Guest Blog 4
Jill Hand discusses her favorite haunted house stories, just in time for Halloween.
The Haunted House: A Cautionary Tale
Jill Hand
The story goes something like this: someone moves to a new town. They look everywhere, but there’s no housing available at a price they can afford. Then they get a pleasant surprise. A nice house is vacant (sometimes it’s an apartment.) To their delight, the rent is far less than they expected.
At this point, anyone reading knows what’s about to happen. There’s a reason why the rent is so low. The property is haunted and the hapless tenant becomes thoroughly terrified. It’s a theme that’s familiar, but no less enjoyable.
What makes stories about haunted houses so frightening is that the terrifying activity takes place where the victims expected to be safe. Our homes are our refuge. It’s where we go to retreat from the world. What could be more horrifying than having our refuge turn into a chamber of horrors?e it stand out
Four of my favorite short horror stories are about haunted houses. Two are by Bithia Mary Croker, an Irish novelist who had a prolific literary career, starting in 1882 and ending with her death in 1920. “To Let” takes place in a resort town in India during the time of the British Raj. A woman fears she waited too long to find a house for her family to rent, but then, surprise! There’s a wonderful house available, luxuriously furnished and equipped, down to the last silver teaspoon. There’s only one problem. I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone who hasn’t read it by saying what it is, but it’s not something anyone would want to experience for themselves.
“Number Ninety” is another of Croker’s great haunted house stories. A man attending a dinner party ridicules the idea of haunted houses. He accepts a challenge to spend the night in a vacant house reputed to be haunted and has a disturbing experience. Then he does something absolutely crazy. He goes back the following night to try and get to the bottom of things. His second nocturnal visit does not end well.
“The Story of Clifford House” first appeared in December 1878 in The Mistletoe Bough, edited by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. It’s credited to an anonymous author and has all the elements of a classic haunted house tale. A beautiful house is available to rent for next to nothing during the height of the London “season.”
A family moves in, and after initially feeling smug at having such a fancy crib they’re scared out of their wits. In this case it’s not only a cautionary tale about accepting a bargain at face value, it’s also a warning of what can happen to people who go to the big city intending to plunge into the social scene, instead of quietly staying home where they belong.
“The Toll-House,” by W.W. Jacobs, author of “The Monkey’s Paw,” is the last of my favorite quartet of haunted house tales. Four men on a walking tour become bored with their usual routine. They opt to spend the night in an empty house reputed to be haunted. Bad things ensue. It’s truly chilling.
The End
Author’s Bio
Author Jill Hand is a member of the Horror Writers Association and International Thriller Writers. Her Southern Gothic novel, White Oaks, is scheduled for release May 30, 2019 from Black Rose Writing.
Advance readers call it a fast-paced, hilarious account of three siblings who are competing for their father’s forty-billion-dollar fortune while trying to prevent the destruction of Planet Earth. Diane Donovan, senior reviewer from Midwest Book Review, praised White Oaks, calling it, “an unusually multifaceted tale that holds the ability to prompt laughter from thriller-style tension.” Jill Hand’s novel, Rosina and the Travel Agency, and The Blue Horse, a novella, follow the adventures of a young woman rescued from a terrible railway accident in 1889 by a twenty-fourth-century enterprise known as the Travel Agency, which is in the business of time travel tourism.
