Book Report

The Woman in Black

Extensive Reading and Listening

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Mai Yatabe

      My favorite book is The Woman in Black(2005). This is scary book, but it was easy to understand and I could feel the character’s feeling more reality than any other books, so I chose this book. I’ll introduce this from 4 points.

      Firstly I’ll introduce about a main character. He is Arthur Kipps who lives a house with his wife and children. When Arthur listen his wife’s story to children, he remembered terrible things and it’s the beginning of this book.

      Next let me introduce about the contents. When Arthur was a young man, he went to Eal Marsh House because he had to pick up papers as a solicitor. The house was strange and there were many gravestones Then he saw a woman beside one of it. She was wearing old-fashioned clothes and looked pale and ill. Arthur’s beat faster and faster but she had gone. It was a ghost. But he had to stay there to find important papers. So he got a dog, Spider from Daily who helped Arthur to go to the house. One day when he was in the house he heard sounds Bump. Bump. Bump. from one of the room. It was a children’s room. In the room was full of children’s toys. The day he heard crying of children and couldn’t sleep. Next day he opened an entrance and Spider ran out happily. After that he called and called, but she didn’t hear me. And when he found the dog most of her body was under mud and water. He grabbed the dog’s neck and pulled. At last, the dog was free from the mud. The next morning he decided to leave there because he could find papers. So he packed his goods and went to children’s room again. Then he was surprised because everything in the room was destroyed. Soon he left the house and after a few days he read papers. It told a sad story. According to the paper there was a woman Jennet she had loved her child so much. But she was unmarried and couldn’t keep him. So she had to give him to her sister Mrs Drablow. After giving to her Jennet wanted to see him again but Drablow didn’t allow it. Her son also wanted to see his mother. And of course his face became alike with Jennet gradually. But Drablow irritated with it. Then one accident happened. The boy was drowned in the mud like Spider. Jennet looked it from window.. It was the truth of this story.

Third is about author. The author of this book is Susan Hill. He is an British author of fiction and non-fiction works. He was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Then I found actually Eal Marsh House was in Yorkshire, too. I thought author uses his experiences to write books not only his own happening but also place. I thought when I write story, I also use this skill.

Fourth is about my favorite 3 quotes and comments. The first quote is: The terrible cry of a child.(p.20) When I read this phrase, I was frightened especially I think the part “terrible” is so horror. The second one is: For how many years had the child cried out? (p.41) Of course the child is already died. If I were him, I couldn’t think about it because of frightened. The third one is: In my dreams, the woman in black pushed her terrible face near to me.(p.52)This phrase is easy to understand and I could imagine clearly without picture. And I think to write sentences like this is important. Through reading this book I thought to make imagine to readers easily is important for writing. There are many people who don’t like horror. I also don’t like ghost or monsters. But I can read horror books because to guess the mystery or think about the character’s feeling is interesting. I want a skill to write interesting stories like Susan Hill, so I want to read many his books.