Name: The Turn of the Screw
Rating: 3.232258064516129 (310 reviews)
ISBN: 9780817216726

Henry James

Diana Stewart

The governess of two enigmatic children fears their souls are in danger from the ghosts of the previous governess and her sinister lover.

The Turn of the Screw

Bárbara Deoti

Draculelle

Henry James Jr.

Turn of the Screw and Daisy Miller

Way better and spookier then I expected it to be. To think it was published a year after Dracula is by itself testament of it's excellence.

martian1138

Otra vuelta de tuerca

David

Para empezar, he de decir que - y no es porque no quiera decirlo - me he intentado, de una forma que pudo ser, por consiguiente, no la más exitosa, que, de hecho, no pude ni siquiera - finalmente - llevar a cabo, la lectura de este, enfatizando correctamente: corto libro, que si bien, no es la cosa más corta del mundo, sí representa una longitud, por lo menos, menor, a la de un libro quizá un poco más largo, y que, en lo que a mi opinión respecta; la que he formulado mientras, en efecto, lo estaba leyendo, no me terminó, por lo que sea, atrayendo y lo he dejado en un «no me gusta». Más o menos así de desesperante y frustrante es leer (o intentarlo) <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13412354.Otra_vuelta_de_tuerca" title="Otra vuelta de tuerca by Henry James" rel="nofollow noopener">Otra vuelta de tuerca</a> de <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/159.Henry_James" title="Henry James" rel="nofollow noopener">Henry James</a>. Yo defiendo el hecho de que la lectura debería ser entretenida y no una tortura para medio comprender de qué va o qué es lo que está pasando ahora mismo, y durante el tiempo que he estado leyendo el libro (unas 40 páginas) me encontraba siempre con una constante: no saber qué demonios está pasando, no sé si seré yo que no presto la suficiente atención, o si de verdad el estilo de escritura me asfixió tanto que no pude interesarme más en el libro. La trama me parecía lo suficientemente interesante como para continuar el intento, pero es que la prosa no daba más para mí, lo cual me parece una lástima porque se me había vendido el título como una gran obra y sobre todo, como un clásico de terror psicológico. Si la escritura fue un recurso del autor para intentar ver la locura a la que estaba cayendo la institutriz, pues he de alabar ese recurso, me pareció que lo hizo tan bien que de la desesperación he terminado droppeando el libro. Quizás en el futuro próximo me dé por darle otra oportunidad y mi opinión cambie, pero por el momento quedará así.

A young, inexperienced governess is charged with the care of Miles and Flora, two small children abandoned by their uncles at his grand country house. She sees the figure of an unknown man on the tower and his face at the window. It is Peter Quint, the master's dissolute valet, and he has come for little Miles. But Peter Quint is dead. Like the other tales collected here - `Sir Edmund Orme', `Owen Wingrave', and `The Friends of the Friends' - `The Turn of the Screw' is to all immediate appearances a ghost story. But are the appearances what they seem? Is what appears to the governess a ghost or a hallucination? Who else sees what she sees? The reader may wonder whether the children are victims of corruption from beyond the grave, or victims of the governess's `infernal imagination', which torments but also entrals her? `The Turn of the Screw' is probably the most famous, certainly the most eerily equivocal, of all ghostly tales. Is it a subtle, self-conscious exploration of the haunted house of Victorian culture, filled with echoes of sexual and social unease? Or is it simply, `the most hopelessly evil story that we have ever read'? The texts are those of the New York Edition, with a new Introduction and Notes. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories

Tim Pendry

This carefully curated (one might almost say 'over-academic') collection of four Henry James' supernatural stories of the 1890s is well worth reading together rather than singly. What we see is not so much a focus on the supernatural as on the supernatural as coded social commentary. This is the literature of unease but not an uneasiness about worlds outside our own entering ours (which is the staple of weird fiction) but of the social and psychological worlds within which the 'ghosts' speak to us. James, whose prose style is exceptionally precise yet often convoluted and not always something that 'flows' but rather which demands attention to get meanings often at the very edge of understanding, has his supernatural express what is hard to say directly to a nineteenth century elite audience. The 'ghosts' (such as they are) are often sublimated feelings or conditions which the author has decided to 'realise' (real-ise) so that the reader will get a frisson from his or her recognition of something on the edge of their own social perception but which is still culturally difficult to state. 'Sir Edmund Orme' treats of guilt at trivialising another's emotion, 'Owen Wingrave' of defiance of enforced social convention where heroism lies in defying the demand to be heroic and 'The Friends of Friends' tells of the dangerous emotion of instinctive desire that breaks social demands. The ghosts and the supernatural enable the stories to be told elliptically and sometimes tragically. The upper middle class reader does not have to make moral judgements but only experience the unease that would be felt if they were forced to do so in company. James saves their embarrassment, To uncover the moral problems in these cases, where individual reality comes up against social convention, would require someone to make an existential choice for or against guilty acts and for or against commitment to the self over social expectation. This is not what Victorians wanted to do. James' realism (his supernatural is embedded in the social conditions of his time) is at its most effective when emotion explodes into direct view - as when the female narrator of 'Friends' suddenly has to breach (irrationally or socially rationally?) the conditions of her assumed future happiness. When she sees how her intended relates to what appears to be a 'ghost', she feels betrayed. Yet she was the instrument. She can forgive neither him nor herself. They would have been happy together in convention if not for an incident (perhaps as much as Nora and Thorvald in 'A Doll's House'). James captures all the complexity of the human condition and conventional upper middle class sexual relations in this masterful story just as he explores simpler determinations and feelings in 'Orme' and 'Wingrave'. Yet always things must re-stabilise eventually into conventional social reality. This brings us to the classic 'The Turn of the Screw' which has always had two interpretations - that the narrator is unhinged (perhaps from romantic sexual longing for an ideal) or that there really are two evil figures corrupting two innocent children. Much ink has been expended on trying to demonstrate one case rather than the other but the operation is futile. The ambiguity strikes me as intentional. The text could be interpreted in either direction. Even an apparently decisive textual point can be made to crumble with determination. Perhaps the contemporary perception of the story itself being 'evil' lies intuitively in this refusal to not resolve the matter for the reader. After all, hanging in the air is the death of a child which is at the hands of the ghost, of a governess or of neither. The narrator is unreliable. Every 'fact' is told us by her and her alone. The agreement to the facts of Mrs Grose, the housekeeper, is only the agreement as constantly supplied by the narrator on her terms. Is the manuscript that of a psychotic or a victim of evil that she valiantly stands against? This irresolution takes us back to the earlier stories where there is in each case a resolution - a happy conclusion, a death and a breach that allows the narrator to progress. But here there is a final shocking event and then a manuscript on which we may not be able to rely. The unease thus lies in the uncertainty. The framing introduction is important here because the story is regarded as so shocking that the gentlemen seem pleased in retrospect that the ladies had to leave and could not hear its telling. The latter had expected a classic ghost story, not a tale of evil. As to the reading audience, the shock would have been greater in 1898 than to our jaded palates because it would be difficult to admit the governess was unhinged and possibly complicit in the shocking event. The evil must lie in two lower class servants. Bear in mind the peculiar status of governesses in Victorian society. Generally poorly qualified, they were often young and inexperienced with child-minding the only way to remain within the comfort of their class yet were no less dependant than a servant. Governesses were ambigiuous creatures. And this is the other factor in the game. Exactly what evil are we talking about? The nature of the evil is never stated. We never really know what Miles got expelled from school for. It obviously was unmentionable by the headmaster in his letter. Is there a dark implication of some abuse that got replayed at school since what we seem to be told (if reliable) is not that Miles did something but that he said something unmentionable? If it was unmentionable in the story, you can be sure it would be unmentionable when the story was discussed. This air of mystery directs itself into the reader's unease - as much at his or her own inner thoughts about the story as at what happens in the story. The 'ghost' (dark thoughts) may be no more than the imaginings within the reader. The story is evil because it brings evil thoughts to mind. It has to be said that James does get himself into a pickle once or twice in his use of language where things become a little incoherent in exchanges but this occasional incoherence seems to be necessitated by his project which requires that he can never be explicit about the core of the tale. One incident strikes me as important. The narrator is so shaken by a conversation with Miles (where to be honest he says nothing that could not be reasonably interpreted as just 'growing up') that she cannot enter church for service and runs away. Why? This is never truly explained. Whereas vampires and ghouls cannot enter a church, Miles and his little sister have no difficulty but our governess does. What might that say about the source of evil here - is she tainted by her thoughts and are the children truly innocent? Time and time again, we come back to their being only one narrator to retain our faith in the tale. Are any children quite so perfect and unsullied? Is her account of Quint and Miss Jessel truly 'ab initio'? Why do others not see what she sees while she indicates that they sense their reality? Four remarkable stories that show a most subtle literary genius at work but one who refuses both didacticism and art for art's sake. In these stories, James shows up a mirror to the secret lives of his conventional readers without intending to have them judged. This particular edition also has a great deal of scholarly background material related to the stories but the academicism of introduction, appendices, notes and variant readings rather misses the point. Even James' own later 'Prefaces' add little. The stories stand in and of themselves.

A Classic Ghost Story “Of course I was under the spell, and the wonderful part is that, even at the time, I perfectly knew I was.” ― Henry James, The Turn of the Screw The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a ghost story novella originally published in 1898. A boy is expelled from school due to a horrible secret. This ambiguous story has been studied and adapted extensively and still makes for an intriguing read. This Xist Classics edition has been professionally formatted for e-readers with a linked table of contents. This eBook also contains a bonus book club leadership guide and discussion questions. We hope you’ll share this book with your friends, neighbors and colleagues and can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it. Xist Publishing is a digital-first publisher. Xist Publishing creates books for the touchscreen generation and is dedicated to helping everyone develop a lifetime love of reading, no matter what form it takes

One of those rare instances where I find the adaptations more enjoyable than the source material. 

Chloe 

How could I not give ‘Turn of the Screw’ five stars? Although, appropriately, I had a very different response to the plot of this book this time round than when I last read it (maybe 20 years ago). Perspective is everything. Which was probably Henry James’ point.

Naomi J.

The Turn of the Screw (Penguin Popular Classics)

Margo Koss

The classic ghost story about a high-strung governess and the two young children who may--or may not--be plotting with the diabolical Peter Quint.

Sarah Sammis

The extra words James used fall into one of two categories. The first is to warn the reader to look away before he relates the next scary thing. The second is to relate how the governess is feeling. She's either too scared to believe her eyes, extremely skeptical, or very worried. Throughout this re-read I spent most of my time wishing either the narrator or the governess would get to the bloody point.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2021/comm...

This gothic classic, “The Turn of the Screw” is one of the most famous ghost stories of all time. On Christmas Eve, Douglas reads a manuscript written by a former acquaintance, the governess, whom Douglas claims to have known and who is now dead. The manuscript tells the story of how the young governess is hired by a man who has become responsible for his young nephew and niece after the tragic deaths of their parents. He is uninterested in raising the children. The governess’s new employer gives her full responsibility for the young siblings and explicitly states that he is not to be bothered with communications of any sort. Set in a remote estate this critically acclaimed novella tells the tale of a governess who, looking after two children, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted. This story has been adapted many times for film and television, most recently in The Turning (2020). Famed for its ability to create an intimate sense of confusion and suspense, this novella is a must-read for all horror and ghost story fans.

Tobias V. Langhoff

Like every time I review a classic book, I just want to recommend listening to it as an audiobook. I listened to Emma Thompson’s fantastic rendition of this one, which gives it a star extra. Yes, that means that the text itself gets only 2 stars from me. Perhaps a little harsh, but although it had a couple of eerie moments, overall this fairly boring story didn’t capture me at all. I just found it pretty boring; Emma Thompson, however, is anything but.

henry james writes in such an ornate way that it’s kind of hard to be scared in the moment-to-moment of the book but it’s a wonderfully ambiguous and dense story that i’ll be thinking about for a while.

Mitch

Briar's Reviews

The Turn of the Screw is a classic horror novel that will intrigue you and leave you utterly confused.

I had to read this for an English class, which let me tell ya is quite the delight. I liked hearing what the Professor had to say about this book because WOW. This book leaves the ending up to you (to a degree). It's not one of those books that has a clear cut ending. Honestly, I'm left more confused than I would like to be. I hate cliffhanger endings, so this book had me sitting all grumpy and annoyed.

So, we have these guys telling a story from a Governess a long time ago. The one guy might have loved her so already we may have an unreliable narrator on our hands. This guy starts telling the story that was written in a manuscript that has basically been hidden away for a long time. The woman, an untrained governess, goes to a mysterious house with two kids and some housekeepers there. She's to teach these kids well for the unseen Master and make them learn lots of stuff. That's all fine and dandy, right? Wrong.

Something is weird about this place. There may be ghosts, the kids are kinda weird and the main character is suspicious (insert Among Us quote here). What's the actual evil in this book? The creepy ghosts that may be actual ghosts or may just be this woman's imagination? Is there something supernatural in this place? Is the unnamed woman governess just actually crazy? Maybe the kids are evil and doing it to spite her! Who. Knows. Also, is Miles (the young boy) trying to sleep with his teacher? That's not weird or anything... He's like, 10. 

So, to go on, this governess wants to protect the kids but seems to be acting crazier and crazier. And, eventually everything turns sour and her protective ways aren't all that protecting.

What happened? You get to choose! It's like a choose your own ending novel because the book is very subjective. 

The most interesting part is: If you've read Jane Eyre, this book is an intertext. It actually references Jane Eyre a lot and uses a lot of the themes and devices it uses. An untrained Governess trying to teach a child (or children) while trying to please a master. Gothic inter texts are super cool and picking these two apart has been super fun. It's not something you'd pick up right away, which makes it way more interesting.

Overall, this spooky gothic tale is really interesting! The ending is very subjective depending on the other books you've read in the genre and how much of the references you pick up. 

Four out of five stars.

Daniel Kilby

For all its peripatetic syntax, the suspense certainly has me on the hook

Sage

Colleen

4 Stars

The Turn of the Screw isn’t the best written novel I’ve ever read, and yet there is something powerful beneath it. I can see the influence this novel has had on many works including  House of Leaves .
 
This is the story of a young woman at her first governess job. She has the care of two beautiful orphans. At first, she loses herself in the idyllic setting, lavishing love on the two angelic-looking children as they frolic about their country estate. But looks can be deceiving. And any modern reader will probably scream that a pretty face does not equal goodness inside. Soon she starts seeing two mysterious figures, and she realizes there is something unnatural about the children. And her sanity spirals as she realizes that she is alone at an isolated estate and possibly haunted by something dark. What’s really going on behind those innocent-looking little faces? Why was the eldest permanently expelled from his school? Are they haunted? Why did their guardian send them to such a remote place and order the governess never to contact him?


  “Of course I was under the spell, and the wonderful part is that, even at the time, I perfectly knew I was. But I gave myself up to it; it was an antidote to any pain, and I had more pains than one.”

The story is primarily written in epistolary form by the governess. And it is extremely text heavy. The paragraphs go on and on with little break. This might be one that would be better in audio format. And yet, this drawn-out stream of consciousness builds the story. It demonstrates the frantic state of mind of the narrator and adds to the questions looming in the story. What is real or unreal? Is she going insane?


  ““The summer had turned, the summer had gone; the autumn had dropped upon Bly and had blown out half our lights. The place, with its gray sky and withered garlands, its bared spaces and scattered dead leaves, was like a theater after the performance--all strewn with crumpled playbills.” 

I’ll admit, I had to look up some theories about the book before certain things made sense. But once I realized that this is more than some gothic ghost story, I had a total lightbulb moment. It is important to remember the time in which this was written. It was completely taboo to discuss so many things. Even today, people sweep things under the rug rather than admit those things do occur. James was quite crafty in sneaking something so controversial out.
 
The story is purposefully left teetering between two possibilities, and apparently the author refused to ever confirm which was “right.” This is a case where ambiguity worked well, although I certainly have my own theory. This book will probably seem tame compared to modern, gory horror stories. But despite the writing being dense at times, I did greatly enjoy The Turn of the Screw. It’s the kind of book that’s great to discuss, so if you’ve read it let me know!
 

RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 4 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 4 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 4 Stars
Originality: 4 Stars

Unreliable narrators? A story within a story? An ambiguous ending? Welcome to The Turn of the Screw.

A story, untrusted to a man, is told of a woman who became a governess for two children. The governess begins seeing apparitions and is convinced they're coming for the children. But what does she see? 

This story is tense and full of dread. And you don't know what happens or why. I think your interpretation of the story reveals a lot about the reader. It's unsettling and shows the genius of James as a writer.

Cheri McElroy

Unreliable narrators? A story within a story? An ambiguous ending? Welcome to The Turn of the Screw.

A story, untrusted to a man, is told of a woman who became a governess for two children. The governess begins seeing apparitions and is convinced they're coming for the children. But what does she see? 

This story is tense and full of dread. And you don't know what happens or why. I think your interpretation of the story reveals a lot about the reader. It's unsettling and shows the genius of James as a writer.

Probably one of the best classics I’ve read as well as one of the best ghost stories. How James weaved this tale is incredible; he knew how to create the atmosphere of dread/eeriness while also giving beautifully in-depth descriptions of the setting and characters. A beautiful, terrifying ghost story. The only thing that keeps this from a 5-star review is the lengthiness of some of the paragraphs that tended to be a bit long-winded. 

Floofyflower

Dee B. 

Stefano Gaudiano

Guido Crepax

This volume presents the text of the New York Edition of James's classic 1898 short novel along with critical essays that read "The Turn of the Screw" from contemporary reader-response, psychoanalytic, gender, and Marxist perspectives. An additional essay demonstrates how several critical perspectives can be combined. As in the first edition, the text and essays are complemented by biographical and critical introductions, bibliographies, and a glossary of critical and theoretical terms. Two of the six essays are new to the second edition, as is a selection of cultural documents and illustrations.

Celeste Richardson

This is one of the worst books I’ve ever read. The only thing in its favor is its brevity. It’s opaque to the point of nonsensical, and so overly melodramatic that every single character was wholly unbelievable and unsympathetic. And don’t even get me started on that ending. I’d have been insanely pissed had I actually cared. If someone held a gun to my head and forced me to reread either this or Wuthering Heights, I wouldn’t even hesitate to pick Wuthering Heights despite its far greater page count. I still hate Joyce’s Ulysses more, but I’m not sure any book on the planet can usurp that one.

A spooky buddy read with my book twin, the lovely TS!

The Turn of the Screw

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