Chapter 1

Questions

1. What warning does the novel start with?
2. What's Dr. Montague looking for in Hill House?
3. What does Montague want to base his investigation on?
4. How many assistants respond to Montague's request for assistance?
5. Who's the third assistant?
6. What did Eleanor Vance do for the better part of her young adult life?
7. What incident brought Eleanor to Montague's attention?
8. Who questions Dr. Montague's work?
9. Why did Theodora come to Montague's attention?
10. Why does Mrs. Sanderson's laywer persuade Montague to take on Luke?
11. What happens when Eleanor takes a taxi to the car garage?
12. Why does the old lady say she can't take Eleanor's money for the spilled food?
13. What does Eleanor agree to do instead of paying for the lady's spilled food?
14. What does Eleanor imagine while passing houses on the way to Hill House?
15. What does the little girl insist on drinking milk from in the restaurant?
16. What did Shoba lie about when Shukumar's mom was visiting?
17. What does the doctor warn Eleanor not to do?
18. What does the man in the diner tell Eleanor about the town?
19. Why does the man at the gate say that Eleanor can't come into Hill House?
20. What does the man at the gate say when Eleanor says she is expected?
21. What does the man at the gate say when he blocks Eleanor's car?
22. What feature does Eleanor think Hill House has when going up the long driveway?
23. What does Eleanor realize when she comes face to face with Hill House?

Answers

1. That whatever walks through Hill House walks alone
2. Evidence of supernatural manifestations
3. The Victorian model of inviting guests to stay in a haunted house and seeing what happens (because that's never gone poorly…)
4. Two
5. A representative of Hill House's current owners
6. Care for her invalid mother
7. After her father died, a shower of rocks fell on her family's home for unexplained reasons; the rocks then just stopped falling one day, for equally unexplained reasons.
8. Eleanor's brother-in-law and sister
9. The laboratory's records showed she could blindly guess as many as 19 out of 20 Zener cards.
10. So the family's present during the experiment
11. She bumps into an old lady.
12. She didn't exactly pay for the food in the first place.
13. She pays for a taxi to take the old lady home.
14. What her life would be like inside the houses
15. Her cup of stars
16. She stayed out late with her girlfriend for a drink.
17. Stop at Hillsdale
18. That people leave the town rather than come there
19. She's not expected.
20. That she's the first to arrive so she can't be expected by anybody, because no one's there to expect her
21. She'll be sorry he let her in.
22. A secret passage or chamber to go with the gargoyles hanging on its roof
23. It's vile.