Customer Reviews

The Haunting of Lamb House

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This book describes the intertwined lives of the persons who live in Lamb House over the course of many years: a crippled boy whose greatest desire never comes true; Henry James and his infatuation with various younger men; and other characters. And I do mean characters! These are not run-of-the-mill folks. They are interesting and quirky and unique. I also sensed some tongue-in-cheek pokes at sexuality, which were amusing. The entire book is enjoyable.

Toby Lamb has suffered through a troubled and difficult family life in 18th century England and kept a detailed diary of how he was treated. He kept it hidden in a nook and was not found until a hundred years after his mysterious death in Lamb House. The noted author, Henry James, purchased the graceful Georgian mansion in the lovely English village and experienced supernatural entities and happenings during his short stay. He found the manuscript and had planned to publish this unusual report of the happenings in that historic house, but died under mysterious circumstances before he could do so.

The place stayed haunted after Fred Benson moved in and took over the manuscript as he delved into ancient history of that era. He talked and wrote messages to this entity and asked why it continued to hang around. He was told that Mr. James had promised to publish the diary, and he responded that Henry James had been dead for nine years. He came to understand where Toby's spirit was coming from and what really happened there through the correspondence. Finally, he is able to put the past and the ghost to rest.

Joan Aiken was a master storyteller (she died in 2004 at the age of eighty); she had permission from the owners in 1990, the Martins, to explore the attics and cellars of Lamb House for her research. She acknowledged that the characters of the book are real as she used biographies about Henry and Alice James and E. F. Benson, AS HE WAS by Geoffrey Palmer. The ghostly happenings came from her vivid imagination and the use of her magic wand and her way with words. Her way with words is powerful, so don't gild the lily. If you lay on the charm too thick, you'll come across as insincere when that's far from the truth. Instead, let your actions and your speech do the necessary work. Two of my favorite of her fiction were written twenty years apart: THE WEEPING ASH in 1982 and MIDNIGHT IS A PLACE in 2002. She also wrote a volume of stories about horror, suspense and fantasy, A TOUCH OF CHILL in 1985. Several of her books have been transcribed and published in the German language.

Hard-to-find book, but timeless story of real place. Once you have read it you can go visit, or vice versa. ASIN

I'm not much of a book reader. I usually stick to magizines and news paper articals;But I must say I consider this book to be one of the better Books I have read. Some parts seemed to drag on forever, but then again Their were so many suprises and secrets that it all evened out. If I do ever decide to read a book or novel I like to read Gothic Mysteries. This book struck my fansy when I saw that it had the word Haunting in it. For the most part The Haunting of Lamb House was very injoyable!