The classic ghost story from the author of The Mist in the Mirror: a chilling tale about a menacing spectre haunting a small English town. Now a major motion picture starring Daniel Radcliffe. Arthur Kipps is an up-and-coming London solicitor who is sent to Crythin Gifford—a faraway town in the windswept salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway—to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of a … the affairs of a client, Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. Mrs. Drablow’s house stands at the end of the causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but Kipps is unaware of the tragic secrets that lie hidden behind its sheltered windows. The routine business trip he anticipated quickly takes a horrifying turn when he finds himself haunted by a series of mysterious sounds and images—a rocking chair in a deserted nursery, the eerie sound of a pony and trap, a child’s scream in the fog, and, most terrifying of all, a ghostly woman dressed all in black. Psychologically terrifying and deliciously eerie, The Woman in Black is a remarkable thriller of the first rate.
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I’ve loved Susan Hill’s ghost stories for a long time, but I’ve always avoided reading The Woman in Black. Perhaps it’s because of the notoriety that comes with the longrunning West End play based on the book. The Woman in Black is known as the most terrifying theatre experience and I’m known as a bit of a wimp.
But I love a good ghost story, so I decided to read the definitive one. I wasn’t disappointed.
This book delivers all the chills and suspense that you want from a ghost story, but it goes beyond that. It delves into grief, regrets and tragedy with beautifully flowing prose. It’s hard to put this book down because every word draws you in.
The spooky goings-on delivers the horror, but it is the final, devastating chapter that brings the real shiver down the spine. As Arthur Kipps writes the final few words of his story, the pain emanates through so few words. After such a creepy, classic ghost story, the ending is a real surprise, twisting the knife until the very end.
Having watched the film & been enthralled by the storyline I had expected the book to leave me chillingly satisfied. Although beautifully written, I didn’t feel the same prickle on the back of my neck that the screen version allowed and closed the final page wanting more. It’s a tale that will remain on my bookshelf for a second read later as, perhaps once the initial memory of Daniel Radcliffe as Arthur Kipps has faded, I shall enjoy it fully.
It’s a very creepy story, A great page turner, and very scary. Loved it. She writes well taking one into the time and place of the novel. Just couldn’t put it down.
I read this book for the first time in 2016 after watching the film adaptation with Daniel Radcliffe. As of today, I have read it four times. The Woman in Black is easily one of my favorite books of all time.
Arthur’s story is sad, terrifying, and inspiring all at the same time. The story begins in his later life at Christmas with his second wife Esme and their family. Gathered around the fire on Christmas Eve, his step children are taking turns telling ghost stories and when it is Arthur’s turn he is overcome with emotion and can’t bring himself to share a story. We later find out that it’s because Arthur suffered a sort of trauma at the hands of a spirit and that he doesn’t wish to relive the events by telling his story. Instead, he chooses to write it down and we are taken back some years to when he was an up and coming estate lawyer in London.
Arthur is tasked with going to a remote area of the country to sort through the papers of a recluse who recently passed away. When he arrives in the village he begins seeing a woman in black at the funeral of his client, and then on the grounds of her house. Shrouded in mystery, the townspeople will not give him a straight answer about who the woman in black is, and Arthur is left to figure it out for himself.
Susan Hill is able to create the perfect setting for a classic ghost story. Eel Marsh House sits on an island in the middle of a marsh only reachable by a causeway during low tide. It is remote, overgrown, and desolate. The perfect place for a vengeful spirit to call home. I feel that Hill’s specialty is the way in which she is able to convey Arthur’s thoughts and feelings at any given time. I can practically hear the fear in his voice as I’m reading. Even though Arthur is the main character and the one with whom we spend the most time, she is able to do the same with the other smaller parts in the story.
It takes a lot to scare me. I’m an avid horror movie fan and read a decent amount of horror, but this leaves me unsettled each time I read it. In addition to the book, I highly recommend listening to the audio book narrated by Paul Andsell. He is a fantastic Arthur and does a great job of making you feel the same sort of anxiety that Arthur is clearly feeling during his time at Eel Marsh House. I also recommend the film adaptation starring Daniel Radcliffe. There are several changes, but I feel it sticks relatively close to the book and does a good job making you feel not just scared, but unsettled; as if the woman in black may appear outside your window at any given moment.
Great pacing and suspense. A haunting read and a great example of sparse/powerful writing. Modern Gothic horror classic.
I like the book ending much more than the movie. You are engaged from the beginning and drawn into a bleak cold landscape of suspense and doomed destiny. Characters are palpable and intense
A creepy, spine-chilling story about a young solicitor who must settle the affairs of recently deceased, and mysterious, Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. Just the setting of this story – the marshy, foggy coastline of north east England – is haunting enough and that’s before the spooky events begin. It’s not clear when the story is set – 19th century is my guess. This eerie mystery unravels at a good pace and is short enough to read in one day – ideally by a warm fire on a cold, rainy day. If you’re looking for a Halloween read or have been enjoying The Haunting of Hill House then you’ll love this book.
THE WOMAN IN BLACK, by Susan Hill, is a slow-burn atmospheric, ghost story. We meet our main character, Arthur Kipps, years after the . . . experience . . . in question had happened and changed his outlook so dramatically.
“. . . what is perhaps remarkable, is how well I can remember the minutest detail of that day . . . ”
While I normally love Gothic tales, I had a very difficult time getting into this one. I believe much of that has to do with the fact that a good portion of the beginning was told AFTER the events, and didn’t give us a clue as to what actually occurred. This may have been intended to increase the suspense, but sadly, it had the complete opposite effect on me. After the first couple of chapters, I was very impatient to get to the real story.
“. . . I had been left in no doubt that there was some significance in what had been left unsaid.”
Once we finally get to where Arthur mentally goes back to his trip to Eel Marsh–where he was sent as his firm’s solicitor to take care of the affairs of the deceased Mrs. Alice Drablow–the novel finally gives us that eerie, Gothic feeling. There were parts that were honestly chilling, but sadly, not enough of them to make up for the inaction of the beginning.
“. . . It is remarkable how powerful a force simple curiosity can be . . .”
The actual story behind the woman in black was laced with malicious intent, and showed that a ghost can be portrayed as truly evil, in the hands of a good writer.
“. . . innocence, once lost, is lost forever.”
Overall, I was disappointed in this story. Even though the “main event” was as chilling as I could have hoped for, the majority of the book just felt like unnecessary filler, to me–particularly the first several chapters. If the tale had been told with less preamble, and perhaps more attention to the ghost, herself, I believe I would have enjoyed this much more.
“They asked for my story. I have told it . . .”
I was in the mood for a ghost story, so I went with a classic of the genre. This was atmospheric and very competently told. The descriptions of the location with its beautiful sands and marshes, and their eerie merging of land, sea and sky, were utterly gorgeous. I even came around to feeling that the long, drawn-out beginning and set-up was needed and not just a waste of the reader’s time and attention before we got to the matter at hand.
But, I don’t know… I wanted the solution to the mystery to be more surprising, more avant-garde. Less traditional. If that makes any sense.
All up, though, Hill is a great storyteller, and this is deservedly considered a classic.
A good scare! One of my favorites in the sub-genre of haunted house.
A true classic gothic horror novel. It is dark and haunting, but sympathetic heart beats underneath it all. That is what makes it such a simple, but well layered story. If you have seen the movie or the West End play, it is quite different. But the center of the story remains and is as chilling today as ever.
I love this author’s series about an English detective and his extended family.
This book wasn’t quite as good but is worthwhile for a light, quick read.
Absolutely one of the best ghost stories I’ve ever read! You will never expect or forget the ending, trust me!! It’s been a good long while since a story really, truly have me goosebumps, or made the hair on the nape of my neck stand up, but this one did! Put the kids to bed, get comfortable, get ready to spend a sleepless night…………get ready to be scared!
Thanks to Susan Hill, your talent is unique, and thanks to Paul Andsell for his FIVE STAR narration, he brought the story to gruesome life!
At the heart of it, this novel is a ghost story in the best sense—a good, old-fashioned fireside tale meant to chill rather than repulse. And the writing is splendid—something lacking in a lot of the horror fiction I’ve read by less-skilled writers. The author, Susan Hill, has a way of describing dark things that leaves the very walls dripping with dread. And her depiction of an older Arthur Kipps reflecting on his haughtier younger self is first-rate and absolutely rings true.
Don’t expect to be terrified by THE WOMAN IN BLACK. That’s just not how it’s done when you’re writing exceptional literary fiction. But if you enjoy a really well-written book that perfectly captures a time and place as dense and cloying as the fog surrounding Eel Marsh House, then you will enjoy this story immensely.