The Woman in Black--Susan Hill
I was familiar with the name Susan Hill from that wonderful little book Howard's End Is on the Landing , a kind of compendium of personal favorites from books and literature. I was familiar with The Woman in Black from the film, which I had wanted to see, but never really had the opportunity. So, what a wonderful convergence when I discovered that the film I wanted to see came from a source that I knew I would enjoy reading. And, I was not wrong. The Woman in Black has the form of a classic ghost story--it even starts on Christmas Eve as children are sharing their made-up ghost stories and the experience plunges our first person narrator into a re-experience of his own horrifying ghost story. Arthur, a young lawyer, is sent from London to the middle of nowhere--a small town at the very edges of a great swamp/marsh where stands Eelmarsh House--the home of an eccentric old woman who has recently died. His job is to go through the papers in the house, ext...