Henry James

Contains two compelling novellas; one, a moral tale of youthful spirit, the other, a terrifying ghost story.

Daisy Miller and the Turn of the Screw

Lena

I had to read Turn of the Screw for Literature so I bought this because it had two stories and I like saving money. After reading Turn of the Screw though I never wanted to suffer through Henry James' writing ever again. I ended up reading Daisy Miller later in the year and while it was more enjoyable it still wasn't enjoyable enough for me.

Obviously because I read Turn of the Screw for Lit we spent a lot of time analysing it and I have to say I loved analysing it. Our task was a review of a review and it was honestly really fun to see someone's view and then proceed to tear it to shreds but in a way that nobody besides my teacher would ever see. But the actual book I found slow and boring. For a ghost story there weren't enough climactic moments. There was suspense but you knew nothing so there was so much suspense it was just frustrating. You get to the end and you don't really know anything you didn't know at the start. It's just a pile of ambiguity, which is what my Lit teacher thinks is what makes it a good story but what I think made me, and most of my classmates, hate it so much.


Daisy Miller was similar in terms of not really knowing what's going on at any given moment. It was more enjoyable but again I didn't feel like I knew anything more about the story or the characters at the end. I didn't learn anything from either of these stories, the only lasting impression they gave me was me just wondering eternally what actually happened.

Don't even get me started on how the first sentence of Turn of the Screw was 6 lines long...

Daisy Miller and the Turn of the Screw

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