The Woman in Black Susan Hill

Key facts Adapted into a successful play and film Horror/Gothic genre A haunting, heartbreaking tale 1 minute 3 key facts

(by the author herself) Critical commentary https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/17/woman-in-black-book-club-susan-hill 5 minutes Read first 3 paragraphs Discuss ingredients of a ghost story (by the author herself)

Possible links and themes Innocence and guilt Links well with: Gothic/horror imagery The Go-Between (time and memory, guilt) Use of setting The Turn of the Screw (memory, supernatural) Memory Loss and death Rebecca (mysteries, memory) Supernatural symbolism Dracula (use of supernatural) 3 minutes Possible themes/concepts to explore and compare

The story begins with Arthur Kipps, a retired solicitor who formerly worked for Mr. Bentley. One night he is at home with his wife Esme and four stepchildren, who are telling ghost stories. When he is asked to tell a story, he becomes irritated and leaves the room, and begins to write of his horrific experiences several years in the past. Many years earlier, whilst still a junior solicitor for Bentley, Kipps was summoned to Crythin Gifford, a small market town on the north east coast of England, to attend the funeral of Mrs. Alice Drablow. Kipps is reluctant to leave his fiancée, Stella, but he is eager to leave the London smog. The late Drablow was an elderly and reclusive widow who lived alone in the desolate and secluded Eel Marsh House. 3 minutes Summary of opening of novel: setting the scene Read and discuss briefly

The house is situated on Nine Lives Causeway The house is situated on Nine Lives Causeway. At high tide, it is completely cut off from the mainland, surrounded only by marshes and sea frets. Kipps soon realizes there is more to Alice Drablow than he originally thought. At the funeral, he sees a woman dressed in black and with a pale face and dark eyes, whom a group of children are silently watching. While sorting through Mrs Drablow's papers at Eel Marsh House over the course of several days, he endures an increasingly terrifying sequence of unexplained noises, chilling events and appearances by the Woman in Black. In one of these instances, he hears the sound of a horse and carriage in distress, closely followed by the screams of a young child and his maid, coming from the direction of the marshes. 3 minutes Summary of opening of novel: setting and beginning of conflict Read and discuss briefly

It was nine-thirty on Christmas Eve It was nine-thirty on Christmas Eve. As I crossed the long entrance hall of Monk’s Piece on my way from the dining room, where we had just enjoyed the first of the happy, festive meals, towards the drawing room and the fire around which my family were now assembled, I paused and then, as I often do in the course of an evening, went to the front door, opened it and stepped outside. I have always liked to take a breath of the evening, to smell the air, whether it is sweetly scented and balmy with the flowers of midsummer, pungent with the bonfires and leaf-mould of autumn, or crackling cold from frost and snow. I like to look about me at the sky above my head, whether there are moon and stars or utter blackness, and into the darkness ahead of me; I like to listen for the cries of nocturnal creatures and the moaning rise and fall of the wind, or the pattering of rain in the orchard trees, I enjoy the rush of air towards me up the hill from the flat pastures of the river valley. Tonight, I smelled at once, and with a lightening heart, that there had been a change in the weather. All the previous week, we had had rain, chilling rain and a mist that lay low about the house and over the countryside. TIME CHECK 15 minutes 15 minutes left to analyse opening of novel in light of brief introduction Comments could include: Contrast with known genre Setting and nature First person – what do we learn about the narrator? Isolation etc. Possible foreshadowing under imagery: “cries” and “moaning”, “utter blackness” Importance of family in opening Christmas Eve – why? “crackling” “chilling” “pattering” “lightening” – adjectives with a sense of action Repetition of “I like” and sense of continuity “as I often do”