Customer Reviews

House of Stairs (Onyx)

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4 star:		(4)
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It happens to me every time I read a Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine novel. At about page three I have entered the reading equivalent of a new romantic relationship. The book sits right down in the middle of my life, becoming a bigger presence than anything else, and for a time I can't just live a balanced life. The House of Stairs, like all of Barbara Vine's novels requires an investment of intelligence and emotional involvement that far exceeds the easy effort involved with a nice quick read or cozy murder mystery.

By the time the main character and narrator, alternately a young and middle-aged woman, goes to live with her wealthy widowed aunt she has already fallen under the spell of the poisonous and beautiful Belle. Belle wears Oxfam clothing with dazzling style, has the best hair in England, and avoids work to the point that nobody with a inheritance is safe from her natural murderous inclinations.

The narrator's aunt Cosette, on the other hand, is so pathetically trusting and generous with those who appeal in the slightest to her tragic vanity that she evolves with as few admirable qualities as the amoral, lazy Belle.

The narrator, obsessed by Belle and favored magnificently by her aunt, is by turns the dispassionate, impeccable reporter of the progression of this tale. Just as importantly, the poor thing is also the catalyst for just about every unfortunate event leading to its grim conclusion. She just can't help herself.

As the rest of the characters file into the story, the good, the users, the charming, and the ill-mannered, we take a bittersweet trip back to the 1960's as we spiral up and down the staircase. That's all I am going to tell you because the biggest delight of Barbara Vine's novels is that you have absolutely not the vaguest idea where the story will take you. Just head for The House of Stairs and savor one of the best reading romances of a lifetime.

Another stunning effort by Ruth Rendall writing as Barbara Vine. Ms. Rendall is a master of the psychological thriller, and this one is as fine an example as you'll find. It is a book that is difficult to read because you know as you read that something terrible is going to happen. Something terrible does happen, but the denouement does not occur until the very last pages. The book is unputdownable and maddening because I kept waiting for the terrible thing to happen. What is really so brilliant about Ms. Rendall's books is that nothing that she writes anywhere in her books is superfluous. Everything means something, and you have to read carefully to get it. In this book, everything centres around an impossible house that has 106 stairs, and all of life seems to occur in around these stairs. The book has a dreamlike quality because she weaves the past and the present together, so seamlessly, that you hardly know what kind of game is being played with your head as you read. Great stuff!

I have just finished House of Stairs for the 3rd time. I know little about writing and read mostly commercial fiction. However, the quality of Rendell's writing is at times breath taking. Her device is this book for shifting from the past to the present is simple and elegant. There is really no who done it here, only a why done it. And when you find out why, its so ordinary that you wonder why you read so long to get there. The why is that Rendell writes so good and dribbles the information out is dribs and drabs that you keep reading. You know early on that the narrator may or may not have a dread disease but it isn't identified until about 15% into the book.

One of the drawbacks to this book is the lack of sympathetic characters. Maybe its my age, but there is really no main character is this book who is likeable (although there are a couple which you care about). Elizabeth is the narrator but has an unfathomable weakness when it comes to Belle with whom there cannot be any type of healthy relationship. Belle is a flagrant sociopath who is only interesting because of the degree and outlandishness of her coldness and selfishness. Cossette is the all-time post child for co-dependency. Mark comes closest to being decent but in the end destroys Elizabeth and Cossette's relationship to save his own. There is no one in this group I'd ever want to be friends with.

This is one of my all-time favorite murder mysteries. I've read it twice, and I'd read it again -- and I never read mysteries twice. Rendell/Vine is a master of her craft, and it's a crime that this spell-binding book is out-of-print. I would rate this book higher than "A Dark-Adapted Eye" or "Gallowglass". The characters are so beautifully drawn, one feels they must be real people. Rendell/Vine's writing takes us through an intricate labyrinth human movitations and frailties. This book is a gem.

THE HOUSE OF STAIRS seems to be the least well-known book written by Ruth Rendell as Barbara Vine. A shame, to say the least, considering that this intelligent, perceptive, and beautifully written novel certainly deserves recognition.

The book tells the story of Elizabeth Vetch and the events that follow after she moves into the House of Stairs, owned by her wealthy and generous aunt Cosette, events that become increasingly grim until the climax which is, as is usually the case in a Vine novel, murder.

THE HOUSE OF STAIRS is beautifully written, and contains all the hallmarks of Vine's prose. Abrupt shifts in time as Elizabeth remembers the past while living in the present, heavy foreshadowing of the future to come, a moody, haunting atmosphere, an aura of suspense, and plenty of witty dialogue. The characters are drawn with depth and care, the plot is intricately crafted, and there are a few twists at the end that make you look back on the whole story and realize that things truly aren't what they seem. This is by no means a conventional mystery; the killer's identity is known from the beginning, the clues are psychological, not physical, and the murder is the climax, rather than the prelude. But just because she isn't writing like Agatha Christie doesn't mean that Barbara Vine isn't skillful at plotting. She leaves plenty of clues for the reader to figure out what happens later, and makes the entire situation at once horrific and believable. This is a rich and rewarding novel, one I would rate on the same level as THE BRIMSTONE WEDDING. Not quite as compelling as A DARK-ADAPTED EYE, but then again, what is?

As Elizabeth Vetch is travelling down the street in a taxi, she suddenly spots a woman whom she used to know many years before. A woman that she thought was still in prison. She calls the vehicle to a stop, and rushes off in pursuit of her old friend. Eventually, Elizabeth looses her amid the bustle of London. Then, here memories triggered by this event, she begins to tell the reader her story...

It's a tale that leads to a time when Elizabeth was staying in a tall boarding house (known by its residents as the House of Stairs) run by her kindly old friend Cosette, when all the varied inhabitants lived in peace and harmony, and when she was in a relationship with the enigmatic Bell, a woman who will soon be arrested for murder. But, then Mark comes into their lives, and the effects of his presence soon mean that none of their lives will ever be the same again. For death is following in his path...

Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell) is quite, quite marvellous. The way she mixes past and present, the current story and the flashbacks to the events which happened at the House of Stairs is masterful, and not nearly as confusing as a lesser writer might make it. Her demonstrations of how the past can hold an inextricable grip on all our future's are brilliantly subtle. The characters she creates are almost unbearably realistic, and few of them are likeable. Even the kindly Cosette's needy dependency may grate on some after a while. She also injects a great subplot concerning the fact that Elizabeth, our narrator, may well have inherited the Huntington's Chorea that runs in her family.

The suspense Rendell creates with the almost unbearably slow (although never, ever boring) teasing out of her plots is immense, and she maintains it right to the end, when the final surprise is revealed. Some longstanding fans of Rendell may be able to guess the main subtle twist that she uses (but not all she has up her sleeve), for she has used a similar one before (but in a rather different way). But then, as another reviewer has said, very aptly, of Rendell, "she pulls back the curtain to reveal, rather than to surprise".

Vine/Rendell is not going to be ideal for anyone who prefers their thrillers to be fast-paced and exciting, with constant surprises, but if you're the sort of reader who admires an intelligent, immaculately written thriller, full of realistic characters, subtle suspense, and with one or two surprises along the way, then there is no one better at providing this that Rendell. The House of Stairs is a prime example

A young woman moves in with her aunt, a wealthy widow who is unhealthily dependent on the company of others to feel any self worth. She fulfills this need by becoming the mistress of a salon, consisting of would be artists, actors and just plain hangers-on, allowing them to live rent free in her curious, large house with 104 stairs, and treating them to lavish food and drink. Despite her unstinting generosity,( or because of it), her so-called tenants grow contemptuous of her, treating her with barely concealed disregard.A new addition to the house guests, a tall, thin and beautiful girl named Bell, who dresses in rags, is introduced as a permanent lodger and immediately becomes the irritant who causes all kinds of problems, including sexual ones, among the others who are already living there. A murder takes place, one which isn't solved for the reader until the last chapters, and although the murder/mystery theme is carried through admirably as M/s Vine(aka Ruth Rendell) is a very accomplished writer, I really didn't LOVE the book as I didn't like any of the characters, several of whom were verging on the creepy!

The Book is really good because the reader really has to think and has to find out who the killer is, and who she/he wants to kill. There is also a good version for non-English speakers! (Its for Intermediate -1650 words) The book was written by Barbara Vine, she is one of the most popular crime and mystery writers.

In the story is an old Lady who is really lonely and wants to be younger and to have a husband. Her best friend Elizabeth is always helping her with her problems. Cossette (the old Lady) is really rich so she buys her a new house with 106 stairs, then Bell Sanger, who was in prison because she killed her husband for money, meets Elizabeth on the street. What effect will she have? Later Liz (Elizabeth) falls in love with Bell. Liz is so happy but does Bell feel the same? Later Bell brings her brother Mark to the house of stairs. Cossette falls in love with him and Mark with her. Soon they are together, but is Mark really the right one for Cossette? And why is Bell so strange? Read the book and you will find out.

By Lilly F.

An intriguing mystery from master writer Ruth Rendell (Barbara Vine) that turns the conventions of the genre upside down and inside out. Ms. Rendell opens the story by introducing readers to a woman who has recently been released from prison. Christobel Sanger was serving time for murder; what isn't apparent is who she murdered or what her motivation might have been. As the narrative unfolds, Ms. Rendell craftily reveals a large cast of possible victims, tossing out hints and clues as to which of the characters might have met their demise through Christobel's dark cunning. Red herrings abound as the reader tries to solve the puzzle of "who she did it to." Not until the last chapters does Rendell reveal the surprising identity of the victim by fitting all the pieces of the plot into place ... and even then, the author has one more darkly clever twist to add that leaves the reader both dangling and dazzled.

Ms. Rendell has been lauded for her amazing ability to create fascinating, multi-faceted, and balanced characters who exemplify both the best and worst of humanity, while at the same time ratcheting up suspense to ever increasing levels. "The House of Stairs" is an example of this master storyteller at her best, and is a highly recommended piece of nail-biting mystery.

Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine never fails to impress. Knowing that there are hundreds upon hundreds of readers who are amazed by her brilliance and literary magic, I won't say too much. But I wish to pay tribute to this masterly and literate suspense story. It is spellbinding and mesmerizing. Just imagine what the late great Alfred Hitchcock could have done with material such as this. Bravo a thousand times over !!!