This is true with Siddons’ novel and in doing so, it inverts the premise of the parent genre – the “haunting present” tears at the characters traditional and comfortable way of life. Works within The Southern Gothic often explore contemporary social issues.

The House Next Door is classified as a Southern Gothic, a subgenre of Gothic Literature. Within Gothic literature, ghosts from a bygone era often return to haunt the contemporary generations. Ghosts represent the intangible yet powerful images and sentiments from the past. The House Next Door haunts without ghosts. These stories feature a house that is haunted in and of itself, with or without ghosts. Therefore the house in the story is haunted. Stories with such houses don’t fit into a logic paradigm that states: there are ghosts in the house. In past articles, I have declared my love for “haunted houses that are more than the sum of their ghosts”. Since I will be looking at key plot points in order to achieve my analytical goals, there will be spoilers throughout the article. This piece is more than a review it’s an analysis of the various themes that help this novel to both earn it’s rightful place among genre-specific greats while offering readers something unique. They then will do whatever it takes to steer potential buyers away from this evil house. After several mysterious and unfortunate events involving the new house and its different occupants, Walter and Colquitt suspect that the place is haunted. With the new house will come new neighbors, a succession of them, for no one will stay in this house for very long. But move over nature, for a new house will be built on this lot. They live in a quiet suburb of Atlanta and admire the empty lot next door with all its greenery and naturesque habitation. All is fine with Walter and Colquitt Kennedy, the two major characters of this novel. Hi there, welcome to my article about Anne Rivers Siddons’ critically acclaimed novel The House Next Door. Where, you might ask, might I find such a haunted house? Look no further than the “house next door!” Its foundation is secure in pre-established themes while its structure expands into new, terrifying space. However, this house is determined to creak and settle to its own moaning boos. Within its walls the traditions and motifs established by the great literary haunted houses are respected. And yet, it’s willing to learn from them.

Such a house births a kind of haunting that is unique from its predecessors and peers. I love a haunted house that does its own thing.

The house next door anne rivers