Mrs God [Hardcover]

Peter Straub (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1991

Another chilling story from the Houses Without Doors collection. Presented with the research opportunity of a lifetime, a college professor leaves his pregnant wife in the States and heads for a British country estate. But nothing is as it appears, and soon the professor finds himself in a frightening situation.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“When Peter Straub turns on all his jets, no one in the scream factory can equal him.” (Stephen King )

“Peter Straub is a national treasure.” (Lawrence Block )

“Straub can write superb horror.” (Washington Post ) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Peter Straub is the New York Times bestselling author of seventeen novels, which have been translated into more than twenty languages. His two collaborations with Stephen King, The Talisman and Black House, were international bestsellers. Two of Peter’s most recent novels, Lost Boy Lost Girl and In the Night Room, were winners of the Bram Stoker award. In 2006, he was given the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award. Peter and his wife live in New York City. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 201 pages
• Publisher: Donald M Grant (December 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0937986976
• ISBN-13: 978-0937986974
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,252,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aickmanesque, June 30, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Mrs God (Hardcover)

MRS GOD was Peter Straub's attmept at the kind of story Robert Aickman is known for: one where everything happens belows the surface of the story. That said, neither Aickman nor this story are for everybody. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that most people shouldn't bother with reading this. It really is a complex story. The audiotape no doubt contains the version included in Straub's "Houses With Doors" anthology, which is actually an easier, more reader-friendly, version of the story. For the true masochist, track down a copy of the Donald M. Grant (publisher) hardcover of the story. That nut's hard to crack! As to what the story is actually "about"...well, I won't give it away, but it has a lot to do with the troubles between the hero and his wife.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Underestimate Mrs. God, July 14, 2010

By 

Raina Hellmuth (Benicia, CA, US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mrs God (Hardcover)

I typically don't review books, because I tend to agree with what other people think - the good ones are good and the bad ones are bad, but this time, seems I'm outside the majority. I have to five star this, as it's easily one of the most engaging reads I've ever come across.

Mrs. God is the story of a man who abandons his greatly pregnant wife, teaching position, and Country to spend three weeks at an isolated English country house to study the poems of his grandfather's one time wife. From the moment he arrives at Gatwick Airport, things transpire in an increasingly odd manner, little incidents that, in the exhaustion of travel, can be written off as 'jet-lag', but they persist, and then, start to become sinister. Esswood House is staffed by unseen servants. The family that owns the house, the Schneschals, are scorned by the locals and their dead are barred from the local cemetery. The ghost of his great aunt wanders about - or does she? None of it is substantiated, but the end, and the way the end ties back into the beginning, is skillful, exciting, mesmerizing.

In the past, I have forced the story on others and made them report back, what did they think this meant, what did they think that meant, is it a horror story about a haunted place, ala Stephen King's the Shining, or a story about an already mad man letting an environment hasten him along to a violent end, ala Stanley Kubrick's the Shining? I have one friend who thinks the book, at it's center, is about Vampires, and I am tempted to agree, although the author never comes close to mentioning such a thing. Another thinks that it's a warning against the marital condition and how mistrust and hatred can worm their way under an otherwise perfect reasonable man's skin and destroy him. A third thinks it's veiled sermon against abortion.

I have come to the decision that it's literary David Lynch. You come into the story when, like life, so much of what is pertinent has already transpired and you have to trust this somewhat shady and rather unreliable narrator who's guiding you through his own perceived experiences. I call it my plane book (I used to have the anthology, Houses Without Doors, but alas, left it on a plane. Ah, life!) because the sub-200 page story is the perfect length to devour on a flight. I've read it no fewer than a dozen times and have had countless wonderful conversations about it - I'm a voracious and avid reader, and this is, without parallel, the best story I've ever read.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Started out as exciting but became terribly convoluted, July 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mrs. God (Audio Cassette)

I was looking forward to this tape but after the first half hour it sank into a morass of death metaphors and insecurities. Although I adore the work of Kevin Spacey, not even his considerable efforts could save this choppy audiotape.