A book review of The Haunted House by Charles Dickens
Title: The Haunted House
Author: Charles Dickens
copyright date: 2004
Publisher: Modern Library
# of pages: 126
Charles Dickens is known for his more famous titles The Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, and Oliver Twist. One not so well known title is The Haunted House. The Haunted House is not, in fact, a novel, but a portmanteau story, which is a story in which numerous authors contribute to a single story. Some of the authors who contributed were Hesha Stretton, George Augustus Sala, Adelaide Anne Procter, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell. Like The Christmas Carol, The Haunted House is a Christmas thriller, but not for the reason you think. It misleads the reader into believing that the house is haunted when it is really not. On top of that, the story is oddly not centered around a house but instead, centered around the fears, horrors, and terrors of the minds of the characters living in the house. It’s almost as if the ghosts are manifestations of the characters themselves. Furthermore, this adds to the uniqueness of this particular thriller as it is quite unorthodox. The story follows a man and his sister move into a house that is said to be haunted by local legends. Soon, their servants, except for a blind stableman, leave their residence. Unafraid of the haunted house, the siblings invite several of their friends to stay in the house and attempt to drive out the supernatural from their rooms. The residents remain separated until the twelfth night, where they share their experiences regarding the haunted rooms. Dickens begins this tale with his trademark Dickensian humor as he makes fun of how gullible people are when it comes to haunted houses, pointing at the fact that this book is centered around a “haunted” house. Each character is different as they recall their own experiences in the house. This is further enunciated as each perspective is written by a different writer with their own unique writing style. Although not equal in terms of quality, each writer more than contributes to their particular character, making the house come alive. Two particular stories stand out above the rest, Gaskell’s and Collins’. Gaskell’s story vividly illustrates two couple of genuine farmers that have an ungrateful son. Collins’ story exemplifies the anguish a sailor feels when bound to a ship filled with explosives and a lit candle. Each character in the book gets a chance to face their fears, and each is uniquely different thanks to the varying authors. As they spend more time in the house, “ghosts” challenge and change them, some changing for the better, and some for the worse. I think that this book is a fun and interesting read that is not meant to be taken all that seriously. Charles Dickens and his contributors get to loosen up in this book and just have fun, and this is exemplified in the story’s unorthodox style. Even Charles Dickens’ own story, The Ghost in Master B’s Room, sounds nothing like him at all. I would recommend this to any fan of the Victorian era or a fan of Dickens himself just so that you can see your favorite Victorian-era writers in their element. If you are not a fan, I would not recommend you read this, at least not until you read some of Dickens’ previous and more famous works first, as this is not Dickens at his best.
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I thought this book was simply a collection of short stories?
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