Manor House

Manor House

Thursday, 28 March, 2024

Do houses take on the characteristics of the people who live in them? Or do they, instead, shape the personalities of the people dwelling inside their walls?

For centuries, authors have found inspiration in the creaky hallways and haunted histories of manor houses — first in England and then throughout the world. Stately homes, often isolated and rife with secrets, are transformed from places of refuge — a home — into an atmospheric backdrop for secrets, betrayal, desperate love, revelations, and redemption.

In literature, as in life, a home is often seen as a reflection of a person’s status, motivation, and values — a nifty shorthand for conveying what’s important to a character. The physical description of a character’s surroundings tells us plenty about what makes them tick.

Authors can play twisted games with their characters by giving and taking away their sense of home. They’re orphaned (Jane Eyre, Oliver Twist), have their homes burned to the ground (Gone with the Wind), sent on unwanted adventures (Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz), or given the home of their dreams, only to find that reality falls short of the fantasy (The Great Gatsby).

And though Gothic English manor houses have become the archetypal abode for atmospheric storytelling — think Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White and Emily Brontës Wuthering Heights — other eras and locales have made significant contributions to the genre: 1930s Barcelona in Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s novels, 19th-century Italy in E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View, modern Scotland Lucy Foley’s The Hunting Party, 1990s Sweden in Stieg Larson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and so many more.

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A Dangerous Collaboration

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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

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The Governesses

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The Great Gatsby

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The Guest List

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The Hitman's Daughter

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The House Between Tides

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The Hunting Party

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Jane Eyre

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Jasmine Nights

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The Lake House

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Mexican Gothic

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Northanger Abbey

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Payment in Blood

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The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

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Plain Bad Heroines

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Pride and Prejudice

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The Promise

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Rebecca

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The Remains of the Day

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A Room with a View

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A Room with a View

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A Rule Against Murder

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The Ten Thousand Doors of January

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This Rough Magic

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The Turn of the Screw

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The Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost Stories

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Wakenhyrst

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The Woman in White

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The Woman in White

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Wuthering Heights

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Top image courtesy of Ethan Kent/Unsplash.

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