The Uninvited

by Dorothy Macardle

Could a young girl's pure love triumph over the dread forces of evil and hatred that made Cliff End a place of never-ending terror?

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Gothic, Mystery, Classics, Ghosts, Ghost Stories

278 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Dorothy Macardle was born in Dundalk, Ireland in 1889 into a wealthy brewing family, famous for their Macardle's Ale, and was raised Roman Catholic. She received her secondary education in Alexandra College, Dublin – a school under the management of the Church of Ireland – and later attended University College, Dublin. Upon graduating, she returned to teach English at Alexandra.

Macardle was a member of the Gaelic League and later joined Cumann na mBan in 1917. In 1918 (during the War of Independence), Macardle was arrested by the RIC while teaching at Alexandra; she was eventually dismissed in 1923, towards the latter end of the Irish Civil War, because of her anti-Treatyite sympathies and activities.

When the republican movement split in 1921-22 over the Anglo-Irish Treaty, MacArdle sided with Éamon de Valera and the anti-Treaty Irregulars. She was imprisoned by the fledgling Free State government in 1922, during the Civil War, and served time in both Mountjoy and Kilmainham Gaols.

While working as a journalist with the League of Nations in the 1930s she acquired a considerable affinity with the plight of pre-war Czechoslovakia. Consequently she differed with official Irish government policy on the threat of Nazism, Irish neutrality during World War II, compulsory Irish language teaching in schools, and deplored what she saw as the reduced status of women in the 1937 Constitution of Ireland.

Macardle recounted her Civil War experiences in Earthbound: Nine Stories of Ireland (1924). Macardle became a playwright in the next two decades. In her dramatic writing she used the pseudonym Margaret Callan. During this time she worked as a journalist at the League of Nations.

She also researched her mammoth book The Irish Republic which was first published in 1937. Her political opponents and some modern historians consider her to be a hagiographer for de Valera's political views. Murray considers that: "..de Valera’s ambitious scheme was eventually implemented by Dorothy Macardle, his devoted follower and lifelong apologist, whose book The Irish Republic conforms closely to the overall plan outlined by de Valera in prison, and even incorporates many of its details. The outline originally proposed by de Valera was extremely detailed, incorporating a carefully planned chronology and headings from which the chapters were to be developed."

She died in 1958 at the age of 69 of cancer in hospital in Drogheda. Though she was somewhat disillusioned with the new Irish State (in particular, regarding its treatment of women), she left the royalties from The Irish Republic to her close friend Éamon de Valera, who wrote the foreword to the book. De Valera visited her when she was dying.

Reviews

[Henry Avila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was it real? An old unsettling home nevertheless with charm on a hill overlooking the stormy, lovely sea in Devonshire such places are rare, still with a few unseen problems as supernatural forces interfere in the lives of the living inside the house. In the nearby English village stories are told of the place, now that a foolish brother and sister bought it, set in 1937 ...no natives would, they will soon find the truth which the structure hides , why so cheap a price, the outsiders don't know but will. Roderick Fitzgerald a writer and his sister Pamela having fled London for the quiet rural area, but things go awry, as two ghosts haunt the premises and the siblings are puzzled how to solve the problem of eliminating the weird, petrifying images . Fifteen years prior a tragic event occurred a woman Mary Meredith fell off the cliff thus the name Cliff End an appropriate name for the estate, the daughter of The Commander who sold them the house. Things were complicated then , Mary's husband Llewellyn Meredith a second- rate painter and I am being very generous had an affair with a tempestuous Spanish gypsy, and model Carmel , so the locals believe and later marries Mary. A daughter is born Stella; raised by her grandfather since her parents died, this occurred fifteen years ago. A love triangle caused the lethal result and the mystery, but this gives readers a fascinating situation to try and comprehend. The ghosts of these women stalk the mansion and the villagers stay away from, still strangers unwisely do not. Roderick and Pamela don't know how to rid the property of these manifestations .The creepy images unformed coming down the stairs, cold spaces that chill the bones, smells which cause the nose and heart to feel uneasy, the constant crying sounds gives the place a feeling of foreboding, producing an atmosphere of intense terror . Stella adores her late mother, makes a shrine to her memory you can imagine her reaction to rumors she has appeared in Cliff End, stupefied, still she like a magnet is attractive to and unable to resist visiting the house. Roderick becomes infatuated with the pretty, shy Stella, yet trouble will arrive, she faints and worse becomes unhinged. Roderick is torn between protecting his beloved by Miss Meredith leaving the village, and wanting to be with her . A 1944 classic film version starring Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey as the siblings and Gail Russell as Stella, I've seen and loved a dozen times, puts pictures to words and brings another component to this superb story.

[Bobby Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful timeless story by Dorothy Macardle. Published as "Uneasy Freehold" in the early 1940's, it was renamed for the classic film it spawned in 1943 starring Ray Milland and the ethereal Gail Russell. I've owned a hardback copy of this fabulous book for decades and try to read it at least once every couple of years. There is a light and breezy feel to this narrative which makes it the perfect summer read if you are tired of the run-of-the-mill.

Roderick and his sister Pamela leave the hustle and bustle of modern London looking for that perfect house on the English coast. What they find is the beautiful Cliff End overlooking the sea. From their first meeting with the sweet and lovely young Stella Meredith, whose grandfather owns the house, we know there is a larger mystery here. This is a good novel that slowly unfolds as we learn of Stella's mother Mary, and the beautiful Spanish girl, Carmel, who was seduced by Stella's father.

There are more questions than answers for the brother and sister the longer they remain at Cliff End. Who is the apparition at the top of the stairway and why does a sickening cold always precede its appearance? Why are there moans of anguish coming from the room that used to be the nursery? What is the real mystery surrounding Mary's death? What about that Mimosa scent that coincides with the moaning? And why do things get more stirred up every time young Stella is there? Roderick has fallen for the sweet Stella just as the reader has and both must discover the answers.

What makes this such an excellent read is that it treats this as a straightforward story of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances. It unfolds slowly as Roderick and Pamela attempt to solve this maddening riddle to an otherwise wonderful house they don't want to leave. Both the mystery and ghost story are presented in an entertaining day-to-day chronicle of life in the English countryside. Ever so gradually, the growing romance between Roderick and Stella inches its way to the center at the same time the danger to young Stella heightens.

It's fantastic that this long-out-of-print classic is now available on Kindle. The forward in the Kindle version contains a wealth of information about Macardle, her work and life. It's several pages in the Kindle and is well worth reading. The Uninvited inspired the finest film of its kind ever made, starring Ray Milland and the lovely Gail Russell. You don't want to miss either the book or the film, and now that Macardle's fine novel is back in print, you don't have to.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my gosh, did I ever have fun with this book and then with the film.

The story, in a very brief nutshell, revolves around the perfect house on the Devon Coast, Cliff End. It is supposed to the be setting for a pair of siblings' idyllic country life as they decide to leave London behind, but things don't turn out as planned. Although warned by the seller that the house was said to have been the site of some "disturbances" that had driven away former tenants, the house is perfect for Roddy and Pamela Fitzgerald. However, it doesn't take long before they start noticing a few strange occurrences, which only intensify as time goes on. When their first houseguests arrive, things get even stranger; the horror becomes gradually worse to the point where the Fitzgeralds realize that the only smart thing would be to leave Cliff End. Ultimately, though, they realize that everything they're experiencing seems to center directly on the daughter of one of the now-dead inhabitants, a young woman named Stella. Neither of them really want to leave, so the only thing left is to find some sort of solution to be able to face down whatever it is that is currently in control of their lives, and while doing so, hopefully preventing Stella from coming to any sort of harm.

I was so into this book that the least little disruption gave me fits. I really enjoyed this one and can't recommend it highly enough. If like me, you're into older supernatural works (this one is from 1942), then do not miss the novel. While it may seem tame in today's world, there is a LOT going on here and quite frankly, it's downright spooky.

Book #1 in this year's Halloween reading; more about it and about the film at my
http://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/2016...

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I built this up too much in my anticipation of finally reading it?

It was okay and the characters were lively and engaging. It was just too....horror-light for my horror-loving heart. The mystery was fun though and kept me reading.

At the very least, I've knocked another one off my 2023 Mount TBR reading challenge, so YAY!

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

While The Uninvited is a delightfully creepy and atmospheric gothic horror novel, I have no idea why this was nominated and won a Retro Hugo. The tale begins with a brother and sister finding an awesome old house on the Devon coast and getting a deal on it. The house, while solid as a rock, had been largely uninhabited for over a decade, and of course, there are rumors in town that it is haunted. Unswayed by such rumors (and the seller even warned them of 'disturbances'), the siblings restore the place and it is lovely.

Well, true to form, the 'hauntings' start almost right off the bat, with Pamela hearing someone crying at night, cold seeps in, ghostly images, etc. What made this one special concerns the wit and prose of Macardle, as well as the excellent, well rounded characters. We have the typical gossipy townies, but the leads are all 'progressive', especially when this was penned prior to WWII. Pamela is a free spirit and 'Roddy', a journalist/critic comes off a rather enlightened. Macardle wrote a tome about the 'Irish troubles' at the turn of the century and the text is laced with subtle references to this (the siblings are half Irish).

Another fun aspect of the novel concerns the mystery involved. What is haunting the house? There is a sordid tale of the previous occupants, a ne'er-do-well painter, his chaste and prim wife, and their 'servant' Carmel, who once posed as a model for the hubbie. All of them passed (some in questionable ways), leaving only their daughter, who became orphaned at a young age. The daughter, Stella, is now 18 or so and quickly befriends the siblings, much to the chagrin of her grandfather, and she becomes key to the puzzle of the haunting...

If you dig gothic horror, this really is a must. The dialogue takes a bit to get into as Macardle employs lots of period slang and often writes phonetically the accents, but for me that gave this a quaint feel. All in all, a fun trip to 1930s England replete with haunted houses, love interests and spooky scenes. 4 gothic stars!!

[Issicratea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can see why Dorothy Macardle’s 1941 novel The Uninvited has been resuscitated as a “recovered voice” by the Irish independent publisher Tramp Press. It’s an amusing, stylish book, reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier’s novels or of Geoffrey Household’s Rogue Male—plot-driven, period page-turners, with sufficient strength and subtlety in the writing to make the experience of reading them as satisfying as reading many more self-consciously literary novels.

I suspect that you would need to be more of a “ghosty” person than I am to enjoy this book to the full. I don’t mind a haunted house as a motif, but I like my uncanny presences to be barely sketched, as in the short stories of Hoffmann or M. R. James (or possibly also Walter de la Mare, whom Macardle intriguingly name-checks here as an influence.) Once spirits are out in the open and the mechanics of haunting come under scrutiny, my interest rather wanes.

What I liked very much in this novel was the prolonged, pre-ghost set-up period, when Macardle’s protagonists, a quietly charming, twenty-something Anglo-Irish brother and sister, Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald, fall in love with a Devonian seaside house and find themselves inexorably drawn into its spell. Both characters are very well drawn, as are the sharply characterized minor figures Macardle adriotly arrays around them: their suave London friends Max and Judith; the wonderfully named—and appropriately fey—theatrical couple, Wendy and Peter; dour Dr Scott; dourer Commander Brooke; the Commander’s vulnerable and passionate granddaughter Stella; heart-of-gold Irish housekeeper Lizzie, etc. There is apparently a famous 1944 movie of the novel, which I feel I am really going to have to seek out.

One thing I liked about reading this novel was making the acquaintance of the author herself, who sounds an interesting figure: an Irish republican, briefly imprisoned during the Irish Civil War in the 1920s; a journalist with the League of Nations in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s; and a feminist who strongly objected against the 1937 Irish Constitution’s conservative interpretation of women’s role. I read up about Macardle’s life only after completing the novel, but it definitely adds a further dimension to the text in retrospect. Ideals of “good” and “bad” womanhood, and maternity in particular, float through the plot like wisps of ghostly ectoplasm, clustering balefully around the repressed, semi-rebellious figure of Stella, on whose choices the plot largely turns.

[Jack Tripper]

Here's the cover of the 1946 Bantam mass-market paperback (341 pages).

[Warren Fournier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I once lived in an actual haunted house. After reading "The Uninvited," I was struck by the parallels between the novel and my own weird experience. Indulge me, friends, in telling you my own ghost story, which I'll weave into my review, and you'll understand why.

The first house my wife and I bought together was an old bed and breakfast from 1885. It even had been featured on television for its unique history. The previous owner mysteriously told us that the last prospective buyers to tour the property had been "rejected by the house" immediately due to strange "incidents." That's one hell of way to sell a house! Undeterred, my wife and I purchased the place and moved in.

Such is the opening premise of Irish author Dorothy Macardle's 1941 "Uneasy Freehold," which was retitled for American readers as "The Uninvited." There have been several books and films over the decades entitled "The Uninvited," but this is the quintessential haunted house story upon which was based the chilling classic film from 1944 of the same name, and which became the template for our most beloved ghost stories like Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House."

Roddy is an aspiring writer who is looking for his own home out in the country so he can be inspired. His sister Pamela, who had been caring for their ailing father for six years, wants to go in on it with her brother. They find a sweet deal on a picturesque historic Georgian overlooking the ocean. They will have their own beach and everything! Only, the clincher is that the previous owner's daughter fell to her death from a cliff on the property, and the place is rumored to be haunted. A previous attempt to sell the house led to the family backing out of the deal promptly due to certain undisclosed "disturbances."

Just like Roddy and Pamela, Steff and I were thrilled with our first home as well. We invested considerable time and money making it our own little nest. But one night I awoke with a start to hear a crash coming from the hall. My wife was not in bed. Then I heard her screaming. I found her on the landing of the stairs, hysterical, telling me that she was heading down to the kitchen to get a midnight snack and saw a little girl standing halfway up the steps, shimmering as if her image was coming from an old black-and-white cathode-ray-tube. Then, she said, a sudden crashing came from within the walls, and the girl disappeared.

I gently redirected Steff, assuring her she had not been fully awake and maybe was having a waking dream. But then several months later, we were sitting in the front parlor and, from up the same stairs, we both clearly heard a little girl call out, "Mommy?"

Steff was pregnant with our daughter, but we didn't have any kids in the house. Needless to say, this freaked us both out, and we did some research on the house. The original tenant was a single mother and a kept woman of a wealthy pioneer explorer. Her daughter died in the house at 11-years-old of tuberculosis. We told our story to the lady who sold us the place, who admitted that she and her guests had also seen the little girl when living in that house, assuring us that she was sweet and harmless.

Again, this is pretty much how things go for Roddy and Pamela at first, only Dorothy Macardle sets the stage for this ghost story much less efficiently than I just did. This is where some readers might lose patience, as things do get off to a very slow start.

Both main characters are self-described "gregarious" young people, and so are constantly full of circumstantial ADD dialogue, changing subjects, exchanging banter, and flitting about like fall leaves in a strong breeze. On one hand, it makes for a believable and likeable couple, full of excitement at finding such an affordable gem of a house. On the other hand, the cutesy dialogue does wear a bit thin, and the humor is lost on me. I don't know whether this is because some of the wit is very dated and specifically targeted to Anglican readers, or if it is just plain bad. Instead, I chuckled at scenes that I think were not meant to be funny.

For example, our heroes are considering postponing the purchase of a refrigerator because they are not sure they want to remain in the spooky place. Their maid encourages them to make up their minds, because without the fridge, she can't get the coffee cream to set. "The situation is getting serious!" cries Pamela. Don't judge. I do understand their priorities.

But once the hauntings start going into full swing, then the novel becomes hard to put down. Pamela, like Steff, is the first to experience strange phenomena, and Roddy, like me, placates her at first, until things start getting out of hand that no one can ignore.

Will Pamela and Roddy be forced to flee their dream home or can they solve a mystery to put an angry presence to rest?

Unfortunately, there was no happy ending for Steff and me. Convinced we were living with an unhappy spirit, Steff decided to have the house blessed by our friend who was a Serbian Orthodox priest. At the same time, my infant daughter was born. It seems these events were the catalysts for everything going to shit. Cracks started appearing in all the walls. A heavy piece of plaster moulding came crashing down just inches from where I was standing holding my newborn infant. Sewage gases started flooding the house from the basement. Five contractors could not explain what was happening. Our priest felt there was an angry presence in the house. We finally hired a "forensic architect" who explained that the previous owner had made upgrades that ultimately put too much pressure on the main header, so that when we moved all our furniture in, it started the process of the house collapsing in on itself. The fix was far too expensive and would require us to rent another house while repairs were being made. We ultimately had to leave the house for a major loss. Steff and I truly felt like the uninvited guests of our own home.

There are several points to my story. First of all, it allowed me to give you a taste of what you can expect from "The Uninvited" without spoiling any plot. If you liked hearing about my own ghost, then this book is definitely for you. It is the template for grounded, slow-burn haunted house stories.

But the big take-away is that whether or not the Fournier manor was really haunted, you can see how our modern ghost stories are an allegory for true real estate nightmares. There is a real tragic horror behind a devastating end to the thrill and excitement of finally living the dream and owning your own home. There are very real practical and psychological issues that are involved when a home no longer feels like a home but an enemy. "The Uninvited" captures this horror perfectly, and I can say so from experience.

"I was uneasy because I was eavesdropping there. It was an intrusion; this house was old; long before we were born it had its occupants, living and dying here. We were aliens and trespassers in their hereditary home. Now I knew that they were in possession of the house once more, their timelessness closing over our intrusion as water over a stone."

Thirdly, this episode changed my approach to books like "The Uninvited." Yes, I still like my scary stories as much as any horror fan, and I'm not necessarily any more convinced in the reality of supernatural entities. I'd like to think I'm a rational person, and certainly I can understand how a number of explainable elements came together perfectly for us to experience our own genuine haunting. "The Uninvited" does not quite delve into those areas, preferring to embrace the idea of an afterlife as a foregone conclusion. But I've come to respect the idea of some form of our consciousness or emotion being tied to a place, reliving past traumas. So I tend to enjoy fiction that treats the theme with sensitivity. This novel certainly does that.

I would like to add that Macardle's novel is a lot more than just a ghost story. She was an ardent Republican feminist who was appalled at the codification of the domestic role of women in the 1937 Irish Constitution. Therefore, it is no surprise that the main character Pamela breaks from these stereotypes. But most of all, the ghost story itself cleverly is about how a family that has literally deified a dead woman, who in life was idealized as a virtuous example of domestic martyrdom to a toxic marriage. I can't say more without spoilers, but I assure you Macardle's criticism is excellently expressed in the theme of this entertaining story without being preachy at all.

Overall, folks, I think "The Uninvited" is not a perfect book, but it is a bonafide classic, full of chilling atmosphere, moans in the night, and sighs at the foot of the bed. It surprises me that the book had been out of print for so long. Fortunately, Tramp Press reissued the novel in 2015 as part of the Recovered Voices series to shine a spotlight on less known women authors. Macardle wrote a follow-up called "The Unforseen" which also was released in the Recovered Voices series. I think her work and life is worth investigating, as she was quite the badass during and after the Irish Civil War, and her writing is accessible yet beautiful.

So whether or not you are a resident of your own haunted house or just like to visit through the pages of a good book, I think you'll agree that this story is the gold standard of the subgenre.

SCORE: 4 repos out of 5

SUGGESTED MUSICAL PAIRING: "Mephisto" by Depeche Mode

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through the first two-thirds of the book this was a 3 star read for me. But towards the end, action picked up, and led to an exciting ending. The personalities and dialogue are old-fashioned as this was written in the 1940's. It is, however, a classic of Irish literature, and was recently republished by Tramp Press. the author, Macardle's own story as a feminist and revolutionary is interesting. These days many would disagree with her ardent support of Eamonn De Valera, a leader in the 1916 uprising, Anglo Irish war, and the Irish Civil War. Despite his "revolutionary" beginnings, De Valera came to embody the conservative values that made the lives of so many Irish citizens miserable for decades, especially for women.

A brother and sister leave London after buying a house in Cornwall. He is a playwright and his sister appears to be neurotic. They are half Irish, and still have ties to Ireland. The house is haunted, and although they are warned, they move in. As the story builds, the haunting takes ahold of many of the characters. The ghost story is well done, and the story builds to a satisfying resolution.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a chilling ghost story. Loved the movie with a young Ray Milland and loved the book.

Two ghosts are haunting an old English cliffside home.
Carmel and Mary Meridith.

One malevolent as Satan the other a benevolent spirit. Which one is which?

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic ghost story .....

Roddy and Pamela are brother and sister, and they are searching the Devon coast to find a new home. He is a playwright who wants to escape the complications of London life, and she has just been released from years of caring for their sick father.

They find the house of their dreams. It stood alone not far from the edge of a cliff, it was uninhabited and it appeared to have been neglected for quite some time, but they saw its potential. And they saw a “for sale” sign.

They find the owner, an elderly man with a granddaughter just out of boarding school. He seems reluctant to sell the house, and reluctant to explain why, but Roddy is persuasive.

The house will be theirs.

Roddy and Pamela are full of ideas for refurbishing the house and making it into a home; and they dismiss local gossip that says that the house is haunted, and that terrified tenants had fled. They saw nothing amiss. They invite an old family retainer, Lizzie, to become their housekeeper; they enjoy the simple pleasures of life in the country; and they make plans to invite friends to stay.

All of this is wonderfully readable, and utterly of its time.

I liked Roddy and Pamela; I found it easy to understand who they were, where they were in life. The sibling relationship was particularly well drawn; they were a team.

They had thought things through; they knew that their circumstances were likely to change, that they wouldn't always want to share a home, and they had made provision for that.

In between the house talk and the ghost talk there were allusions to their Irish home and it was clear that their roots and their history were important to them.

It was interesting to follow sensible, practical people into a ghost story.

It was obvious there was going to be a ghost story. Roddy was telling the story and the substance of the book was a manuscript, introduced by a letter explaining that it was an account of what had happened in Devon.

That meant that a degree of suspense was lost - I knew from the start that something had happened and I knew, from the tone, that the Fitzgerald's had been able to put whatever had happened behind them.

During a housewarming party, a friend of Roddy and Pamela’s is profoundly disturbed by something she sees in the mirror of the spare bedroom. Roddy spends the next night in that spare bedroom, and finds himself overcome by fear and foreboding. And then, when Roddy and Pamela away from the house, Lizzie is terrified by something that she sees emerging from that room, something that she can not find the words to explain.

That is the turning point.

They know that something happened in that house. They suspect that it involves Stella, the granddaughter of the man who reluctantly sold them the house, because she is drawn to them and to that room.

The story unwinds slowly as Roderick and Pamela set about uncovering the history of their home, in the hope that when they know what has happened there they can somehow put things right. The mystery, the ghost story and the story of country life are beautifully wrapped together.

A romance grows between Roddy and Stella and that complicates the story; because the house had been Stella's childhood home, because the haunting of the house had its roots in a tragedy that happened then, and because whenever the Fitzgerald's saw the possibility of a resolution they also saw the possibility of harm to Stella.

I had an idea of how the mystery would pay out at an early stage, but that didn't spoil the story. It was an utterly believable human tragedy, and I could understood how and why it had happened. And I was caught up with Roddy and Pamela as they struggled to work out what had happened and what they could, what they should, do.

The plot was was well thought out, it drew in a lovely range of people and incidents, and it had things to say. This story of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstance speaks of the importance of home, of the roles that mothers can play, and of the consequences of their absence.

I'd call this a very good - almost great - ghost story.

And a lovely period piece

[Maria Hill AKA MH Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic haunted house story.

Written in the late 30's early 40's this novel is about an Anglo Irish brother and sister "the Fitzgerald's" who move to a rural house situated on a cliff edge in Devonshire. They can barely afford it but still, it is the house of their dreams until of course, they discover it is haunted. As in most of these tales, the couple and their friends must solve the mystery of who and why is haunting their house in order to eliminate the ghosts. Not to do so would mean giving up their beloved home.

This is more literary than narrative-based fiction and is a slow burner very reminiscent of some of the Victorian ghost tales I have read, Charlotte Riddell comes to mind. There are themes here on the true importance of Motherhood and the danger of considering all Mothers to be saints. There is a wonderful character portrayal in the personage of their Irish housekeeper Lizzie. I also enjoyed MacArdle's discussions on playwriting and the 1930's literary scene (she was herself at this time chiefly a playwright). I chuckled at the very Enid Blyton like descriptions of the food they were eating - I could have murdered that cheese omelet :)

The essential mystery of the reason for the haunting is easily solved but the ending still does not disappoint.

I have just finished watching the 1944 movie that was made based on the book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the book.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although 1944's "The Uninvited" has long been one of this viewer's favorite spooky movies of that great filmmaking decade, it wasn't until fairly recently that I learned of the special place it holds in cinema history. The film, apparently, was the very first Hollywood product to treat ghosts seriously. Here, at last, the specters on display were not hoaxes, not fakes, and not played for laughs. Rather, they were completely legit; supernatural survivors with unfinished business here on the material plane. Featuring first-rate acting by a cast of pros, impressive direction by Lewis Allen in his first feature-length film, a theme song that would go on to become a classic, remarkable (for its time) special FX, and stunning, noirish and Oscar-nominated cinematography by the great Charles Lang, the picture is a very solid entertainment, indeed, if perhaps a tad tame for today's horror buffs...especially those who require gallons of the red stuff to experience a shiver. Anyway, I had long wanted to check out the currently out-of-print source novel for "The Uninvited," and after some Interwebs searching, was easily able to lay my hands on a copy (a 1969 Bantam paperback). This novel, written by Irish author Dorothy Macardle (1889 - 1958), was initially released in the U.K. in 1941 under the title "Uneasy Freehold"; one year later, it appeared in the U.S. with its more well-known appellation, "The Uninvited." Remarkably, this was Macardle's first novel, after having come out with several books of Irish history previous to this, including her highly esteemed volume "The Irish Republic" (1937). As it turns out, Macardle's novel is easily more nerve wracking than the film it begat several years later; a wonderful exercise in slow-burn suspense. This reader was recently made happy to discover that his other favorite ghost movie of the '40s, 1947's "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," had as its source novel something even richer and deeper (check out R.A. Dick's 1945 novel of the same name for proof), and such is the case here, as well.

In Macardle's book, the reader is introduced to Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald. Roderick is a 29-year-old book and theater critic, as well as an aspiring playwright; his sister, Pamela, is 23, and at loose ends after having nursed their dying father for six years. While motoring through the northern part of Devonshire, the two fall in love with an abandoned abode, Cliff End, which sits high atop the Bristol Channel. To their great delight, they are able to purchase the place on agreeable terms from the owner, 18-year-old Stella Meredith, whose mother Mary had died tragically after falling off the nearby precipice 15 years earlier, and whose father, a painter, had died at sea three years after that. Stella currently lives with her grandfather, an ex-naval officer named Commander Brooke, who seems decidedly uncomfortable with the sale. But despite that, Roderick and Pamela do indeed move in a few months later, and all seems to go well at first. But before long, the moaning cries of a female are heard at night; Judith, the wife of one of Roderick's best friends, is horrified to see her face in the mirror appear as a leering death's head; their maid, Lizzie, is terrified by the ghostly image of a woman at the upstairs bannister; an overpowering aroma of mimosa and a paralyzing chill are encountered, respectively, in the downstairs nursery and the upstairs studio; the visiting Stella--entering the house for the first time in 15 years--becomes crazed with the belief that her deceased mother is trying to contact her; and the Fitzgeralds' cat and Scottish terrier are reduced to cowering fear. And after a séance is held, the dire truth becomes known, and it is even worse than imagined: Not only is the ghost of Mary Meredith haunting Cliff End for reasons of her own, but there appears to be another ghost present, as well; the ghost of Carmel, a Spanish gypsy who had once served as Mary's husband’s model...a woman who, when alive, was reputed to be a very bad sort....

"The Uninvited" starts off slowly, its first 50 or so pages mainly detailing the Fitzgeralds' moving in and getting to know their neighbors and village, the fictional Biddlecombe. Things do pick up in a big way with those initial "occurrences," however, and it must be said that every single manifestation is a frightening one. The characters here react quite convincingly and realistically when faced with the supernatural: Roderick becomes paralyzed and unable to speak; Pamela becomes sick to her stomach; Judith is driven to "weeping helplessly." Macardle holds the reader's interest by having Ingram, a young but passionate "ghost buster" friend of theirs, provide various explanations for the phenomena, as well as give us a scientific discourse on the nature of ectoplasm, and why ghosts engender a feeling of cold. Ultimately, of course, the real explanation for the hauntings is revealed, and it is one that few readers will foresee; a truly fascinating and involved backstory. Macardle's novel builds to a tense, atmospheric, and, indeed, claustrophobic final quarter, only to wind up with a wonderfully touching conclusion. Along the way, the author throws in several well-done and suspenseful scenes--I particularly enjoyed the two séances, including Pamela's possession during the latter--and fleshes out her book with any number of interesting secondary characters. Thus, we are given Judith and Max, the latter being an artist friend of Roderick's; Wendy and Peter, a pair of newlyweds who are also good friends of Roderick's, as well as being very eccentric actors; Dr. Scott, the youngish village physician who seems to be harboring a crush on Pamela; and Father Anson, the local priest who urges the Fitzgeralds to employ the drastic recourse of exorcism, much to Stella's horror.

Macardle's novel, to its credit, is nicely detailed--some might say overly detailed--and yet, somehow, this reader could never quite get a proper mental image of the layout of Cliff End's interior, or of the village or surrounding countryside. Curiously, though written in 1941, not a single mention of WW2 from narrator Roderick is to be found; only a passing reference to "the war in Spain," near the book's end, lets us know that the story takes place between 1936 and 1939. Naturally, this is a very British sort of experience, and readers must thus be prepared for a good deal of English slang words before venturing in (or perhaps you already know what a "dew-bit" is?). Another thing that readers should anticipate is the large number of literary and cultural references that Roderick (who, as a book critic, would be expected to be well-read), his sister and friends are apt to toss back and forth. A little research on my part revealed that the quotes and references hail from such disparate sources as Shakespeare, A.A. Milne, G.K. Chesterton, Lewis Carroll, William Wordsworth, Irish politician Boyle Roche, sculptor Jacob Epstein and playwright William Archer...all giving some literary cachet to the proceedings, I suppose. Although Roderick, toward his narrative's end, describes his story as both "sheer melodrama" and "far-fetched," it is more likely that most readers will rather agree with Ingram when he declares "it is the most enthralling thing of the sort that I have ever encountered. You know, you have a psychic-researcher's paradise here!" Finely written and often fairly scary, "The Uninvited" is surely quality fare for modern-day horror readers.

But getting back to the film, it is essentially a solid and faithful adaptation, with some important differences. Thus, in the cinematic version, many of those secondary characters--such as Father Anson, Max and Judith, Peter and Wendy--are completely eliminated, as well as the scenes that they appear in (such as the book's extended housewarming sequence). Roderick is a music critic and aspiring composer in the film, rather than a drama critic and wannabe playwright, which allows the character to perform, on piano, the haunting "Stella By Starlight" melody (actually written by Victor Young) that would later become an American standard. The name of the creepy abode has been changed from Cliff End to Windward House, while Commander Brooke's name, for some wholly inexplicable reason, has been changed to Commander Beech. Several scenes have been invented whole cloth for the film, such as the one in which Roderick and Stella go sailing, and the one in which we see flowers wilting in the house's ghostly aura. The character of Miss Holloway, who was Mary's best friend and Stella's onetime nurse, has been significantly beefed up for the film, to the point that she becomes an evil plotter on the order of Mrs. Danvers in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca" (1940); in the Macardle novel, her presence is confined to a single chapter, in which she gives the Fitzgeralds some background information. The film also makes Stella the victim of that ghostly possession, instead of Pamela, and has the Commander meet his end at Windward House, instead of in a hospital.

But despite all these changes, the film still works marvelously. Ray Milland (here one year away from his Oscar-winning role in 1945's "The Lost Weekend"), Ruth Hussey (four years after being Oscar-nominated for her work in "The Philadelphia Story") and Gail Russell (who many will recall as the Quaker girl from the 1947 John Wayne classic "Angel and the Badman") all turn in terrific performances as Roderick, Pamela and Stella, and the great character actors Donald Crisp (Commander Beech), Alan Napier (Dr. Scott) and Cornelia Otis Skinner (Miss Holloway) are also very fine, if hardly as described in Macardle's book. Lewis Allen's direction is taut, utilizing close-up shots very effectively, and Charles Lang's B&W photography is a thing of genuine beauty; Lang would later bring his considerable talents to such film classics as "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," "The Big Heat" and "Some Like it Hot." And oh my goodness, aren't those ectoplasmic special FX by Gordon Jennings (who would go on to create more magic in 1953's "The War of the Worlds") truly something special? You'll marvel at how these spectral manifestations swirl and throb, almost but not quite suggesting a malevolent female form. And as for the film's shooting script, which was adapted by Frank Partos and Dodie Smith, because it eliminates quite a bit from the source novel, it makes for a concise and streamlined experience, with zero flab and very little in the way of extraneous detail. The novel and the film, thus, are different but complementary experiences, and both are highly recommended. I'd give the book a ½ star more than the film, however; for me, that's where the true chills reside....

(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ … a most ideal destination for all fans of spooky novels such as this....)

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just wonderful. “Old fashioned” in the very best sense of the term: a sturdy, engrossing story told with an unpretentious & unhurried style that is quite graceful, even elegant. Pamela—pragmatic, plucky, but spiritually receptive—almost immediately established herself as a new favorite literary character, & it made me realize how rare it is for stories to be built around functional adult sibling relationships. I had taken this up curious if the lesbian homoerotics haunting the edges of the 1944 film version were also present here (they’re not), but was impressed with how neatly the screenplay by Frank Partos & Dodie Smith recasts some of the plot points & condenses/clears out a number of characters while still faithfully capturing the essence of the original text.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a book that inspired me to stay up later than intended to read just one more chapter; certainly one of my favorite reading discoveries this year.

"It was extraordinary, the way in which one's daylight self refused to believe the evidence of the night."

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-reading an old favorite because I just saw the play and re-watched the movie (another old favorite).

[Misha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brother and sister, in an attempt to escape their pasts and the chaos of the city, buy a house in remote Devonshire. It turns out, however, that the house is already occupied by something beyond the human...

The Uninvited was published in 1942, the author faded out of public consciousness even though she was famous for her activism and writing during her time. In fact, I would urge you to look up Macardle's life because it's incredible. Some of what she wrote was while she was imprisoned. I am so glad that there are presses like Virago, Tramp, Persephone who have invested in bringing these forgotten women authors back to 'life'.

When I came across this book, I was looking for something a bit more like Shirley Jackson. Turns out that The Uninvited is more Daphne Du Maurier than Shirley Jackson. It's more old-school gothic that I do enjoy too - plot-heavy but with good character development, lyrical and atmospheric writing, and big, dramatic moments.

Dorothy Macardle was obviously a woman with some really progressive ideas for the early/mid 20th century but I am still amazed at what this book manages to convey abound femininity. The obvious bracketing of women into the saint and the fallen. The saint is automatically assumed to be principled by virtue of her privileged upbringing and religious ideas. The fallen woman is the terror of a 'good', 'civilized' society. In the end, it's the supposed saint who is the biggest hypocrite, using religion as a shield. Emotions in women being likened to 'hysteria', and men trying to explain away female trauma by assigning some 'rational cause'. Women with no agency over their lives or bodies, the horror that emerges from that. 

The Uninvited also sort of reminded me of Edith Wharton's Ghost Stories (they are excellent and should be more widely read). Both books reveal more negatives about the living, hypocritical society than the dead that haunt the pages.

[Ben Loory · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always loved the movie, but somehow it never occurred to me to read the book before? Anyway, surprise surprise, the book is great! It's a little less atmospheric than the movie, but a lot longer--the characters are fleshed out and livelier and the escalation is more gradual and whole thing makes a lot more sense and doesn't feel quite as curtailed. The writing is beautiful and the ending is incredible, just perfect! Will have to read some more Macardle.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had been meaning to read this book for a very long time. The movie version from the 40s was one of my favorites. My mother and I would watch it every time it was on television. I hoped it would live up to the movie--and it really did. One of those things where I wished I didn't know the story already.

I love a good ghost story, and this really is one of the best. Quintessential English ghost story--creepy mouldering abandoned house by the sea, unsuspecting likeable protagonists, family tragedies and mysteries, malevolent spirits...Wonderful. The story moves along a fast clip. I felt like starting it over again as soon as I was finished.

Luckily, I have the new Sarah Waters book, The Little Stranger, another ghost story, to move to next.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw the movie version with Ray Milland years ago but remember it fairly well, I knew how it would end but that did not make this a dull read, not in the least, actually I enjoyed it immensely! The movie had some variations but I found the book more straight forth and also more paranormal occurrences that made it more a ghost story. Even though Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey played their parts well, I saw Roderick and Pamela younger. I had just finished Betty Smith's A Tree that Grows in Brookyn and had a similar feeling as I read that story. I wished the ending had a resolution for Pamela but since it did not I take privilege to enlist my own thoughts that satisfies my desires. I love reading books that I have already seen the movie and especially classic movies to classic books.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the BEST ghost stories I’ve ever read. It’s right up there with Shirley Jackson’s, The Haunting of Hill House (BTW, Jackson’s work was made into a fantastic film in 1963). The Uninvited contains all the requisite elements of a good, old-fashioned ghost story: an atmosphere of comforting banality made freakish by the subtle application of creepiness; a goodly number of sophisticated characters who, of course, don’t believe in the supernatural; confusion between the paranormal and the unreliability of the five senses; and a mean-spirited spirit who torments people when they are (gasp!) ALONE. This novel also exploits the closed (at times claustrophobic) setting of a cozy-mystery; it is an isolated house that is haunted and, as such, the building almost incubates the scary beasty.

The cozy setting is apropos because there is a mystery for the protagonists to solve. Deep, dark secrets contaminate the lives of the characters much like the ghost does the house. And the ghost! Oh the ghost! No tawdry blood, guts or chainsaws here. The ghost is a diaphanous milk-cloud of floating evil that wafts its way along hallways and scares the bejesus out of the smug and unsuspecting. Like a smoky, white jellyfish, its nasty tendrils twirl along poorly lit rooms and makes me want to shout, “For Christ’s sake! Look behind you!” This delicious horror would probably be enough to salve the inner corners of my Celtic soul, but the story has a bonus for me and, I think, most readers: The mystery, once solved, reveals a story that is reminiscent of a Greek tragedy. Good and evil are represented, as are basic archetypes of womanhood. This story is just plain entertaining for morons like me who get bored easily and lack the necessary focus to stick with less sensational stuff. (Okay, intelligent people enjoy it too.)

Like the Jackson novel cited above, The Uninvited was made into a pretty dern good flick in 1944 (with Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey). I often watch it when it’s on TCM, as I do Jackson’s, The Haunting. What could be more satisfying than a classic ghost story to make you forget about the genuine horror in the world? As scary as these novels/films are, they are much less disturbing to me than the evening news.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this older hardcopy edition of The Uninvited for several years. I remember finding it at a used bookstore in Maryland and bought it solely because I remembered enjoying the 1944 movie version starring Ray Milland and Gail Russell.


I really didn't remember too much about the movie...I probably last saw it over 20 years ago...but reading the book did bring back some of its plot and details. The story is about a brother and sister, Roderick and Pamela, who happen upon an old house in the cliffs of Devon, England sometime before WWII (the novel was first published in 1942). The house is called Cliff End and it has been unoccupied for several years. After meeting with the owner, an old curmudgeon, they are able to buy the house at a cheap price, but the owner did warn them of some disturbances there. The granddaughter of the owner, Stella, has some unappealing ties to the house. Her mother died there when she was only three and she may have been murdered. There are stories surrounding the house of Stella's father and his mistress from Spain, named Carmel, along with his wife, Mary. Well it turns out that the house is haunted by the spirits of both Mary and Carmel but what really happened to them when Stella was young and why are they haunting the house?

This was basically a good old-fashioned ghost story complete with seances using a glass and cards for divination (a precursor to the Ouija Board?), possible possession and exorcism, and an evil ghost that causes cold when it is present. Overall, I enjoyed this for what it is even though the writing was definitely dated. I now need to seek out and rewatch the movie version to see how they compare.

[Senne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew ghosts could have so much personality?
(reread)

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both book and movie get 5 stars.

The 1944 movie starring Ray Milland is excellent, a truly scary ghost story that doesn't fall into a hokey ending.

The book, slightly different, delves deeper into the aspects of a haunted house without relying on gimmicks or tricks to scare you. It takes both the haunting and the characters' motives seriously, allowing them to solve the mystery accurately and humanly.

This is one of a very few times (IMO) that Hollywood made the movie as good as the book!

[Magdarine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked a lot about this but the one thing that did really annoy me was the romance between the 30 year old narrator and the "naive" 19 year old girl.

[Lee Foust · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uneasy Freehold or, as it is now known thanks to the felicitous re-titling of the film version, The Uninvited, is a charming and suspenseful mid-twentieth-century Gothic ghost story. Yes, while the anarchists and communists were busy fighting off Franco and the first wave of European fascism, our intrepid half-Irish heroes Pamela and Roderick (along with the help of a full-blooded Irish lawyer, governess, and priest) were fighting a less solid but just as frightening enemy--the ghost of the hypocritical and haughty Mary Meredith. And, while the Spanish war is mentioned in passing (and, as it turns out, our collaborating and good ghost is herself Spanish-born) the real villains here turn out to be the English, what with their emotional reserve, hypocrisy, and cold-blooded rationality. Not surprising, really, to see a little politics in this perennial ghost story since Dorothy Macardle wrote not only a book of Irish ghost stories that are, apparently, thinly veiled political parables, but also an enormous history of the Irish war of independence called The Irish Republic.

The narrative of The Uninvited is breezy, the prose crisp and fast-paced (dare I say it reminded me of Daphne Du Maurier's fine mid-century Gothic). The characters are diverse (but not so many you get lost in them), believable, and interesting enough. Although I've seen the movie too many times to know if the surprise ending works here in the novel, the overall pacing the the build-up to the climax seemed in place--although I well knew what was coming. Having seen the fine film so many times what I really noticed was what a great job the Hollywood hacks actually did--besides improving the title immeasurably--in constructing a great screenplay out of a fine novel without destroying the story's integrity. Mostly they just tightened things up for the faster medium of film. They coalesced the action down from 278 pp to an hour and 40 minutes, condensed Pamela's romantic interest from one to two characters (and gave us closure on that count while the novel leaves it open-ended), and they gave Scott, the doctor, a meatier role and solid proof of the solution which here remains Pamela's conjecture alone--even if all of the known facts and the climax bear it out beyond a narrative doubt. Ah, sweet competence all 'round--where has it gone?

[Jeanine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had been trying to find a copy of this book for years with no success. A nice lady on Goodreads sent me a link. (Thank you!)

This book was even better than I had hoped. Beautifully written, flowing story that builds and builds to a terrific climax. I loved it. This is a really wonderful, psychological-type ghost story.

Written in 1942, it's still one of the best ghost stories ever written.

[❀⊱RoryReads⊰❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent classic ghost story. Set in England in the late 1930s, just before World War II, it's a classic haunted house tale with voices crying in the night, malevolent spirits and terrible secrets. This book was made into a film in 1944 called The Uninvited and it's a pretty faithful adaptation although the book gives much more background on the characters and their motivations.

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a supernatural mystery horror from 1942. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for March 2024 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group. The book was nominated for Retro-Hugo (Hugo award for years before the award was introduced i.e. 1953) for 1943 in 2018, but lost to Beyond This Horizon by Robert A. Heinlein.

The story starts with two siblings - Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald, who find a perfect house named Cliff End in a wilder part of England. The seller, Commander Brooke agrees to say it for an unusually low price (a thousand pounds), but as an honest man warns that the previous buyers ‘experienced disturbances there’ and left soon after. The Commander has an 18-year-old granddaughter Stella and soon the story of the house: it turns out that Stella’s mother was married to a painter and one day she ran away and threw herself into the sea and it seems that her ghost now haunts the mansion. The siblings think it is all superstitions, actively furnishing and renovating the house. However, soon they experience cold dread and have several other frights, but instead of running away, they try to scientifically approach the subject.

Overall, it is an interesting story, even if a solution for a mystery was semaphored quite early. However, I am not a connoisseur of horror as a genre plus this story is rather old-fashioned (good but lengthy prose).

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

A captivating ghost story, well told. Possibly more a 4-4.5 star read, but I’m rounding up for the sheer delight of having been thoroughly engaged by a novel for two days.

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread for Halloween!