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A Jealous Ghost
“For some reason, the very negative thoughts which she had during that interview with the rich-stockbroker woman in Kensington did not remain with her… She forgot that she despised the woman for not looking after her own children, and she forgot how much she envied and hated her for being rich enough to pay someone else to shovel her baby’s shit.”
- GenresFictionGhost Stories
176 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
6 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
About the author
A.N. Wilson
118 books244 followersAndrew Norman Wilson is an English writer and newspaper columnist, known for his critical biographies, novels, works of popular history and religious views. He is an occasional columnist for the Daily Mail and former columnist for the London Evening Standard, and has been an occasional contributor to the Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman, The Spectator and The Observer.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 11, 2009
Wilson must be a BIG fan of Henry James, or at least of James' ghostly masterpiece "The Turn of the Screw", to have conjured up this rollicking good read.
When you really LOVE a book,("in love with" also is NO EXAGGERATION),
you really want it never to end, do you!!?? Turning to the last page is akin to preparing for a death in the family,the loss of a friend or a pet. Gone but NEVER gone!!! You will eventually go back and reread, perhaps numerous times, your favourites ,just as you rake over memories of loved ones.
But NO LONGER!!!
We live in an age where writers and fans have thrown down the Barricades of Propriety and created their own Set of Literary Rules.
I mean fancy stealing somebody else's Creations.
And Good On "Em I say (even though much of what they create is pretty appalling stuff.)
And ironically this stuff is happening mainly to the Queen of Propriety herself - little Miss Jane Austen, her of the sharp mind, penetrating wit and ruthless purveyour of human behaviour.
Her UNfinished novels have been finished( I know, I've read them!!!). Sequels she never meant to be, ARE!!!eg. The Further and Further Adventures of Ms Elizabeth Bennett.( Read THOSE too and really not up to Jane's standards, alas!)
An Australian, no less, has taken the years between 1803-04,
when there is little if no evidence re what Miss Propriety was up to, and plonked her down right in the Social Set of Ye Olde Sydney Town!!!!
EGAD!!!And titled it "Jane Austen In Australia" ( known on Goodreads and elsewhere as "The Lost Years of Jane Austen".This is no fiction as Elizabeth's married life with Herr D'Arcy definitely is.
NO, this is meant to be Jane's LIFE!!!!!in Oz,er, Oztralia!!!REALLLEEEE!!!
It is quite good actually.
Jane's personality is brilliantly captured as is her Aunt Jane Leigh Perrot's difficult nature.Barbara Ker Wilson (this is the name of this particular fantasist, and a top-notch one she is too!!)is steeped in her "Austen" and in her knowledge of early Sydney and the characters who steered its history.She is London born.Probably had to flee to Australia in 1964 with these then unfashionable literary stirrings of plagarism, certainly NOT proper propriety in THOSE days.No Sir!!!
The latest, a TV Offering, "Lost in Austen", made the fictional characters factual, which was more than a bit hard to get one's head around, but damn it!!, it WAS fun!!!
"Rebecca" is another romance which I LURVVVE to read and reread and rewatch the Hitchcock movie with Perfect casting.
But,(no!!)..BUT...Sally Beauman took the villainess, the anti-heroine, Rebecca herself, and did a HUGE whitewash.She tells the "true" story of the past and the future. Rebecca is admirable and Max and his new wife are despicable. Why didn't she just rewrite the Original. Ah!!But THAT is the ONE rule that still remains INTACT!!!!Sorry Sally, but you are an utter loser, beneath contempt and certainly not a true Fan of "Rebecca' the book.
So in Sally's treacherous world the nameless heroine remained a pathetic wimp; Max had never fallen out of love with the treacherous Rebecca,and was a rat into the bargain, committing suicide years later as he never quite got over Miss R, while Rebecca became some proto-feminist yearning to express herself or some sort of rot. So what Sally Beauman has done IS the UNFORGIVABLE!!!She has set herself against the original author,Daphne Du Maurier, twisting the characters into creatures which are not those of the original book.
I hope Daphne returns to give you your dues, Sal!!!!
So...I am NOT going to tell you anything about A.N.Wilson's "A Jealous Ghost"( no spoilers in my world!!!) except to give him glowing credentials: he is a true Fan of the Original; he is clever with his spin on the original and so leaves you being fond of TWO books instead of just one; he is thoroughly immersed in the Original, so you are in safe hands;his book IS an original tale and I really think he is in an entirely different set to the romantic Rule Breakers; he is a good writer.(I'd say without a doubt that Barbara Ker Wilson, the migrant Aussie, is an EXCELLENT, truly excellent writer!)...and so get your hands on a copy you Fans of "The Turn of the Screw'...and enjoy!!
Over and...OUT!!!
When you really LOVE a book,("in love with" also is NO EXAGGERATION),
you really want it never to end, do you!!?? Turning to the last page is akin to preparing for a death in the family,the loss of a friend or a pet. Gone but NEVER gone!!! You will eventually go back and reread, perhaps numerous times, your favourites ,just as you rake over memories of loved ones.
But NO LONGER!!!
We live in an age where writers and fans have thrown down the Barricades of Propriety and created their own Set of Literary Rules.
I mean fancy stealing somebody else's Creations.
And Good On "Em I say (even though much of what they create is pretty appalling stuff.)
And ironically this stuff is happening mainly to the Queen of Propriety herself - little Miss Jane Austen, her of the sharp mind, penetrating wit and ruthless purveyour of human behaviour.
Her UNfinished novels have been finished( I know, I've read them!!!). Sequels she never meant to be, ARE!!!eg. The Further and Further Adventures of Ms Elizabeth Bennett.( Read THOSE too and really not up to Jane's standards, alas!)
An Australian, no less, has taken the years between 1803-04,
when there is little if no evidence re what Miss Propriety was up to, and plonked her down right in the Social Set of Ye Olde Sydney Town!!!!
EGAD!!!And titled it "Jane Austen In Australia" ( known on Goodreads and elsewhere as "The Lost Years of Jane Austen".This is no fiction as Elizabeth's married life with Herr D'Arcy definitely is.
NO, this is meant to be Jane's LIFE!!!!!in Oz,er, Oztralia!!!REALLLEEEE!!!
It is quite good actually.
Jane's personality is brilliantly captured as is her Aunt Jane Leigh Perrot's difficult nature.Barbara Ker Wilson (this is the name of this particular fantasist, and a top-notch one she is too!!)is steeped in her "Austen" and in her knowledge of early Sydney and the characters who steered its history.She is London born.Probably had to flee to Australia in 1964 with these then unfashionable literary stirrings of plagarism, certainly NOT proper propriety in THOSE days.No Sir!!!
The latest, a TV Offering, "Lost in Austen", made the fictional characters factual, which was more than a bit hard to get one's head around, but damn it!!, it WAS fun!!!
"Rebecca" is another romance which I LURVVVE to read and reread and rewatch the Hitchcock movie with Perfect casting.
But,(no!!)..BUT...Sally Beauman took the villainess, the anti-heroine, Rebecca herself, and did a HUGE whitewash.She tells the "true" story of the past and the future. Rebecca is admirable and Max and his new wife are despicable. Why didn't she just rewrite the Original. Ah!!But THAT is the ONE rule that still remains INTACT!!!!Sorry Sally, but you are an utter loser, beneath contempt and certainly not a true Fan of "Rebecca' the book.
So in Sally's treacherous world the nameless heroine remained a pathetic wimp; Max had never fallen out of love with the treacherous Rebecca,and was a rat into the bargain, committing suicide years later as he never quite got over Miss R, while Rebecca became some proto-feminist yearning to express herself or some sort of rot. So what Sally Beauman has done IS the UNFORGIVABLE!!!She has set herself against the original author,Daphne Du Maurier, twisting the characters into creatures which are not those of the original book.
I hope Daphne returns to give you your dues, Sal!!!!
So...I am NOT going to tell you anything about A.N.Wilson's "A Jealous Ghost"( no spoilers in my world!!!) except to give him glowing credentials: he is a true Fan of the Original; he is clever with his spin on the original and so leaves you being fond of TWO books instead of just one; he is thoroughly immersed in the Original, so you are in safe hands;his book IS an original tale and I really think he is in an entirely different set to the romantic Rule Breakers; he is a good writer.(I'd say without a doubt that Barbara Ker Wilson, the migrant Aussie, is an EXCELLENT, truly excellent writer!)...and so get your hands on a copy you Fans of "The Turn of the Screw'...and enjoy!!
Over and...OUT!!!
February 10, 2019
This is the first time I've read anything by Wilson, but as it is a sort of version of The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James, I felt James would serve as a sort of go-between for us.
This book follows the fortunes of a young American student in England who is writing a dissertation on James' most famous ghost story. She is very much a deconstructionist and post modernist, keen to coin her own critical vocabulary and bring her own unique vision to bear on the text. At something of an impasse, she takes up a job as a nanny to two young children with an absent, presumed deceased mother, who live in a country estate.
At this point the two stories - James' and Wilson's - start to blur. Things build and build, and there is a growing sense of dread and disorientation.
Despite all the skilled inter- and meta-textual weaving, I did leave the novel a little dissatisfied. Much of it hinges on a kind of pathology, especially a sexual one, that needed, to my mind, more character grounding. Almost as if the tale was being viewed from the wrong end of the looking glass.
This book follows the fortunes of a young American student in England who is writing a dissertation on James' most famous ghost story. She is very much a deconstructionist and post modernist, keen to coin her own critical vocabulary and bring her own unique vision to bear on the text. At something of an impasse, she takes up a job as a nanny to two young children with an absent, presumed deceased mother, who live in a country estate.
At this point the two stories - James' and Wilson's - start to blur. Things build and build, and there is a growing sense of dread and disorientation.
Despite all the skilled inter- and meta-textual weaving, I did leave the novel a little dissatisfied. Much of it hinges on a kind of pathology, especially a sexual one, that needed, to my mind, more character grounding. Almost as if the tale was being viewed from the wrong end of the looking glass.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 29, 2011
A reworking of Turn of the Screw which is bleak with an element of tragi-comedy. Sallie, an American phd student, doing her thesis on James's Turn of the Screw is alone and studying in London. She begins to be depressed and decides to take a nanny job looking after two children in a remote country house; housekeeper and all.
Because this is based on Turn of the Screw you know it isn't going to end well. Sallie is so unsympathetic a character and the father of the children so unbelieveable in his sloppiness (entrusting his children to a complete stranger with unchecked references)that credulity is overstretched. This is also more of a psychological thriller than a ghost story and the ending is way too obvious.
For me a ghost story is enhanced if the haunted person is generally sane and balanced rather than an emotional and psychological wreck. This just did not work .
Because this is based on Turn of the Screw you know it isn't going to end well. Sallie is so unsympathetic a character and the father of the children so unbelieveable in his sloppiness (entrusting his children to a complete stranger with unchecked references)that credulity is overstretched. This is also more of a psychological thriller than a ghost story and the ending is way too obvious.
For me a ghost story is enhanced if the haunted person is generally sane and balanced rather than an emotional and psychological wreck. This just did not work .
August 3, 2019
I really like this book. I just read The Turn of the Screw so came into it completely ready to compare and contrast the two, but I ended up getting so swept up in the narrative. This book is perfect in its own right, and such a clever twist from James’ original - still hauntingly familiar but with enough modern differences that I was thoroughly engaged. I love the conscious plot points borrowed from The Turn of the Screw, and Sallie’s own fixation on it all is very engaging. And then of course the denouement comes crashing down in the last long chapter and I was in awe of the story Wilson so cleverly constructed. It’s one I’m going to be thinking about for some time, I think.
August 4, 2023
A. N. Wilson’s psychological thriller takes Henry James’s terrifying and mysterious story of human and supernatural evil, The Turn of the Screw, as its template and then gives the screw a few extra turns for good measure. Sallie Declan, an American PhD student in contemporary London, who has something of a chequered background, takes a job as a temporary nanny for two children at a big house in Kent. Their father is absent, their mother presumed dead. Sallie’s thesis is on The Turn of the Screw, and it doesn’t take long for the parallels between the novella and her new role to become confused. As her grasp on reality starts to loosen, the real secrets that the house conceal begin to combine with her fantasies, leading to a frightening and violent psychological decline. Wilson pulls off the tricky task of creating both a gripping thriller and a book that both pays tribute to and sheds new light on, its illustrious predecessor.
November 23, 2014
2006 bookcrossing journal:
Oh my goodness, what compulsive reading. It's also another one of those books inspired by a book I haven't read (The Turn of the Screw - Henry James), but it is very readable if you haven't read it.
I don't want to write too much here incase some one reads this who hasn't read the book yet. But the girl, Sallie, was unbelieveable. She turned into a psycho.
The story follows Sallie, an American PhD student in London who takes a nanny job at a large country estate to get a break from the academic life. Gradually you learn her back story and that she isn't the ideal person for a nanny. She has issues with kids, and as it turns out, the way they are created too. She is very insecure about herself, and you do feel sympathy for her as she does seem to be incapable of escaping her past. But she's so into analysing her books for the PhD that she deals with real life in the same way. She reads into the interview with the father in a way no one could really justifiably do, and her obsession with the book is seen in her mixing up the names of the real children with those from the book.
As for the ghosts... well, I won't mention those at all!
Oh my goodness, what compulsive reading. It's also another one of those books inspired by a book I haven't read (The Turn of the Screw - Henry James), but it is very readable if you haven't read it.
I don't want to write too much here incase some one reads this who hasn't read the book yet. But the girl, Sallie, was unbelieveable. She turned into a psycho.
The story follows Sallie, an American PhD student in London who takes a nanny job at a large country estate to get a break from the academic life. Gradually you learn her back story and that she isn't the ideal person for a nanny. She has issues with kids, and as it turns out, the way they are created too. She is very insecure about herself, and you do feel sympathy for her as she does seem to be incapable of escaping her past. But she's so into analysing her books for the PhD that she deals with real life in the same way. She reads into the interview with the father in a way no one could really justifiably do, and her obsession with the book is seen in her mixing up the names of the real children with those from the book.
As for the ghosts... well, I won't mention those at all!
June 21, 2013
I enjoyed this. Sallie, an American student in London studying James' Turn of the Screw, finds herself in a similar position as the unamed governess of the novel. She takes a job as nanny to 2 children in a large old country house and slowly we learn that things are not all quite right with her and that she has a mysterious past. Very cleverly done - the marriage of the 2 books and Sallie's obsession with Turn makes for scary reading.
July 2, 2017
I know this is meant to depict someone with irreparable mental issues, but literally every other page contained an action or thought that had me cringing with secondhand embarrassment.
Pro: The author conveyed things well enough that I physically reacted
Con: Of all things, it probably shouldn't have been embarrassment that I felt
Pro: The author conveyed things well enough that I physically reacted
Con: Of all things, it probably shouldn't have been embarrassment that I felt
February 23, 2023
disorientating story, the perfect line between delusion and reality.
beautifully painted characters, especially sallie, as you slowly watched her madness seep into her
in fact, almost plausible to ask if the story even happened at all - Sallie so wrapped up in the turn that whilst hospitalized from the assault on Kenny/Kimberley/whatever she just fantasised it all?....doubt it though as the ending doesn't fit with that theory
should have read the turn of the screw first though, would have led to a deeper understanding of all the subtleties throughout the book. fast moving thrilling book though even without the contextual knowledge
beautifully painted characters, especially sallie, as you slowly watched her madness seep into her
in fact, almost plausible to ask if the story even happened at all - Sallie so wrapped up in the turn that whilst hospitalized from the assault on Kenny/Kimberley/whatever she just fantasised it all?....doubt it though as the ending doesn't fit with that theory
should have read the turn of the screw first though, would have led to a deeper understanding of all the subtleties throughout the book. fast moving thrilling book though even without the contextual knowledge
October 3, 2024
A fine piece of writing. Although mirroring Henry James's novel The Turn Of The Screw, it is not essential to be familiar with that novel to appreciate the skill found here. It's essentially about the power of the mind to be manipulated by words and emotions rather than just a ghost story, although in the character of Sallie we have almost a delusional character, dangerously stunted in her emotional capabilities. Frightening in a way but also fascinating.
July 24, 2018
The good parts of this book were 3* and the bad parts were 2* so I have been generous and settled on averaging out to 3. Luckily it was more of a novella than a full length novel so I could get through it quickly otherwise I reckon it would have been a full-on disappointing 2*.
November 14, 2020
4.5
Loved loved loved this.
Completely unexpected. Tbh I only know AN Wilson from his biographies. Found this randomly on my Kindle. A sad tale of a disturbed young woman interlinked with Turn and what Henry James intended. Brilliant pacing. Just great.
Loved loved loved this.
Completely unexpected. Tbh I only know AN Wilson from his biographies. Found this randomly on my Kindle. A sad tale of a disturbed young woman interlinked with Turn and what Henry James intended. Brilliant pacing. Just great.
October 2, 2019
Short and sharp, typical in all the right ways, but untypical in the essentials. A good homage to 'Turn', and for me so much more readable. Time well spent.
October 31, 2022
Didn’t finish this….found it too boring
March 15, 2017
Melodramatic
March 25, 2021
A very knowing take on 'The Turn of the Screw', but deeply unconvincing. For all its highbrow references and academic in-jokes, it's closer to those Hammer thrillers like 'Taste of Fear'. The protagonist's problems are queasily evoked...if I had kids, I wouldn't have let her within a mile of them. We might also wonder if there's a sexist undertone to it all...don't let young women read difficult books or they won't be able to bear or look after children. I knew reading all that Baudrillard had done something to my womb...
The twist, such as it is, is fairly predictable. My biggest criticism (sexism side) is the way the book ends, taking us to the climactic event but then jumping forward and narrating it in incomplete retrospect. I felt this robbed the finale of any tension and meant that the book fizzled out.
In all, a reasonably diverting couple of hours on a rainy afternoon in lockdown, but unlikely to endure anywhere near as long as Henry James has.
The twist, such as it is, is fairly predictable. My biggest criticism (sexism side) is the way the book ends, taking us to the climactic event but then jumping forward and narrating it in incomplete retrospect. I felt this robbed the finale of any tension and meant that the book fizzled out.
In all, a reasonably diverting couple of hours on a rainy afternoon in lockdown, but unlikely to endure anywhere near as long as Henry James has.
May 19, 2014
I found myself unable to connect with this novel. It gave me the impression that the author was attempting literary fiction, but instead the book reads as pulp filled with high brow references. This book came across as thinking it is more clever than it is, which I found irritating. The characters and plot were very unbelievable and difficult to engage with. I was hoping that the end would provide an unexpected twist - or 'turn of the screw', as it models itself upon the James novel. However the ending was clear from the beginning, and there was no real sense of mystery such as with James' work. Overall it is a quick and easy read, but leaves no lasting impression in my opinion.
September 6, 2011
I picked this book up for 10p from my local library and it's probably the best 10p I've ever spent. I soon realised that i needed to read 'A Turn of a Screw' by Henry James to enable me to fully understand the story. It was a bit slow in the beginning but soon things developed and I was hooked. I would describe it as a psychological thriller with an interesting ending. Basically the main character is mad!
April 5, 2016
Delicious admixture of cruelty and erotic suggestion. However present too is a stiff-shirted Anglican spirituality or spiritualism, above all a profound wit and a master of the exciting climax. His characters a slightly 2D perhaps but serve here just right for a cracking good novelette.
March 4, 2008
Written in the gothic tradition, this is a real page turner. I thoroughly enjoyed it, unreliable narrator and all. ;)
July 22, 2009
This must be the only book by this author that I did not enjoy, mainly because the story is really too scary
July 1, 2010
Read this alongside 'Florence and Giles'.
October 7, 2012
Elegant variation on Turn of the Screw that combines literary insight with suspense that builds to a scary climax of frightening inevitability.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews