Uploaded December 2013 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
This is a quick book summary and analysis of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. This channel discusses and reviews books, novels, and short stories through drawing...poorly. New Minute Book Reports are posted every week.
Facebook Page - facebook.com/pages/Minute-Book-Reports/1148331925195691
This is a story about a young woman named Eleanor who is invited to live in a haunted house by Dr. Montague, an academic and researcher trying to put together a paper about the supernatural.
The house, called Hill House, is very old and after some family disputes over the ownership of the house, no one seems to want to live there.
Also staying in the house as part of the research team are Theodora, Luke, and Mrs. Dudley, the strict housekeeper.
Eleanor and Theodora form a friendship and explore both outside and inside the house.
Things in the house seem fine, though the group struggles to navigate throughout the house because of the various hallways and doors, but then Eleanor and Theodora hear a scratching noise outside of their door at night.
After sharing their experience with Dr. Montague, several strange events occur, such as the appearance of mysterious writings throughout the house that mention Eleanor's name.
Surprisingly, Mrs. Montague, Dr. Montague's wife, appears with her associate, and they try to communicate with the paranormal through planchette, a mystical form of spiritual communication.
Eleanor asks Theodora if she can go back with her and live together, but Theodora rejects her. Hurt, Eleanor runs throughout the house and ends up in the high tower, nearly killing herself.
Dr. Montague decides to send Eleanor home. In the end, Eleanor reveals that she has no where to go, no home, and vows to return to Hill House. However, she crashes her car into a tree and dies.
The strongest aspect of this story is its style of storytelling. For a majority of the story, readers are inside of the mind of Eleanor, sometimes questioning her sanity and reality. This leads to questions of the reliability of Eleanor as a narrator or primary source for this story.
From this, it is also unclear what is making the noises in the house. The story doesn't quite say. But it's this ambiguity that makes this story so suspenseful. And while some would categorize this story as horror, it seems to have more in common with a dramatic mystery, as readers curiously navigate through the story to uncover more information about the house and Eleanor.
The author draws a lot of attention to the architecture of the house. The physical nature of the house is important because it portrays how the appearance of a functioning body can seem okay, but any number of small changes can create a house of chaos and dysfunction, which is what Dr. Montague observes with the slanted doors and architectural illusions. This lost sense of place that the house creates is also reflective of Eleanor, which is probably why she and the house seem to be connected.
Through Minute Book Reports, hopefully you can get the plot and a few relevant discussion points in just a couple of minutes.
Music by WingoWinston from newgrounds.com.
This is a quick book summary and analysis of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. This channel discusses and reviews books, novels, and short stories through drawing...poorly. New Minute Book Reports are posted every week.
Facebook Page - facebook.com/pages/Minute-Book-Reports/1148331925195691
This is a story about a young woman named Eleanor who is invited to live in a haunted house by Dr. Montague, an academic and researcher trying to put together a paper about the supernatural.
The house, called Hill House, is very old and after some family disputes over the ownership of the house, no one seems to want to live there.
Also staying in the house as part of the research team are Theodora, Luke, and Mrs. Dudley, the strict housekeeper.
Eleanor and Theodora form a friendship and explore both outside and inside the house.
Things in the house seem fine, though the group struggles to navigate throughout the house because of the various hallways and doors, but then Eleanor and Theodora hear a scratching noise outside of their door at night.
After sharing their experience with Dr. Montague, several strange events occur, such as the appearance of mysterious writings throughout the house that mention Eleanor's name.
Surprisingly, Mrs. Montague, Dr. Montague's wife, appears with her associate, and they try to communicate with the paranormal through planchette, a mystical form of spiritual communication.
Eleanor asks Theodora if she can go back with her and live together, but Theodora rejects her. Hurt, Eleanor runs throughout the house and ends up in the high tower, nearly killing herself.
Dr. Montague decides to send Eleanor home. In the end, Eleanor reveals that she has no where to go, no home, and vows to return to Hill House. However, she crashes her car into a tree and dies.
The strongest aspect of this story is its style of storytelling. For a majority of the story, readers are inside of the mind of Eleanor, sometimes questioning her sanity and reality. This leads to questions of the reliability of Eleanor as a narrator or primary source for this story.
From this, it is also unclear what is making the noises in the house. The story doesn't quite say. But it's this ambiguity that makes this story so suspenseful. And while some would categorize this story as horror, it seems to have more in common with a dramatic mystery, as readers curiously navigate through the story to uncover more information about the house and Eleanor.
The author draws a lot of attention to the architecture of the house. The physical nature of the house is important because it portrays how the appearance of a functioning body can seem okay, but any number of small changes can create a house of chaos and dysfunction, which is what Dr. Montague observes with the slanted doors and architectural illusions. This lost sense of place that the house creates is also reflective of Eleanor, which is probably why she and the house seem to be connected.
Through Minute Book Reports, hopefully you can get the plot and a few relevant discussion points in just a couple of minutes.
Music by WingoWinston from newgrounds.com.
