The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels

by Henry James, William Thorp (Foreword)

The story starts conventionally enough with friends sharing ghost stories 'round the fire on Christmas Eve. One of the guests tells about a governess at a country house plagued by supernatural visitors. But in the hands of Henry James, the master of nuance, this little tale of terror is an exquisite gem of sexual and psychological ambiguity. Only the young governess can see the ghosts; only she suspects that the previous governess and her lover are controlling the two orphaned children (a girl and a boy) for some evil purpose. The household staff don't know what she's talking about, the children are evasive when questioned, and the master of the house (the children's uncle) is absent. Why does the young girl claim not to see a perfectly visible woman standing on the far side of the lake? Are the children being deceptive, or is the governess being paranoid? By leaving the questions unanswered, The Turn of Screw generates spine-tingling anxiety in its mesmerized readers. Also The Aspern Papers, The Altar of the Dead, Daisy Miller, An International Episode and The Beast in the Jungle.

Genres: Fiction

451 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1880

About the author

Henry James was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.
He is best known for his novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans, such as The Portrait of a Lady. His later works, such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often wrote in a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to Impressionist painting.
His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media. He wrote other highly regarded ghost stories, such as "The Jolly Corner".
James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. Born in the United States, James largely relocated to Europe as a young man, and eventually settled in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death. James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. Jorge Luis Borges said "I have visited some literatures of East and West; I have compiled an encyclopedic compendium of fantastic literature; I have translated Kafka, Melville, and Bloy; I know of no stranger work than that of Henry James."

Reviews

[Jwt Jan50 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 3* star rating is always a little ambiguous for me. The talent is clear. The story captures the 'creepy' for me even with James' somewhat laborious prose. And yet, he's still a long way from favorite or memorable. I've embarked on a Henry James excursion this year. So, even though 'The Aspern Papers' and 'The Turn of the Screw' didn't turn out to be 'compelling,' I'm going to stay the course. For creepiness/thrills I have to rate him behind Poe, H. G. Wells ('The Island of Dr Moreau') or Bram Stoker's 'Dracula.' After a break, I'm coming back to a biography entitled 'Henry James: The Portrait of a Novel,' James' 'Portrait of a Lady,' (last read in 1979) and Tuchman's 'The Proud Tower.'

[Kallie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though off to a slow start, I was soon hooked and read this straight through in one day. The apparitions . . . I felt a real chill whenever they showed up. James has a real knack for creepiness. I very much like the fact that I don't know if the governess was mad or everyone else in the story (besides the children) unwilling to see what she saw. I don't assume that James meant his own story to be interpreted as metaphor, but that's how I interpret it. I think it's quite possible to see evil where others do not and that is part of the horror in this story.

[Jacob Heartstone · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains six short novels by Henry James that I mostly enjoyed. I like the author's writing style and his quiet way of telling stories. That being said, I enjoyed the first three stories much more than the last three, as the characters and the stories themselves felt much more intriguing to me. Out of all six novellas, I liked The Aspern Papers best.