Author | John Bellairs |
---|---|
Illustrator | Edward Gorey |
Language | English |
Series | Lewis Barnavelt |
Genre | Fantasy, mystery fiction |
Published | 1973 |
Publisher | Puffin Books |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print book |
Pages | 179 |
ISBN | 978-0-451-48128-3 |
OCLC | 1048899765 |
Followed by | The Figure in the Shadows |
The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a 1973 juvenile mystery fiction novel written by American author John Bellairs and illustrated by Edward Gorey. It is the first of the Lewis Barnavelt novel series. A 2018 film adaptation was released by Universal Pictures and directed by Eli Roth.
Lewis Barnavelt, recently an orphan, moves to the town of New Zebedee, Michigan, to live with his mysterious uncle Jonathan Barnavelt. Lewis' uncle turns out to be a mediocre, though well-intentioned, warlock. His next-door neighbor and good friend, Florence Zimmermann, is a far more powerful good witch. Jonathan's house was previously owned by his friend and mentor Isaac Izard and his wife Selena, a sinister couple who became corrupted by their practice of black magic and plotted to bring about the end of the world. Before dying, Isaac constructed the eponymous clock that he hid somewhere inside the walls of the house, where it eternally ticks as it attempts to pull the world into a magical alignment, which would destroy the world.
Lewis befriends a local boy named Tarby Corrigan, who is everything he is not—popular, athletic, thin—but the two soon begin to drift apart. Lewis tries to win Tarby back by demonstrating how to raise the dead in the local cemetery on Halloween but in doing so unwittingly releases Selena Izard from her tomb.
An escalating series of encounters with the sorceress' ghost builds to a final confrontation in the basement of Jonathan's house, where Lewis must summon up his courage and prevent the couple from finishing their work and bringing about the end time.
The Cronin House in John Bellairs's hometown of Marshall, Michigan was the inspiration for his book. The house received a historical plaque in 1992. [1] With the film adaptation debuting in 2018, Marshall's population embraced the fame with walking tours and other activities related to the book and its film. [2]
The House with a Clock in Its Walls received a New York Times outstanding book citation and a Michigan Young Readers award nomination. [3] Anita Silvey wrote in Children's Books and Their Creators that Bellairs "established himself as one of the most compelling mystery writers for children" with The House with a Clock in Its Walls. [4]
Kirkus Reviews wrote that Gorey's drawings of the house were "creepy-cozy", and that "Bellairs doesn't bother to supply either motivation or blueprints for the [...] scheme, but if the cavalier and capricious handling of the occult by characters and author alike precludes any bone-deep shudders, the house lives up to its promise of a few gratifying Halloween shivers". [5] The New York Times wrote: "It's the aura of this story—its blend of the everyday and the supernatural—that makes it glow among a plethora of lacklustre occult books this spring" of 1973. It continued: "What the author has done that's so special is to touch both the intellect and the feelings. He has dusted off the paraphernalia of ancient magic and made us newly aware of the difference between good and evil. His dialogue goes snap, crackle and pop. He sets chilling scenes with suspense that tightens like a screw". [6]
John Anthony Bellairs was an American author best known for his fantasy novel The Face in the Frost and many Gothic mystery novels for children featuring the characters Lewis Barnavelt, Rose Rita Pottinger, Johnny Dixon, and Anthony Monday. Most of his books were illustrated by Edward Gorey. At the time of his death, Bellairs' books had sold a quarter-million copies in hard cover and more than a million and a half copies in paperback.
Edward St. John Gorey was an American writer, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and artist, noted for his own illustrated books as well as cover art and illustration for books by other writers. His characteristic pen-and-ink drawings often depict vaguely unsettling narrative scenes in Victorian and Edwardian settings.
Goosebumps is a series of children's horror novels written by American author R. L. Stine. The protagonists in these stories are teens or pre-teens who find themselves in frightening circumstances, often involving the supernatural, the paranormal or the occult. Between 1992 and 1997, sixty-two books were published under the Goosebumps umbrella title. R. L. Stine also wrote various spin-off series, including, Goosebumps Series 2000, Give Yourself Goosebumps, Tales to Give You Goosebumps, Goosebumps Triple Header, Goosebumps HorrorLand, Goosebumps Most Wanted and Goosebumps SlappyWorld. Additionally, there was a series called Goosebumps Gold that was never released.
William Bradley Strickland is an American writer known primarily for fantasy and science fiction. His speculative fiction is published under the name Brad Strickland except for one novel written as Will Bradley. By a wide margin his work most widely held in WorldCat participating libraries is The Sign of the Sinister Sorcerer, which concluded the Lewis Barnavelt series created by John Bellairs (1938–1991).
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The White Stag is a children's book, written and illustrated by Kate Seredy. It won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature and received the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. The White Stag is a mythical retelling that follows the warrior bands of Huns and Magyars across Asia and into Europe, including the life of Attila the Hun.
The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb is a gothic horror novel directed at child readers. It was written by John Bellairs and originally published in 1988. The book was illustrated by Edward Gorey.
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The Ghost Belonged to Me is a novel written for children by Richard Peck, author of Newbery Medal winning A Year Down Yonder.
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31 Nights of Halloween is an American seasonal programming block on Freeform. It originally began airing in 1998, after the Family Channel became Fox Family, and was continued through the channel's change into ABC Family, and later, Freeform. The 13 Days of Halloween block was created mainly due to the success of the channel's 25 Days of Christmas, which had started two years earlier. The special block lasted from October 19 until Halloween night, covering the thirteen days before the holiday. Starting in 2018, the program aired throughout the whole month of October.
Anthony Monday is a fictional 14-year-old American boy featured in a series of four children's gothic horror novels by John Bellairs that were published from 1978 to 1992. Anthony and his friends generally overcome evil forces bent on ending the world. Alternatively, Anthony Monday is the book series, as in ISFDB. Brad Strickland, who has completed Bellairs' works posthumously and written new novels based on his characters, has noted that Anthony Monday was disliked by those in charge of publishing and any book ideas with Anthony as the character were rejected. This is why there has not been an Anthony Monday book since John Bellairs died.
The Moffat Museum by Eleanor Estes is the fourth and final novel in the children's series known as The Moffats. Published in 1983, it appeared forty years after the preceding book. The title refers to a small museum that the four Moffat children set up to help them remember the special times in their lives now that they are growing up. Like the rest of the series, The Moffat Museum is set in small Cranbury, Connecticut in the early 1900s.
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The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a 2018 American fantasy comedy film directed by Eli Roth, based on the initial 1973 eponymous entry of the Lewis Barnavelt novel series by John Bellairs. The movie stars Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sunny Suljic, and Kyle MacLachlan. The film follows a young boy, Lewis, who is sent to live with his uncle, Jonathan, in a creaky, old house. He soon learns it was previously inhabited by a villainous warlock. Universal Pictures released the film in the United States on September 21, 2018. It was a box office success, grossing over $131 million worldwide and received mostly positive reviews from critics who largely praised the cast, but said the film did not fully live up to its potential.
Owen Wilder Vaccaro is an American teen actor. He has appeared in feature films since 2015, including Daddy's Home (2015), Daddy's Home 2 (2017), and in the role of Lewis in The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018).