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| Hell House | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Matheson
Publisher: Tor Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95 (32.84 RON)
Buy New: $11.16 (26.27 RON)
You Save: $2.79 (6.57 RON) (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  143 reviews
Sales Rank: 57536
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Tor Trade Paperback Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0312868855
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312868857
ASIN: 0312868855
Publication Date: October 13, 1999
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
A good read! August 27, 2008
A good read kept me on the edge. Great plot well written. Worth the price of admission.
Joe
Awesome haunted house story August 18, 2008
I first was introduced to Matheson's work by the novella "I Am Legend", which I loved. I got this book from the local library and it kept me up for two nights. Matheson's a skilled storyteller and he never lets up on the action, even during smaller passages that he uses for character development. I can see why Stephen King calls him a great influence. I'd place Matheson on equal footing with HP Lovecraft any day.
 Scary stuff August 7, 2008
Richard Matheson, well his name alone is a trademark. To be totally honest I picked up Hell House just because of the reviews and the authors name. I just wanted something to read and pass the time. I never imagined that a book could be scary at all, and let me tell you.
Once you start reading and get familiar with the characters you will difinetly, at least at one point, get a bit scared. It's the basic formula of the horror genre. A haunted house, a terrible past, a place where all the excess and degradation of society took place. So horrible that the first team that tried to "clean" the house from it's spirits went crazy (homicide, suicide and then some).
Now a new team is assembled to make the house normal again. Hell House is a great ride and if you prepare the mood (read at night, in a quiet place with a good tea or perhaps a good scotch) you might get scared. This is a no brainer, pick it up, read, get scared and enjoy!!!!!
 Can't hold a candle in the dark against other Matheson writings July 23, 2008
Interesting little homage to Shirley Jackson, Matheson's "Hell House" gives us a walloping premise (I, too, loved the whole 'back' tale of Emeric Barasco above everything else in the book) but just doesn't follow thru with characters a reader can feel for. By the end of the book, I cared not a whit who was left standing, and almost began to cheer for the house to win. Compare Florence to Jackson's Eleanor (from Haunting of Hill House) and by Jackson's concise use of words, and significantly less action, I found myself far more mesmerized by Eleanor's character than I could have believed possible. Florence falls flat for me. Her "internal struggles" were so completely laid out for us in the book that there was no subtlety to her actions at all. Nor did I care at all about the doctor and his wife, finding their relationship completely unrealistic (surely he'd have KNOWN she was dying for a little physical love at some point before their venture into Hell House, and they would have worked through that little problem long before then? How long were they married? It hadn't come up in a single conversation in their life together? She was such a doormat that she'd never expressed even a hint of interest in physical love, out of respect for his "condition"? He had never been concerned about the lack of intimacy's effect on her before, or given it much thought? Gee, I think absence of sex is the least of their problems together then.) And who cared about the other guy, who was too frightened to even participate until the last 5 pages of the book? What did we really know about him, since Matheson chose not to elaborate much on the time he'd been in Hell House before? C'mon, if he's going to spill his guts about the wicked history of the house, let's hear the sordid details of the 1940 expedition inside! Others have spoken here about the soft ending, the overuse of the verb "hiss" (everybody and everything, living or dead, animal or vegetable in this book hisses, and repeatedly - that is all you need to keep in mind!) and the weirdly boring "salacious" details - I don't have to elaborate on any of those, except to say that I agree.
One can see the progression from Jackson's novel to Hell House and then on to Stephen King's homage to Matheson's book in "The Shining", however, and from that perspective, Hell House ought to be read if you are a fan at all of the other two books. But it is the weakest link of those three. I am a huge fan of "I Am Legend" and "The Shrinking Man", which are both far superior in character development, among other things. I'm sure Matheson intended well, but this just doesn't stand up to either of those other two books of his. Again, if you start with "The Haunting of Hill House", sandwich in "Hell House", then finish up with "The Shining", you may find yourself with a suitable progression of terror on your hands - it would make an excellent weekend of scary, leave-the-lights-on reading. On its own, "Hell House" needs Dr. Barrett's cane to struggle about on its own legs, moreso than the poor doctor does.
The foundation for Haunted Houses Everywhere June 27, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
In order to fully appreciate and enjoy this book, you should really try to read it prior to watching any of the movies made about it. Unfortunately I had seen "The Legend of Hell House" back many years ago, so I was familiar with what would happen. Although the book and the movie were different in parts, the truth behind the haunting was the same, which took some of the shock out of it for me.
Short Synopsis: An eccentric dying millionaire commissions a study to prove that there is life after death. Offering On hundred thousand dollars to three people to go and stay the week at "Hell House" and report back to him whether or not there is an afterlife. The three people who go include a psychic medium, a physicist, and the lone survivor of the previous expedition into the house. The four of them go to the house (they fourth being the Physicists wife) and are scheduled to stay there for a week; right away the chills begin crawling up your spine as you learn the depraved history of the house. The windows are bricked up, fog and mist surrounds the house, and the tales of what when on inside are sick and evil.
As I stated before, I wish that I had read this book before having seen the movie, because I believe that having seen the movie detracted from my enjoyment. Still this book is very well written, and was groundbreaking for the time. The problem is that this book was written in the 1970's and has been ripped off or blatantly copied in so many books and movies since then, that when you read it.. it's not shocking anymore. I imagine that this book was quite chilling for it's time. Though I was never terrified, I was interested from beginning to end. And the ghosty in this book is smart... that is probably why this book was so frightening to so many... the battle versus the house was both physical and mental. Certainly we can all duck a few flying dishes... but how do you combat madness? How do you fight an enemy that can see into your very soul, and twist your memories, desires, and hopes into weapons against you?
This could have very easily been a 5 star book, however I found the writing to be very sparse and the characters to be somewhat unsympathetic. At times you almost feel as if you are reading a TV script, the blocking and dialogue are there, but the emotion hasn't shown up yet. In the opening of the book this is at its worst, to the point of my not even being able to distinguish between the two men even by name for much longer into the book than it should have taken. About halfway into the book, Matheson seems to hit his stride and goes from telling to showing the reader what is going on. The second half of this book is 5 star material, without a doubt. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good haunted house tale.
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