The House is the Star! – 5 Great Houses in Fiction

We think we may have mentioned once or twice before that we are fascinated by houses? Another great love of ours is reading, especially on wintry evenings, and we began to realise how in lots of our favourite novels, the house is so central to the story that it almost becomes another character.  Houses have such an influence on us, and it is easy to see why many authors take their inspiration from the real places that they have known, to create their great houses of fiction.

Christmas is a wonderful excuse to find time to cosy up with a classic book, whether it’s new to you or an old friend, so if you are looking for a great story where the house is the real star, here are 5 of our recommendations:

1. ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier (1938)

This book illustrates our point perfectly.  Its famous first line, “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”, sets the scene for a story whose dominant presence is the house, Manderley, a Cornish mansion and estate complete with its own beach and fisherman’s cottage.  Sometimes a comfortable home and at other times a malignant force, the house influences the thoughts, actions, and behaviour of all the human characters in the story.

Manderley is described in great detail and was in fact based on the real house, Menabilly, that Daphne du Maurier discovered as a young woman. After the war, she managed to lease Menabilly and lived in her ‘House of Secrets’ as she called it, for 26 years.

2. ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ by Shirley Jackson (1959) 

Following on from the idea of a house having a force of its own, this book is a true gothic horror novel about a haunted mansion. Written in 1959, it is a highly influential ghost story about a group of ‘psychic researchers’ who move into Hill House hoping to find scientific evidence of the supernatural.  What happens next certainly qualifies Hill House as a memorable house of fiction!  Hill House was based on a photograph that Shirley Jackson saw in a magazine of a suitably haunted-looking house in San Francisco.  Apparently, she sketched floor plans of all the rooms and drew pictures of the exterior in order to describe the scenes convincingly and to bring the house to life.

3. ‘Howards End’ by E. M. Forster (1910)

At the other end of the spectrum is Howards End.  Howards End is a country cottage with a quiet, nurturing personality.   It is described as, “…old and little, and altogether delightful – red brick”, and produces a feeling of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’ to the families in the story. Although the novel is about Edwardian social conventions and relationships, the complicated ownership of Howards End and the house itself, dominates the book.  The beautiful descriptions of Howards End are based on E.M. Forster’s childhood home of ‘Rooks Nest’ in Hertfordshire, which has been Grade 1 listed for its historical interest and literary associations.  Forster took creative inspiration from the real places of his childhood, that he knew and loved, to create the cornerstone of this fictional masterpiece.

4. ‘I Capture The Castle’ by Dodie Smith (1949)

There is something very romantic about the idea of living in a half-ruined castle.  The inspiration for this story was the glimpse of a medieval moated castle in Suffolk one evening in 1934.  From this, Dodie Smith created the vividly described Godsend Castle and the artistic Mortmain family living there in impoverishment.  Like Shirley Jackson, Dodie Smith drew pictures of the rooms of her fictional creation and her husband also created a 3D model of the castle for her, in order that the place would be as ‘real’ as possible.  The Mortmain’s home has captivated readers since the novel was first published in 1949 and the castle and its setting are truly unique.  Even J.K. Rowling has named ‘I Capture the Castle’ as the influential book of her youth.

5. ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ by Agatha Christie (1921)

Christmas just isn’t Christmas without a classic Agatha Christie mystery and this list just wouldn’t seem right without one.  We have chosen ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ as it was Christie’s first novel and Hercule Poirot’s first case.  This novel has everything you would expect: extended family, poisonings, eccentric personalities, and a twisting whodunnit plot, all set at Styles Court, a cliched English country house of popular public imagination.  As surveyors, we particularly enjoy the little sketches of the house floor plans included in the book that help the reader to really get to grips with the layout of the rooms and see how they influence the plot.  Did you know that Agatha Christie and her first husband Archie later called their own house ‘Styles’ in honour of her first book and the beginning of her illustrious career?

We’re sure that you will have your own list of favourite fictional houses and we would love to know what they might be!  But, however you choose to spend Christmas, we wish all our clients and colleagues a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2022.