Summary of House of Leaves

1. {
Mark Z. Danielewski’s 2000 House of Leaves is a
complex labyrinth-like novel which knots
together myth, gothic pastiche, overlapping
strands of symbolism, and multiple narrative
threads.

2. The
The
Navidson
Navidson
Record
Record Film
Text
Johnny’s
Johnny’s
Editing of
life story
the text
Narrative Threads

3.  Imbedded within House of Leaves there are two primary
narratives which bleed into each other to an uncanny and
unnerving effect. The Navidson Record is the text-within-
the-text, which, supposedly, documents a family’s arrival
in a haunted house built on top of a mysterious labyrinth
and a spiral staircase of infinite depth inhabited by an
intangible, threatening presence. It’s a Blair Witch
Project--esque documentary film. All we get to see of this
film is a single frame from the book’s appendix.
Polaroid of the House:

4.  The Navidson Record is narrated to us by an obscure blind poet
called Zampanò in an unfinished academic monograph
which describes the series of strange events which take place
within this house. Johnny Truant, a young LA resident, by
chance, inherits the unfinished manuscript, assembling scraps
of narrative into a (somewhat) coherent document. The act of
editing the manuscript leads Johnny into a delusionary
underworld of paranoia and panic attacks, where he
eventually descends to confront the psychic scars of his past.
At the height of these delusions, Johnny feels as if he is being
stalked by the creature said to haunt The Navidson Record.

5. In each narrative strand,
characters descend into
hell…