The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

When I found out this was the same Susan Hill that is one of the judges for this year’s Booker Prize, AND that many people were reading this for RIP VI, I had to read it as well. I was so glad it was at my library!! I’m also excited to see the movie in February (see trailer below) that will star Daniel Radcliffe. Ciarán Hinds is also in it, and he’s been one of my favorite actors for a looooong time. I loved him in both Jane Eyre and Persuasion especially.

Anyway, on to the book…  Arthur Kipps is an attorney who is sent to go through Mrs. Drablow’s papers upon her death. When he goes to the town, the people do try to warn him away from the endeavor, but Arthur is not easily scared off. He is determined not only to complete the task set out for him, but also to learn the history of the strange happenings afloat.

Much like The Haunting of Hill House, this is an excellent ghost story that is scary in a good, old fashioned way. I found the writing to be excellent and the story a fantastic addition to my RIP VI reads.

Now, however, as I stared at her, stared until my eyes ached in their sockets, stared in surprise and bewilderment at her presence, now I saw that her face did wear an expression. It was one of what I can only describe — and the words seem hopelessly inadequate to express what I saw — as a desperate, yearning malevolence; it was as though she were searching for something she wanted, needed — must have, more than life itself, and which had been taken from her. And, towards whoever had taken it she directed the purest evil and hatred and loathing, with all the force that was available to her. Her face, in its extreme pallor, her eyes, sunken but unnaturally bright, were burning with the concentration of passionate emotion which was within her and which streamed from her. Whether or not this hatred and malevolence was directed towards me I had no means of telling — I had no reason at all to suppose that it could possible have been, but at that moment I was far from able to base my reactions upon reason and logic. For the combination of the peculiar, isolated place and the sudden appearance of the woman and the dreadfulness of her expression began to fill me with fear. Indeed, I had never in my life been so possessed by it, never known my knees to tremble and my flesh to creep, and then to turn cold as stone, never known my heart to give a great lurch, as if it would almost leap up into my dry mouth and then begin pounding in my chest like a hammer on an anvil, never known myself gripped and held fast by such dread and horror and apprehension of evil. It was as though I had become paralysed. I could not bear to stay there, for fear, but nor had I any strength left in my body to turn and run away, and I was as certain as I had ever been of anything that, at any second, I would drop dead on that wretched patch of ground.

Recommended.

1983, 160 pp.