This Shirley Knew Her Stuff, Too, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               Of course, I am talking about Shirley Jackson, for years, one of my favorite writers.  She is turning up now, because, several weeks back, Monsieur found a Penguin paperback copy of her masterpiece, "The Haunting Of Hill Houses," (my favorite is still "We Have Always Lived In The Castle") and I urged him to read it. He did, with an alacrity that surprised me; he was compelled!!!!!!!!!!!  Which speaks of the writing power Shirley Jackson had.

                                 She also defied social conventions.  Born into a wealthy San Francisco family, to a mother who, to speak in the vernacular, thought of herself as something of a Babe Paley, she expected nothing less from her daughter. But when that daughter turned out to be what in the day was called "plain," mother lost interest, and Shirley began living life her own way--discarding fancy gowns and balls, writing unusual fiction,  eating, drinking, smoking, and eventually moving to the East Coast, where she attended Syracuse University, and then married Stanley Edgar Hyman, settling somewhere in Vermont.

                                   Like Grace Metalious, she despised the rigid conformity of New England, and instead of taking it out them through exposing sexual hypocrisies, she explored the evil side of the human psyche in all her works, beginning with "The Lottery."

                                    She was brilliant, if not the healthiest, individual, and she did not care. Which makes her death, at 46, back in 1965, tragic; what more could she have produced???????????

                                     After Monsieur finished reading "The Haunting Of Hill House," I decided to read it  again.  It had been at least ten years since I last perused it--probably longer. Remember, darlings, once you hit 50, time sort of blurs together.

                                        The first thing I discovered, on this reading was that, every time Eleanor Vance or
Theodora was mentioned, I kept seeing Julie Harris and Claire Bloom.  Shirley Jackson even explored repressed lesbianism, via these characters, though Theodora, who lives with a "friend" is clearly gay!!!!!!!!!!

Which says a lot about the brilliance of Robert Wise's 1963 film version--the one he did right before "The Sound Of Music."  Can you believe he went from one to the other?  Speaks of his range as a filmmaker.

                                         But, how about Shirley's range as a writer?  I had forgotten how spookily humorous Mrs. Dudley, the housekeeper was, and what a buffoon Mrs. Montague, the doctor's wife, was.

                                            I also had greater insight into Hill House, and what Shirley was trying to convey. It wasn't a hell hole where spooks popped out at you, from behind closed doors, (like in William Castle's 1958, delightfully camp classic, "House On Haunted Hill!!!!!!!!!!!!") but a force of psychic energy that preyed upon one's emotional vulnerabilities; in this case, Eleanor's desire to "belong."  Had I gone to Hill House, it would certainly have snapped me up fast, with all my emotional issues.  Shirley Jackson clearly spells this out, in beautiful, lyrical prose, with the kind of psychological acuity Henry James displayed in "The Turn Of The Screw."  Over the years, the two works have been compared to one another, and "The Haunting Of Hill House" is considered by many the finest supernatural novel of the Twentieth Century.

                                              I can only tell you it is worth rereading. And if you have never read it, is its a MUST.

                                              But, remember, "whatever walks there, walks alone!!!!!!!!!!!!"