Customer Reviews

Julia

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Straub, an American, does an astonishing job of conveying British culture and scenery in this novel. This is perhaps his greatest strength as a novelist, as similarly and yet so differently achieved in other novels, such as Shadowland and If You Could See Me Now.

This novel opens with the protagonist, Julia Lofting, an American heiress, impulsively purchasing a fading mansion. We learn she has just been released from a mental institution proceeding the untimely and accidental death of her daughter. As tormented as she is by the death, Julia realizes it has finally broken the spell of enchantment of her domineering and brutal husband. She feels the purchase of the mansion, where she plans to live alone and reevaluate her life and its direction, will symbolically mark her first step down the road of independence and personal will.

Ironically, it is the house which chooses her for its own expression of will. Julia runs into an eerie little girl in the park across the way who bears an uncanny resemblance to her own daughter. However, unlike her own sweet child, this girl is prone to mutilating small animals and terrorizing the other children of the park. Soon, the malevolent girl begins to appear in the bizarre black and red mirrors of the upper floors of the mansion.

As a reader, we are uncertain at this point whether the sightings are strictly the hallucinations of a distraught and nervous woman, the spectre of her daughter come to haunt her or some demon, eminating from the mansion, toying with her. The rest of the novel delivers the answer in a tense and unrelenting series of climactic events.

The characterizations and conspiring of the characters puts one in mind of Iris Murdoch. While characters bind together to make plans and imagine themselves engineers of events and perceptions, they are in fact being manipulated by outside forces of which they have no knowledge.

DON'T READ THE FOLLOWING--SPOILER--IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK: While the ending may seem unsatisfying, it in fact contains the entire theme of the novel. We realize that this story was not really about Julia, after all, but about the price of her husband's unchallenged reign of cruelty and callousness. Julia, never really a central figure in her own life, turns out not to be the central figure even of this novel which primarily features her.

Her husband Magnus, "king", is seemingly born with a commanding and irresistable personality to which his entire family kowtows. Similarly, his first daughter, Olivia, is born with such an inherently unfeeling and dominating personality. However, being illegitimate and poorly treated by her mother, she has no checks on her own expression of the temperament. The force of her evil is something which cannot be stopped even by death. And she intends to focus her energies to wreak vengeance upon Magnus by destroying everyone close to him, one by one, before going after him personally.

After Julia's death, Magnus and his spinster sister Lily are feeling smug and certain of themselves. They sneer at their new-agey, socialist adopted brother for running off to Los Angeles. And now, not only do they have complete control over Julia's money but they are no longer burdened with the problem of Julia herself. They fancy themselves the king and queen of their own miniature dynasty. Yet, it is clear from the final paragraphs of the novel, that Olivia is not finished with them. Lily spots her right outside her own window and is suddenly gripped with fear, realizing that the ghosts were real and now there may be more than one who is upset with them.

One summer day, Julia Lofting buys a lovely home in a quiet street on the fashionable borough of Kensington, in London. This is the first house she sees, so it's rather hasty, isn't it? However, who could blame her?

In Julia Lofting, Straub gives the first foray on the exquisite architecture of characters that has been a trademark of his craft. Julia, in a way, opens the path for other memorable Straub women, like Alma Mobley (in "Ghost Story"), Laura Allbee and Patsy McCloud (in "Floating Dragon"), Sarah Spence (in "Mystery") and more clearly, Nora Chancel (of "The Hellfire Club"), who in more ways than one seems a sister entity to Julia.

Too wealthy for her own good, Julia is a troubled soul who seems to solve every situation by fleeing. She fled America for England, then she fled an unbearable freedom for marriage to charismatic yet voracious Magnus Lofting, a barrister with a name but no money and a few secrets in his past, then, she fled in tragedy and grief that marriage and an unhappy household in search for solace and the freedom she shunned, but in this lovely Georgian house, Julia finds she won't be able to run anymore, but rather will have to face multiple ghosts, from within and from the past.

Perfectly written, well settled, with an unforgettable climax, "Julia" is Straub's first foray into the supernatural and it suceeds where other novels merely tried. The elements of melodrama and grand-guignol, which seem like recquirements for stories of this type, are schewed and in exchange, Straub follows the rule of the classic gothic novel (all the narrative elements are there, including the heroine, the castle and the ghost)-- including the obsessive fact that the past will become ever more important than the present itself, leading to the atmosphere of ominous angst that is one of the best effects of this memorable novel, that was first published in 1975.

Definitely a novel worth reading; inspiring, haunting, and in more ways than one, unforgettable.

It's hard to sympathize with a character who seems as bent on her own destruction as the title character in Peter Straub's "Julia." The story opens with rich, harmless, and seemingly brainless, Julia Lofting in the process of leaving her brutal, domineering husband Magnus (With a name like that you'd hardly expect him to be the timid, sensitive type.) after the death of their daughter in a dining room tracheotomy gone wrong.

Understandably distraught, she buys a stupendous, eight-bedroom house in London. No sooner does she gain possession of the keys than she spots a little girl who reminds her of her own dead daughter, and becomes obsessed with this child who, we subsequently learn, makes The Bad Seed look like Anne of Green Gables.

Julia's new home, once the scene of a horrific murder, starts manifesting curious occurrences right away. The depiction of the haunting is genuinely frightening and ambiguous. The way that Straub upends the cliché of the cold that traditionally accompanies ghostly visitations was particularly effective in that it gave the house an oppressive, soporific atmosphere that almost (but not quite) explained Julia's inertia.

Although this multi million heiress experiences a plethora of weird phenomena including ghostly voices, regular sightings of that god awful little girl, and a the death of a psychic friend, she resolutely stays in that wretched house. It all ends badly, as these things invariably do. Alas, it also ends in total confusion.

Perhaps it was Mr. Straub's intention that we should share Julia's growing disorientation. If so, success was his. By the end of the story I wasn't sure of what was going on. There was no resolution of things that had gone before. No reason was ever given for the ghost child's malign nature and a totally, unnecessary main character ended up working as a janitor in LA! HUH?

For me confused and unresolved endings are a no-no. I may have to accept them in life but I will not have them in my fiction. For those of you, however, who like evil blonde children, dead cockney psychics, and rich people so idle that they will not even save their own lives, I highly recommend "Julia."

The book begins with a seemingly innocent scene: Julia Lofting, an attractive American in London struggling to reclaim her independence and begin a new life away from her domineering husband, catches a glimpse of a little, blond-haired girl. What normally would be an unremarkable moment has deep meaning for Julia, as this child resembles Kate, Julia's deceased daughter. Kate's death has never ceased to haunt Julia and it is also from this memory that she wishes to flee.

Almost immediately, Julia has very strange experiences in her new home as well as with the mysterious blond child. Julia attempts to make meaning of these events and at times doubts her sanity. Her struggle to understand it made more difficult by accidentally discovering the details of a gruesome murder of the past which took place in her new home. A murder, which parallels horrifyingly close to Julia's own life. As Julia learns more, she discovers a presence of evil which is determined to destroy her.

Readers of the author's previous work will find the action in this book to be higher paced, which is suitable to the story. The plot never drags and is always interesting. The characters are strong and very real. The author has also done an excellent job of creating an eerie and, at times, surrealistic atmosphere which adds to the terror of the story.

This is by far one of the best horror novels ever published. I recommend it to anyone interested in a frightening tale.

There are just too many excellent authors to ever try to narrow it down to a single Best of all time. But if you're going to try and pick a Scariest, then Peter Straub just might be it. And when arguably the most skilled writer at creating terror also excels on so many other levels - characterization, relationships, pure style of writing, etc. - you're going to get a lot of the greatest, most multi-faceted, and memorable horror novels ever written.

Fresh off the tragic loss of a child and in the midst of separation from her domineering husband, Julia Lofting buys a new home for herself almost on snap decision, a large manor in a nice London neighborhood. It's a snap decision she'll soon have reason to regret, and one whose impetus turns out not to have merely been her own whims. The daughter, Kate, that Julia and her estranged husband Magnus had, was a sweet and innocent little girl; but there was a very different kind of little girl who used to live in the neighborhood Julia now calls home. There are few things so disturbing as a truly Evil child, because there's something about all that malice in adults around the world and throughout history that just isn't Supposed to be able to flourish in a little child. To convincingly capture pure evil, unmitigated by sentiment or reason or some kind of tragic formative incident, within an adult psychopath can be unsettling. To have it show up in a child can be horrifying.

There are a lot of terrifying ideas in here (like the concept that a sufficiently powerful manipulator can not only pull the strings of a good, or at least not rotten, person toward committing evil but can make it so they Enjoy it) but the main horror is the child who used to live in that neighborhood, as sadistic and perverse a creature as any you'll encounter. This book isn't just tense or disturbing, it's electrifyingly frightening - the kind of book where glimpsing a mote of floating dust out of the corner of your eye while reading can make one flinch.

One of many things I admired about this novel was the characterization. There were the protagonists, there were the unlikable characters, there were the ones who were sort of 'neutral', but they didn't just stay in those niches. Sometimes something noble or sympathetic would arise in a highly unlikely character; at other times a streak of some less admirable trait would surface in one of the 'good guys'. And it didn't mean they were about to turn, it just meant that there were characters with very apparant imperfections that I liked anyway, and there were other characters who were more villainous but that I could understand, and sometimes even sympathize with, in certain parts of their character. Magnus is one character I think I can reference without giving too much away. That guy was beligerant, arrogant, psychologically abusive, and controlling, but he adored Kate and he loved Julia as much as it was possible for a man like him to love a woman. I think that during their marriage he even subconciously tried to mitigate or hide away the most obnoxious parts of himself (not that he was always successful) for her sake, although conciously Magnus would probably scoff at the notion of 'taming' himself for anyone's sake. All this doesn't mean I became a fan of the character, but it made him an awful lot more interesting.

On the other hand we had Julia, who unlike some of the other protagonists, remained one of the purest heroines to ever grace a horror novel (although come to think of it, there is one incident that some may interpret in an entirely different way than I did). I don't mean 'pure' in that she lived like a nun or was this always pious, never angry or scared character. I mean it like this: okay, a lot of times when you've got a story where there's a house that's clearly haunted or otherwise afflicted by some kind of unearthly threat, the big question is why on Earth would anyone stay there. With Julia, it was as simple as this: she realized there was something terribly, unnaturally, wrong in her new home; she figured parts of it out early on, she realized (in a way that was not implicitly stated) that the danger was not going to stop existing even if she did manage to get herself out of its path; and she made a decision (without seeming to even think about a decision needing to be made) that she was going to stay, in proximity to those she cared about and feared for, and try to put things right for the endangered and the innocent....and even for the guilty.

Straub did a tremendous balancing job between bringing out revelations and leaving certain things unexplained. "Julia" was powerful, thrilling, and totally immersive, and I hated it when it had to be over. One of the best ever.

I first encountered Peter Straub while in college. I read Ghost Story on a whim and WOW! Was I scared! Julia being the second Straub book I've read I expected the same horror. In some ways the horror was recreated but in the same sense Julia the main character was extremely weak and almost pathetic. I found myself disliking her and became as confused as she was by the end of the book. What carried me along was the sense that I needed to see if it would all be explained. The last few chapters of the book left me lost and slightly annoyed. I must have re-read them at least three times trying to see if in fact I missed something -- sadly after reading the reviews from other readers I guess I didn't. Maybe that is the point of Julia: the story is strange and leaves all of the characters puzzeled and unsure of the reality that surrounds them. I felt the same way and perhaps that is the true horror of the story.

It greatly saddens me to discover this wonderful novel is both out of print and boasts a mere 3 customer reviews! The book is sheerly one of the most horrific and terrifying studies in evil and obsession I have ever read. I first saw the marvelous (and also out of print!) film "The Haunting of Julia" starring the incomparably marvelous Mia Farrow, and then read the book. Both are great, though the book is more complex. I would recommend seeing the movie first however because then you can picture the wonderful house it is set in. The horror of a dominating spouse-Magnus is here....There is great suspense, who is haunting Julia, is it her beloved Kate? Or someone else.....Olivia Rudge is absolutely the most frightening ghost I have ever read about. The book scared me so much I couldn't sleep for a week or get the horrid frightening images out of my mind! I love the character of sweet Julia and this is a testament to Straub's great writing ability. This book is GOTHIC horror at its best, and has a twisty ending also.

This is a well-written ghost story in which a feeling of dread permeates the pages. American heiress, Julia Lofting, living in England, leaves her domineering and cruel husband, Magnus, after the unexpected death of their young daughter. She then buys an old Georgian house, which she hopes will pave the way fir a new beginning for her. Unfortunately, not only wont her husband leave her alone, but the house seems to have a mind of its own.

Before she knows it, Julia is living a haunted existence, and her life continues to unravel. As her house of cards comes tumbling down around her, Julia discovers much about the house and her husband. Unfortunately, none of it is good. As the past intrudes upon the present, the feeling of dread and angst mounts as the story barrels down to the grand finale.

JULIA is unlike any of Peter Straub's other books. Maybe because it was his first ghost story, maybe because it was set in England, where he was living at the time, or maybe because it was written before he was influenced (corrupted?) by Stephen King, JULIA of all his novels has a classic feel to it.

First of all, it is a straightforward ghost story in the Victorian tradition. As with other many other Victorian ghost stories, you are never quite sure if the phenomenon that is haunting the characters is real, supernatural or psychological. But it is certainly a ghost, in the broad sense of a ghost, and not a shape-shifter, a toxic cloud/fantastical monster or the collective unconscious of the Vietnamese people (i.e. as in GHOST STORY, FLOATING DRAGON, and THE THROAT.)

Second of all, it is rivaled only by IF YOU COULD SEE ME NOW among Straub novels in its conciseness. It is in fact more concise than most actual Victorian ghost stories (just read LeFanu's THE HAUNTED BARONET as an example).

However, of all Straub's novels, it is also the least original and least compelling. Even FLOATING DRAGON, the absolute nadir of Straub's literary career, was a more compelling read than JULIA. However, JULIA is ultimately more satisfying because it accomplishes its modest aims: it tells a hauntingly good tale in an interesting manner.

I am sorry to say I didn't really like the book. It was not that frightening and very predictable. It is unlike Mr. Straub to be that way. I was disappointed in this one. It is worth reading style wise, but if you have read others by him, you might be let down.