Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Haunting of Hill House,’ is considered not only one of the finest horror novels of the 20th century, but also the definitive haunted house story. It was a finalist for the National Book Award upon its publication in 1959, and as recently as this summer, three writers named it as the scariest book of fiction they have ever read in an article for the Times. After two film adaptations (in 1963 and 1999) under the title “The Haunting,” Netflix is next in line with a full-fledged TV series, set to air on Oct. 12. In preparation for the premiere, here are 13 chilling novels centered around haunted houses.

[ Read Jason Zinoman’s critic’s notebook of “The Haunting of Hill House. ]

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‘The Turn of the Screw,’ by Henry James

While taking care of two wealthy children at their family’s remote country home in Sussex, a governess becomes convinced the house is haunted. The novel, according to a Times review, is “a deliberate, powerful and horribly successful study of the magic of evil, of the subtle influence over human hearts and minds of the sin with which this world is accursed, as our language has not produced since Stevenson wrote his ‘Jekyll and Hyde’.”