The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story

An internationally acclaimed and haunting ghost story. “One of the strongest stories of supernatural horror…the work bursts into life and does not flag until the end.”―The Washington Post Arthur Kipps, a young solicitor, has come north from London to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. The townspeople are reluctant to share any information about Mrs. Drablow but Kipps soon realizes that there is more to Alice Drablow than he originally thought. At the funeral, he sees a woman dressed in black, with a pale face and dark eyes, whom a group of children are silently watching. While sorting through Mrs. Drablow’s papers at Eel Marsh House over the course of several days, the routine formalities Kipps anticipates give way to a tumble of events and secrets more sinister and terrifying than any nightmare: the rocking chair in the deserted nursery, the eerie sound of a pony and trap, a child's scream in the fog, and most dreadfully and most tragically for Kipps, the woman in black herself.First published in 1983, and written in the style of a traditional Gothic novel, The Woman in Black has become a classic novel of supernatural horror.

Chicago Tribune

“Irresistibly dramatic… Susan Hill has done the genre real honor.”

The Guardian

“For my money, the greatest of the contemporary ghost writers. Hill creates believable period characters, she creates a hermetic world that yet speaks of wider superstitions and histories, and creates plots with tension, pace and jeopardy without ever becoming heavy-handed. This is a story of vengeance, of an old curse from an embittered woman, all centred on the brooding Eel Marsh House, gloomy and isolated and cut off from the mainland at high tide. As the tension of premonition and disaster builds and builds, the ghostly screams of an accident long ago will haunt the reader’s imagination long after the last page has been turned. Perfect.”

Punch

“Confident and compulsive, Susan Hill tells a story like one possessed; she has an extraordinary power.”

The Sunday Express

“One of the best creepy novels I have ever read…a heart-stoppingly chilling story of a haunting… Miss Hill has such an immaculate sense of place, mood, pace, and style, and she is so brilliant at evoking a malevolent atmosphere of evil and grief, that even in broad daylight I jumped with terror at a sudden noise outside.”

Evening Standard

“An excellent ghost story… magnificently eerie… compulsive reading.”

Daily Express

“Heartstoppingly chilling.”

Observer

“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.”

The Daily Telegraph

“I don’t believe in ghosts but Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black, self-described as a ghost story, brought me about as near as I’m ever likely to get to such a belief… Miss Hill writes with great power, each detail contributing to the tremendous sense of evil she creates.”

From the Back Cover

What real reader does not yearn, somewhere in the recesses of his or her heart, for a really literate, first-class thriller -- one that chills the body, but warms the soul with plot, perception, and language at once astute and vivid? In other words, a ghost story written by Jane Austen? Alas, we cannot give you Austen, but Susan Hill's remarkable Woman in Black comes as close as our era can provide. Set on the obligatory English moor, on an isolated causeway, the story has as its hero Arthur Kipps, an up-and-coming young solicitor who has come north from London to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of Mrs. Alice Drabow of Eel Marsh House. The routine formalities he anticipates give way to a tumble of events and secrets more sinister and terrifying than any nightmare: the rocking chair in the deserted nursery, the eerie sound of a pony and trap, a child' scream in the fog, and most dreadfully -- and for Kipps most tragically -- The Woman in Black.The Woman in Black is both a brilliant exercise in atmosphere and controlled horror and a delicious spine-tingler -- proof positive that this neglected genre, the ghost story, isn't dead after all.

About the Author

Susan Hill is the author of acclaimed literary novels, ghost stories, children’s books, detective novels and memoirs. She has won the Whitbread, Somerset Maugham, and the John Llewelyn Rhys award, as well as having been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

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