The Woman in Black (Acting Edition) Paperback – June 1, 1989

Susan Hill writes about an unwed mother in the late 19th Century, forced to give up her child to adoption. The father refuses to marry her and bolts. She gets her childless married sister to adopt the baby as her own. She moves to the nearest village to be able to visit him. Her sister agrees on condition she never reveals her true relationship to the boy. The 6-year old child drowns in the marshes as she watches from his nursery window. She is horrified, angry and crushed. She rages at an unfair society and cruel fate. She suffers a wasting disease for another 12 years before dying heartbroken. Her soul returns to avenge her wrongs, by taking the children of other mothers. Susan was writing in the mid-1980s when the Thatcher government was promoting a quasi-Victorian Puritan ethic. By reversing the pain, she holds a mirror up to a censorious society, to reflect on its unthinking cruelty to unwed women.

One of my 3 favorite books, I had to own it in hardcover. The book itself is almost as hauntingly beautiful as the story. I want the cover's artwork on my wall! This story is so good, I refuse to watch the movie - it would pale in comparison I am sure. The ending especially, will haunt you. I have read this 4 times and bought it for 2 other people. If you love thrillers and/or ghost stories with depth that captivates your attention from cover to cover, this is a must read!p.s. If you love this book, you might want to give Haunted by Tamara Thorne a read as well. Both are brilliantly spooky.

It's Christmas and Arthur Kipps's family is sitting around the fire telling ghost stories. What they don't know is that Arthur himself has been sitting on a tale of his own, one that is too tragic to recall. It's been years since he was sent out to Eel Marsh House to close out the house of the then recently deceased Alice Drablow. What Kipps experienced in that lonely and dank house has stayed with him all these years and has never been revealed to those around him. If Kipps has his way, it never will be, but the tale demands telling and so he has decided to write it out, if only for himself.I'd expected the book to be a one sitting read -- at just 135 pages, who could blame me? Hill's writing begs to be read at its own pace, though. While it can certainly make for a perfect companion on a dreary afternoon, it took me about three sittings when all was said and done. I can say that I was sad to turn the final page and leave behind the gothic atmosphere built by Hill's words.

I looooove a good ghost story. I prefer a ghost story that relies upon imagination rather than gore to draw you in. I became aware of this particular book when a newspaper reviewed one of the local acting companies version of a play that is based on this book. I went straight to Amazon.com to research it, and ultimately, to order the book (though I toyed with buying a video). "The Woman in Black " has very good writing, great atmosphere, is very suspensful with a foreboding tone, and is very hard to put down. I was drawn into it immediately and I read it in the space of an afternoon. I was ready to rate this as the best ghost story I had ever read....but then I got to the end. This book spent the first 9/10's of it drawing me into the story and then the last 1/10 wrapping it all up. I felt shortchanged with the ending, wishing that Susan Hill had spend a bit more time and pages in wrapping up the story. It was like eating a really good tootsie pop and then finding out there was no tootsie roll in the middle.

Susan Hill's 1983 novella has been so successful as to have been made into a television movie and a long-running play, but it works best in its original form as a perfectly-sized long story about a solicitor trying to learn the truth about a specter associated with an abandoned manor house on the flat moor country of East Anglia. The tale is set during the Edwardian period (the heyday of the English ghost story) and comes with all the appurtenances one would expect of a great English ghost story: a frame narrative, a mysterious haunting figure, an uncomprehending narrator invested in scientific positivist explanations for everything, terrified townsfolk who refuse to explain anything to the protagonist (unfortunately, no good explanation of this is ever given: couldn't they have just told him the back story?), and above all tremendous atmosphere. The current edition of the book, from David R. Godine, is beautiful, but perhaps exorbitantly priced for a novella--though the discount amazon provides helps matters greatly.

For me, the book's strength is in the character of Arthur Kipps. He's immensely likable and level-headed -- I wouldn't mind meeting him again in another book.What I liked best about the character is that it was so easy to relate to him. He's naturally skeptical when first presented with the possibility of a haunting, but unlike characters in other books, who dither around refusing to believe their senses, putting themselves in danger for no good reason, Arthur accepts the evidence and deals with it.I could also relate to the premise of the haunting itself. If something similar had happened to me, I might haunt a place too. It was heartbreaking, and I felt myself sympathizing with the ghost.I read the book in one sitting and left a lot of lights on when I went to bed. It's the best ghost story I've read in years, and as others have said, it's right up there with Shirley Jackson's book.Guaranteed good read!

Arthur Kipps is sent to the former house of Mrs Drablow to sort through her paperwork. The house is alone and empty, no one in the local area will go near it nor explain why. Arthur begins to wonder why and soon he is confronted with the lady in blackWhat a creepy, chilling story. This is a detailed and atmospheric ghost story. Not to be read late at night. The story itself is interesting and definitely eerie. The ending though, oh wow was not expecting that but it was so dark. A fantastic read, Susan Hill really knows how to scare her readers.

Susan Hill's transmogrified into many media The Woman In Black remains a wonderful, atmospheric ghost story, still holding its own after its 30 plus years in print. Though I'm - amazed/amused/shocked to find that it is now listed as a best seller on Amazon in the CHILDREN'S ebook category. I don't believe it was initially written, or published for that market. So I'm not quite sure what this shows - the literary sophistication of children? Sure, post a film starring Daniel Harry Potter Radcliffe, probably new audiences are coming to the book, but it is quite a slowly paced, literary piece of writing (hence its standing the test of time on a re-read for this reader) It's a properly paced, slow-burn, atmospheric piece of writing, with a wonderful sense of lonely place - set on the North-East coast, much of the horror arises from Hill's ability to create an eerie, beautiful, mysterious and isolated tidal estuary landscape, complete with the suckings and soughings, the glimmers, glistens and dankness of wind, water and sea-frets.Arthur Kipps, now a middle aged man on his second marriage, is immured in a family Christmas. His teenage stepsons embark, in high spirits, on the telling of ghost storiesUnwillingly, the years roll back memories of a quarter of a century and more ago, when Kipps, then a young solicitor, was sent to deal with the estate of a recently deceased reclusive woman in her eighties, who had lived in isolation in a house at Eel Marsh, some distance form a little market town called Crythin Gifford. Eel Marsh can only be reached when the tide is out, and is then completely cut off from the outside world, and the outside world from it, once the tide comes in again. There was some unexplained horror to do with Eel Marsh. Locals drop veiled hints, but Kipps, a pragmatic, modern young man, not given to flights of fancy is of course dismissive..............until.This is a proper Victorian Gothic style story, even though set in a modern era. Everything is done through its effect on Kipps, the slow drip drip of fear and horror into his psyche. It's a superb ratcheting up of horror, and there is nothing to cynically laugh at, no crass clankings of chains and slamming doors, opening graves and the like. Hill takes normalcy and just progressively makes it go wrong, chill and definitely evil."We had travelled perhaps three miles, and passed no farm ofr cottage, no kind of dwelling house at all, all was emptiness. Then, the hedgerows petered out, and we seemed to be driving towards the very edge of the world. Ahead, the water gleamed like metal.....I realized this must be the Nine Lives Causeway.....and saw, how, when the tide came in, it would quickly be quite submerged and untraceable........we went on, almost in silence, save for a hissing, silky sort of sound. Here and there were clumps of reeds, bleached bone-pale, and now and again the faintest of winds caused them to rattle dryly"And that's BEFORE the sea-frets come!A short, chilly, chilly read. Hill is a writer who understands less is more and has no need for crude schlock effects.

I know this book is quite old and has been reviewed a number of times. I however, wish to tell you how I feel from a person who has read in in 2013.The story is set partly in London and partly in the Countryside. Christmas Eve and a family are telling Ghost Stories. Is this an ordinary ghost story, No!!!! this is a ghost story, where a solicitor travels to the countryside to look after the affairs of a dead woman. He stays in the local Inn, where the landlord will not talk about the dead lady, nor the house where she lived, other than to tell him not to stay there. The funeral comes, and he notices that beside him and the local solicitor there is a female attendee at the funeral service. His companion however, cannot see her.He travels to the house where he feels slightly on edge, he takes a walk and finds some old ruins, where he sees the lady again. After following her, he finds himself, lost in the moss and moors, the fog comes in, he does find his way back to the house but is badly shaken.The following morning waking up in the inn, he decides that he is going to stay at the house. A wealthy business man invites him for dinner that evening, and upon telling him that he is going to stay at the house, allows him to take one of his dogs for company. During the night he hears thuds and what seems like rocking from a room, that has no lock and no key to enter. The dog is a quivering mess.The day after the door of the locked room has mysteriously opened of its own accord, and inside he finds a child's bedroom, complete with toys, bed and everything is intact, including the rocking horse, rocking back and forth.That day he goes out for a walk, and hears a whistle, the dog sets off towards land, and gets into trouble in the bogs, he wades out and saves the dog. What is happening, why is this house completely encompassing him? Why can't he let it go?A truly moving book, which makes you wonder, it is full of fear, trepidation and makes your mind work overtime. I would highly recommend it.

Susan Hill’s ‘The Woman in Black’ was written in the 1980s but in style it is much more reminiscent of the 1890s. There are clear influences here from the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, even Bram Stoker. This is not a criticism, nor is it a disadvantage. In fact, this style is eminently suitable to the theme of the story which has a very Victorian feel even though it is set in the 1960s.This is a story which, unlike modern horror, does not rely upon shock after interminable shock for its effect. Instead we are treated to a slow build-up of tension most of which occurs in the mind and spirit of the main protagonist. A young solicitor is tasked with searching an old and empty house for documents and papers relating to its dead owner’s estate. A couple of sightings of a strange lady in black near the house and some odd sounds late in the evening constitute the totality of ghostly happenings. In Susan Hill’s superbly capable hands, however, the reader in infused with the same sense of shock and dread suffered by the young solicitor. And the horrific climax, while contrasting sharply with the throat-clutching pace of the rest of the book, is somehow seen as inevitable if somewhat contrived.The Woman in Black is an outstanding ghost story, full of atmosphere and laden with chills. Aficionados of the genre will love it but try to read it before you see the film version (featuring Harry Potter star, Daniel Radcliffe.)

The popular conception of the Victorians is of a God-fearing people concerned with great engineering works at home, and Empire building abroad. And yet, we often overlook another trait of the Victorians - their rampant superstition. From their fascination of séances and the supernatural, to the adoration surrounding the popularity of such works as Dracula, and Frankenstein, the Victorians had a macabre fascination with the supernatural, the unknown.The woman in black was not penned during the Victorian age, but is set during it, and captures brilliantly this morbidity, the creepy Gothic settings, the sense of edge and danger all around.It's been years since I dabbled in the black arts and indulged in a ghost story, but I'm glad I made an exception with the woman in black. Atmospheric, at times unnerving, and of course, it provided a great film adaption.

Great price, for second hand books with free delivery!However, the books that arrived did not match the edition - the front cover shown when purchasing the books, one of these book covers I felt was inappropriately explicit and so would not recommend to read in public places, nor late at night, since the books were gothic thrillers from the Neo-Victorian period.Being a student, I was disappointed about the fact that the wrong edition was delivered making referencing the book more of an inconvenience.Also most of the pages were tainted yellow upon arrival, showing signs of age for second hand books, which is to be expected, and personally I like. Good physical condition - unmarked, no folded pages upon arrival. Delivery speed was on the later side of estimation, but decent, and best of all FREE.Overall, I would have to think twice about buying again. Very happy with the price - incredibly cheap with Free Delivery compared to the original, ideal for a bargaining student, making the purchase worthwhile.

Love this story. A young man is sent to a remote part of the country to sort out the financial papers of a deceased spinster. The town is rife with chilling stories and rumours surround the strange house and in particular, one malevolent ghost . Whilst there he encounters a catalogue of blood chilling occurrences, but nothing as horrific as what he has to endure a year later.

The Woman in Black and its long-running play in London is apparently a common choice for English Literature at the secondary level in England. I had actually never heard of it until a friend of mine linked me to the US trailer of the film adaptation, set to be released in February 2012. It stars Daniel Radcliffe, and as a promotion, there was a chance to be able to attend the premiere and meet Daniel himself, so long as you wrote a bone-chilling ghost story and posted a video of yourself acting it out or reading it on camera. Sadly, I didn't enter the competition, but that's probably because writing a ghost story is ridiculously difficult. Especially one of this calibre.Anyway, this book gave me a few shivers. It's about a junior solicitor called Arthur Kipps, who refuses his step-children's request for a ghost story, too traumatised by what went on all those years ago, when he was summoned to Crythin Gifford, a small town far away in the English countryside. As a city-boy, when told an abridged version of the story of Eel Marsh House, he assumes that the country folk are just superstitious bumpkins and it would be a normal case of arranging his late client's affairs. However, he ends up very isolated in a large house that can only be accessed during low tide, and has its fair share of bumps in the night.Oh goodness, this book was just fantastic. Finding out what had happened to Ms. Drablow really gave me the shivers, and that ending. Oh, that ending. Gave me the creeps, because it came completely out of nowhere. This is just a wonderful book, and a rare breed of ghost story: one that will have you reading deep into the night and biting your lip as you imagine the setting... then to be confronted with pretty terrifying images. I actually got through about 10% of the book in one night, and was a startled by a creak somewhere in the walls of the house.However, the book does have its problems. While it is very immersive and does all the things a good ghost story should do, the parts where Arthur temporarily leaves Eel Marsh House are a little bit dull in comparison. The book also contains a slight overkill when it comes to the terrible things that happens to Arthur, but that was probably just me. I also found the other characters in the story somewhat bland. For example, Mr. Daily is just a local man who comes around every now and again to fill in local knowledge or tell Arthur that the house is haunted, and Keckwick is just a bumpkin who owns the pony and trap that ferries Arthur to Eel Marsh House, and brings him back to the village every once in a while.It's a brilliant book, but with just a few hitches when it comes to any parts outside of Eel Marsh House, as well as side characters being a bit dull for my liking. 3.5/5

I first read this soon after it first came out and it was in Cosmoliptan magazine, believe it or not. The way it is written, the slow build up of tension to pure fear and terror and the classic elements of good ghost writing - the old spooky house, the mist and marshes and the terrified villagers - and the delicate hand the author uses to build suspense as the truly haunting story unfolds is a master in story writing.If you wonder why this book is so GOOD then take a look at the film of the book starring Daniel Radcliffe. It's a good, scary film but subtle ... no. It seems modern storytellers are unable to tell scary yet strangely plausible stories without adding horror after horror and adding in the macabre that previously may have exisited in our own heads. Years of watching horror films have made us unable to imagine fear unless it is spelt out for us in great detail. This book, is scary enough and needs NOTHING more. (the liberty the film took with the story is almost as scary as the novella itself.On a personal note, I had recalled from the first time I read this that the dog, Spider ran off and died in the marsh and I had to leave the film when the dog ran off as it flashed back to me and I felt tearful. I nearly cried with job that SPOILER ALERT - the dog was OK.Read this in daylight with all the lights on!If you didn't like this then you have no imagination and/or you don't appreciate a master storyteller.

Like a lot of people on here recently, I bought this book because I wanted to read it before going to see the film. I must confess that I'm not a massive fan of being scared by `obvious' horror or spooky, jumpy things, which is why I enjoyed this book so much: it allows you to let your imagination run away with you. The real scariness is in the things that are only hinted at and that *aren't* shown but merely suggested and the sinister atmosphere created as the story slowly unfolds, which is why I enjoyed this novel so much.For fear of inadvertently spoiling the tale, I won't say too much about the plot. I will say though that this wonderfully wordy tale is atmospheric and creepy in the style of true `classic' ghost stories as the tension is built gradually, inch by inch. The scene setting is excellent and the narration flows beautifully. I genuinely felt as if I was right there beside Arthur Kipps and living out his nightmare with him. The author adds a really heightened sense of claustrophobia and tension just by some of the foreboding prose used as well- it's really wonderful.The pace is slow, admittedly, but I think that only adds to the drama. By the time I reached the end of this novel (and what an ending), though I feel a bit silly to admit, I was left feeling a bit wary and wanting to sleep with the lights on- the book will stay with me in that respect for quite a while I think! Though this novel is quite short it is definitely worth a read- particularly if you are a fan of gothic horror stories or enjoy being scared. I am now eager to see the stage version of this, as well as highly anticipating the film- I only hope the movie does this book justice. Great stuff!

I purchased this book after seeing it was being made into a film coming out soon - and I like to read books before seeing the film. The story is of an older man remembering the terrible experience he had as a young lawyer regarding 'the woman in black' vowing that his story will not be read by his family until after his death. I'm not a particularly quick reader but I finished it in 3-4 hours, at night and I absolutely loved it.The descriptions in the book of creepy sounds etc really get your imagination going, and I confess that evening I was very nervous as it was a very windy night, and since then whenever I think of the story I have to turn all the lights on! The book has a very typical set-up of a spooky novel - an empty house, secrets thought to be "buried", a village of very nervous people and a hero who doesn't believe in the nonsense that country people do. However, without giving too much of the plot away, the woman in black isn't a character you can easily dismiss as being an evil monster with no humanity...If you watch the trailer of the film there appears to be plenty of scary moments - the woman in black creeping up on him, kids toys coming to life... but, without giving too much away, the film adds a lot more "physical scare" than the book has. What brings the scare in the book is more what you don't see, what you thought you saw/heard, and what you know - your own imagination, and that of the characters.Definately recommend, definately read again. You won't be disappointed! Make sure you keep the lights on...

This book has been made into a film but I’ve not seen it so I’m glad I have come at it without previous expectations. A young man, soon to be married, is sent by his firm of lawyers to settle the affairs of a recently deceased elderly lady. She lives on a tidal island in the marshes, of itself an unsettling setting. Locals look askance at him when he sees a woman in black at her funeral. They hint darkly when he proposes staying over on the island for a couple of nights to sort all the deceased’s papers.I loved the atmosphere created by the author. The mists, the sea-frets, the sounds heard from the marsh, all mounted to create feelings of impending doom and threat for the reader. I actually guessed what would happen in the end. I feel it was signposted with a rather heavy hand but that didn’t detract from the traditional atmospheric ghost story. What did surprise me is that for a book in publication since 1983 it has two glaring typos. A good read, nonetheless.

Downloaded this due to the Play and Movie, would prefer to read them before I watch them on stage or TV as reading gives you more satisfaction and stimulates the imagination far greater. However, even though it delivers on the Ghostly scenes rather well, I was not really drawn into the characters, they seemed to be unfleshed out and just meandering through the story. It does have great scenic descriptions of the house, the environment and the rooms, but leaves the reader a little flat. I tried reading the book at night, with the lights down low just to add to the atmosphere, but sorry to say, nothing happened to intrigue or scare me. Only thing I had was eye strain. The only character in this book worth considering is the dog....The story line is old fashioned as Hammer Horror. Arthur (main character) is sent to Eel Marsh House to put a dead womans paper work together. The house is empty and is seperated from the village via a swamp....only access is by horse and trap at certain times of the day...Arthur travels down to get them. In an empty house he then proceeds to try to allocate the documents he needs. As the story line progresses he is faced with ghostly apparitions and bumps in the night. Im not one for spoiler alerts so you will have to read it for the ending. I can see why schools have chosen this book for students to study, its descriptive and atmospheric, lots of talking/discussion points. Glad im not a student, its one of those books where they try to use up so many descriptive words, you end up with eye strain and start yawning. Hence only 3 stars........good luck to the students studying this book, me, I would prefer Kes by barry Heinz to study!

Love the book, even been to see the play. If you like Ghost stories, this is a must have.The story begins one Christmas Eve. The main character is Arthur Kipps who is spending it with his family. When the kids start to tell ghost stories and ask Arthur to tell one too he says he doesn’t know any. The kids don’t believe it and keep pushing Arthur to tell one. He kind of freaks out and goes outside for a walk. Outside he thinks of a story that he does know, one that has happened to himself when he was younger and he decides to tell it. Not that evening, but he will write it down, as a book. Then his story begins...

This is really an excellent read, I would strongly recommend it to all readers, fans of ghost stories or haunting fiction and general readers alike.The story is delivered in the form of a first person narrative, opening on a Christmas family scene which provides the pretext for the relating of the tale itself. The story itself is a private chronicle of the traumatising experiences and trials of life of the narrator.The pace is fantastic, it is an absolute page turner and the style of writing is absorbing and very quickly draws the reader in. The narrative itself is beautiful, the choice of words are at once literary but not too splendid as to interfer with the pace, plot development and characterisation. Which are all done really well.I was glad to find this, on the random recommendation of a friend, because I had begun to believe that with The Ring, The Grudge and The Eye, even video games such as Project Zero, that Eastern/Asia ghost stories had eclipsed the west altogether. This book in many ways reminded me of M.R. James classic ghost stories but it has its own style too and is by no means a mocking bird piece.Infact what impressed me the most was not simply the over arcing ghostly tale but some of the description of life in between the more dramatic events. The author is able to make these moments in reprieve extraordinary despite their mundanity, the sign of a great writer. I also think that there is some of the greatest description of traumatic stress from the point of view of someone experiencing it in a novel in this book.