The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A tiny, beautifully put together little ghost story. It lacks the bombast of the play or the movie, but is full of horrifying but unshowy touches.
The novel (or rather novella) follows Arthur Cripps, now in middle age, as he enjoys Christmas Eve with his family of second wife and step-children. The children begin to tell ghost stories. When he is asked if he has any to contribute, he makes his excuses and runs out into the snow.
By turns we learn that he does indeed have a ghost story. He resolves to write it down, for no-one to see until after his death. The Woman in Black is this story.
The framing device here works very well. We see straight away that the Arthur of the present is very different from the Arthur of the past. His description of his Harker-esque journey to an unnamed county on legal business is compelling. In fact, all of the writing on atmosphere, from unpredictable sea “frets” to beautiful, silent sunny days is exemplary and makes a major contribution to how the book works. The Woman herself, a malevolent but tragic creature, appears out of the shadows of such quiet moments. Her curse on the village, which translated on the screen recently as horror grand guignol, here in the book is less showy, huge but yet effectively silent and cruel, as none of the afflicted will speak directly about it.
It’s all so bitter and done so wonderfully well. And I loved the dog. I wouldn’t, however, recommend reading this late at night.
