprising.
The performance is quite good but not outstanding.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

I wouldn't bother...

Certainly not scary, plot rambling ,but worst of all the characters are entirely unbelievable.

If you are after a ghost story, there are plenty of better ones out there.



I'd advise steering clear of this one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Had hoped it would be better

Quite disappointed by this. I thought it would be scarier, instead I found it tedious and the voices just annoying at times.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful