Philipp Röttgers 
The role of ‘Lamb House’ in Joan Aiken’s novel ‘The Haunting of Lamb House’ 

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies – Literature, grade: 1, 3, University of Bonn (Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie), course: Country Houses and Landscape Gardens, language: English, abstract: Haunted houses have become an own genre in literature. “The Haunting of Lamb House” seems a classical ‘haunted house’-story. It is a novel, written in 1991 by British author Joan Aiken, and it deals with the real-existing Lamb House in Rye, Sussex.

First, I will give a short overview over the real existing Lamb House in Rye (in the neighbourhood of Aiken’s birthplace) and some information about its inhabitants, which might be important for the story. In the analysis I will give a definition of the ‘haunted house’ and the whole genre that deals with haunted houses. Then I will go through the story of the novel and point out the impact Lamb House has on its inhabitants and the way the house is presented. Afterwards, I will have a look at the historic background of the story Aiken has written. In the conclusion, I will also try to find out if Lamb House (in the story) represents a haunted house and if the novel fulfils the criteria for being a novel which fits into the genre of the ‘haunted house’.