Book Review: A Haunted House (Virginia Woolf).

I have always enjoyed reading Virginia Woolf’s work. So, picking up this short story, A Haunted House was an easy choice to make. The story is about a ghostly couple roaming around the house trying to find something. The story is barely three pages, so it is a short story in the literal sense.

The story is a ghost story, but it’s also not one. I mean not in the way we usually see ghost stories. It is written in a unique way. The narrator of the story is unnamed. On the verge of falling asleep, she hears the ghostly couple moving around the house, trying to find something. The narrator begins with how they hear sounds and noises in the house whenever they are awake, doors opening and closing, for example. She can also hear a couple talking to each other, wandering from room to room.

The way the story is narrated is like there is a sense of something or a presence in their house, but they can’t see anything. They just feel it but cannot confront it. It reminded me of how aware I am of sounds when I am alone in the house because it is eerily quiet. The narrator seems to feel this way too; something she can sense but can’t exactly see. It does create a horror story scenario in that sense. I felt the narrator is unreliable. A lot of times you can’t be sure whether she is actually hearing something or imagining it. She hears noises when she is just awake or about to sleep, making you wonder if she is completely conscious of her surroundings or not.

I feel the way the story moves; it is about perspective. It’s up to you to decide whether the ghostly couple is real or just something the narrator thinks is happening when she is not totally aware of her environment. I liked the language and narration style used in the story by Virginia Woolf. The writing style of this story is more poetic than prose. With a play on different figures of speech and repetition of certain words. It changes the experience of reading the story.

I have read Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf and loved them. Reading A Haunted House was no exception; it is a very interesting story. It is fascinating, and a new type of ghost story that strays from classic horror elements. For a story that is barely three pages long, it makes you think a lot while you are reading it. I enjoyed reading it.

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