The Woman in Black - by Susan Hill

About the Book

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Woman in Black

"Irresistibly dramatic... Susan Hill has done the genre real honor."--Chicago Tribune

"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."--The Guardian

"Confident and compulsive, Susan Hill tells a story like one possessed; she has an extraordinary power."--Punch

"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."--The Sunday Express

"An excellent ghost story... magnificently eerie... compulsive reading."--Evening Standard

"Heartstoppingly chilling."--Daily Express

"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."--Observer

"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."--The Daily Telegraph