Novels with a house as a central character?

licity-lieu · May 31, 2007

Does anyone know of novels that use this? I'm sure it's been done a million times but I just can't seem to rustle up a list. For example we have a picture book in Australia called My place. It traces the story of a house and it's inhabitants through 200 or so years of history. Is there a novel out there that does the same?

blacbird · May 31, 2007

The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson) comes to mind. I'm not sure the word "character" exactly fits, but the house so thoroughly dominates the setting and the action that it kind of becomes one. Any number of cozy mysteries also make heavy use of a house in a similar way. Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries are thoroughly dependent on his semi-agoraphobic personality, and his New York brownstone with its gourmet kitchen and conservatory of orchids. In E. M. Forster's Howards End, the great house of the title comes to symbolize the destructive decay of the British class system. Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables uses a residence in a similar way.
caw

rugcat · May 31, 2007

The theme of a house as, if not exactly a character, at least the central unifying theme, is pretty common in supernatural/horror fiction. The Haunting Of Hill House, Shirley Jackson, comes to mind. And of course, The Shining.

valeenc · May 31, 2007

Okay. It's official. I have the world's smartest ornery old lady mama.

She remembered a "strange little book" she read innumerable decades ago by (of all people!) A. A. Milne called The Red House Mystery. Project Gutenberg has it for download or to read online.

underthecity · May 31, 2007

Other than Haunting of Hill House, I think 666 might qualify. In this case, this novel, by Jay Anson of Amityville Horror fame, is about a house that manages to get itself moved around the country; in each new location its address is always 666 Whatever Street. Each time someone rents or buys the house, a double murder takes place. After the murder, the house gets moved again. The story centers around the people who have currently bought the house, and someone else who is researching its history. Try to guess what happens to the tenants at the end of the story.

It's not bad at all. I read it about ten or fifteen years ago. Looks like you can get it from amazon for a penny, so that's not too bad.

allen

Pomegranate · May 31, 2007

House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski is a good example. It was a challenging and slightly creepy read.

CaroGirl · May 31, 2007

In House of Sand and Fog the house is an important centre of conflict. I wouldn't call it a character, per se, but it's what the story is centred around.

blacbird · May 31, 2007

Pomegranate said:
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski is a good example. It was a challenging and slightly creepy read.

You could read it? I like being challenged by the ideas and themes presented in a book, but I'm not real fond of being challenged by the very work of reading it.

caw

Pomegranate · May 31, 2007

I won't say I grokked all the nuances in House of Leaves, but yeah, I read the whole thing. I read it over a long rainy weekend when the husband was out of town and the creaking of my old house could help freak me out. It was not a linear book by any means, but once I dug into it, it wasn't as difficult as I expected. There are only 2 main narrative threads to follow.

KTC · May 31, 2007

I was going to say the best example is The Haunting of Hill House, but I guess others are thinking the same thing.

batgirl · Jun 2, 2007

The Green Knowe series by Lucy Boston, for young readers, has the house Green Knowe as a character - it's based on her own home, Hemingford Grey. She wrote several books, both for children and adults, where Hemingford Grey is a major element, under different names.
Anne Rivers Siddons wrote The House Next Door, a horror novel with the house as a sort of character.
Someone In the House, by Barbara Michaels, has a house that's an active character, not just a setting.
Bless This House, by Norah Lofts, follows Merravoy House through several generations and centuries.

Family sagas and horror are probably the most fruitful genres for architectural characterisation. And Gothic Romance, once summed up as 'girl gets house' being the happy ending.
-Barbara

JeanneTGC · Jun 2, 2007

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the Unseen University is not only a character, but it's shown to have a mind, if you will. In his earlier Discworld books it's more of a supporting character than in his later ones, but it IS a character. (At least, to me.

)

Deleted member 42 · Jun 2, 2007

Wuthering Heights

JeanneTGC · Jun 2, 2007

Oh, and in the YA novel series from quite a few decades back, The Four-Story Mistake, the house is very central to everything.

Magdalen · Jun 9, 2007

"The Fall of the House of Usher"

My memory's a little hazy, but wasn't there a double entendre on the word "house" meaning a structure but alos a family lineage?

SpookyWriter · Jun 9, 2007

I'd add Bleak House, but the house wasn't really central to the story. Or was it?

JamieFord · Jun 9, 2007

This may be more literal than you were thinking, but There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury comes to mind.

It's the story of a "smart house" after a nuclear holocaust. The house keeps up its duties even though the inhabitants are long gone. Only their silhouettes remain, burned into the outer walls.

licity-lieu · Jun 9, 2007

SpookyWriter said:
I'd add Bleak House, but the house wasn't really central to the story. Or was it?

I think it counts. Nice avatar

so spooooooky

JamieFord said:
This may be more literal than you were thinking, but There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury comes to mind.

It's the story of a "smart house" after a nuclear holocaust. The house keeps up its duties even though the inhabitants are long gone. Only their silhouettes remain, burned into the outer walls.

This one looks facinating. Wacky Bradbury!

Vincent · Jun 9, 2007

To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf.

Lyra Jean · Jun 9, 2007

JamieFord your link is not working. It took me to wikipedia post about hypertext transfer protocol. Bradbury is my favorite author could you check the link I'd really like to read the story.

Magdalen you took my suggestion.

Penguin Queen · Jun 10, 2007

In a manner of speaking, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. It really is all about the house, Manderley (indeed, it's in the first sentence); and about Menabilly, du Maurier's real-life house at the time which which she had, in her own words, fallen in love. I think she wrote the story for as much as about Menabilly.

Another one of her books is also set there but I forget the title -- it features somebody being walled up....

Manderley · Jun 10, 2007

licity-lieu said:
It traces the story of a house and it's inhabitants through 200 or so years of history. Is there a novel out there that does the same?

Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman does the same. It's not a novel though, but a collection of stories all set around the house.

The_Grand_Duchess · Jun 10, 2007

JamieFord said:
This may be more literal than you were thinking, but There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury comes to mind.

It's the story of a "smart house" after a nuclear holocaust. The house keeps up its duties even though the inhabitants are long gone. Only their silhouettes remain, burned into the outer walls.

I read this story in jr. high for an english class. It has haunted me ever since.

ap123 · Jun 10, 2007

Not sure that this is what you're looking for, but Anita Shreve has a couple of books that use the same house in different time periods. Beach Glass is one, can't remember the name of the other one.

Dancre · Jun 10, 2007

Rats!! That's what I get for coming to the party late. YOu all hit the same ones I was going to post. The only other one I can think of is the TV series Rose Red by Stephen King. But that's not a book.

kim

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