''The House with a Clock in Its Walls'' is a 1973 juvenile mystery fiction novel written by

John Bellairs John Anthony Bellairs (January 17, 1938 – March 8, 1991) 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 Potti ...

and illustrated by

Edward Gorey Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) 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. Hi ...

. It is the first in the series of twelve novels featuring the fictional American boy Lewis Barnavelt.

Plot

Lewis Barnavelt, recently an orphan, moves to the town of New Zebedee,

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, to live with his mysterious uncle Jonathan Barnavelt. Lewis' uncle turns out to be a mediocre, though well-intentioned,

warlock A warlock is a male practitioner of witchcraft. Etymology and terminology The most commonly accepted etymology derives '' warlock'' from the Old English '' wǣrloga'', which meant "breaker of oaths" or "deceiver" and was given special applicati ...

. His next-door neighbor and good friend, Florence Zimmermann, is a far more powerful good

witch Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...

. Jonathan's house was previously owned by Isaac and Selenna Izard, a sinister couple who had dedicated their lives to black magic, and plotted to bring about the end of the world. Before dying, Isaac constructed the eponymous

clock A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and t ...

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 A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...

. 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.

Cronin House

The Cronin House in John Bellairs's hometown of

Marshall, Michigan Marshall is a U.S. city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Calhoun County. The population was 7,088 at the 2010 census. Marshall is best known for its cross-section of 19th- and early 20th-century architecture. It has been referred to by t ...

was the inspiration for his book. The house received a historical plaque in 1992. 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.

Reception

''The House with a Clock in Its Walls'' received a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' outstanding book citation and a Michigan Young Readers award nomination. 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''. '' 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." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' 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."

Adaptations

* The book was used as the basis for one of the three segments in the 1979 television anthology ''Once Upon a Midnight Scary'', hosted by

Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wal ...

. * The book was adapted into the 2018 film of the same name.

References

External links