The Woman in Black

Description

‘Heartstoppingly chilling’ Daily Express

Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House.

The house stands at the end of a causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but it is not until he glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black – and her terrible purpose.

‘No one chills the heart like Susan Hill’ Daily Telegraph

**If you love The Woman in Black, try The Various Haunts of Men, the first book in Susan Hill’s Simon Serrailler series**No one chills the heart like Susan Hill—Daily Telegraph

An excellent ghost story… magnificently eerie… compulsive reading—Evening Standard

A rattling good yarn, the sort that chills the mind as well as the spine—Guardian

Heartstoppingly chilling—Daily Express

Terrifying… creepy classic—Daily Mail

Susan Hill is the reigning queen of ghost writers and her period novella…is a classic, broodingly creepy and at times terrifying—Michael Hogan, Observer

Hill’s haunting tales may be slim, but they pull no punches…—Harper’s Bazaar

She writes with great power… Authentically chilling—Daily Telegraph

One of the strongest stories of supernatural horror…the work bursts into life and does not flag until the end—Washington Post

Irresistibly dramatic… Susan Hill has done the genre real honour—Chicago Tribune

It is bursting with classic Gothic horror motifs and Susan Hill is a master of atmospheric descriptions. She evokes so cleverly the decrepit Eel Marsh House, the mention of its name enough to make the locals pause, their faces darken in unspoken wariness… The Woman in Black gives a thrilling sense of unease and provides just the right level of things that go bump in the night for a spine-tingling good read.—Khoollect

This spine-tingling novel… will certainly keep your nerves jangling—Woman’s WeeklySUSAN HILL has been a professional writer for over fifty years. Her books have won awards and prizes including the Whitbread, the John Llewellyn Rhys and a Somerset Maugham, and have been shortlisted for the Booker. Her novels include Strange Meeting, I’m the King of the Castle, In the Springtime of the Year and The Mist in the Mirror. She has also published autobiographical works and collections of short stories as well as the Simon Serrailler series of crime novels. The play of her ghost story The Woman in Black is one of the longest running in the history of London’s West End. In 2020 she was awarded a damehood (DBE) for services to literature. She has two adult daughters and lives in North Norfolk.

1. The novel opens with a detailed description of happy family life and builds to a ghastly climax. How does the author create the continual suspense to bring things to their terrifying conclusion?

2. The novel’s narrator, Arthur Kipps, seems a straightforward character and surprisingly level-headed through the extraordinary drama of the novel. Do you as a reader trust the narrator more because of this? How does this calmness contribute to the effect of the more chilling and supernatural events later in the book?

3. The description of the woman in black is a gradual unveiling throughout the novel. How effective is this style of description? How do details, such as the cloak or hints of disease, contribute to our growing impression of her?

4. The author has chosen a woman as the central ghost figure — how is the concept of gender handled in the novel?

5. The story is set very firmly in Victorian times, with clear descriptions of daily life at that time. How does the historical setting add to the horror? Would a ‘modern’ version of The Woman in Black be as frightening?

6. The Woman in Black is a modern ghost story not only in the strength of its writing, but also in its use of the conventions in this genre of writing. How does the author use these conventions to effect, and how does the novel compare to other ghost stories, not only in books but in film as well?

GB

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