The turn of the screw

No cover

Henry James: The turn of the screw (1949, Heritage Press)

145 pages

English language

Published July 21, 1949 by Heritage Press.

OCLC Number:
1807835

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3 stars (2 reviews)

One of literature's most gripping ghost stories depicts the sinister transformation of two innocent children into flagrant liars and hypocrites. Elegantly told tale of unspoken horror and psychological terror creates what few stories in literature have been able to do -- a complete feeling of dread and uncertainty.

55 editions

Classic

4 stars

I can definitely see how it's a classic. Ominous vibes and a lot of ambiguity. Fine writing for its time. The ending also left me wondering.

I still love that Haunting on Bly Manor modernized it and added its own creative flare. If you liked the show, you should read the book. Its fun to find some of the scenes parallel. If you liked the book, you should def watch the show. The show even standalone is absolutely a cinematic work of art for the story telling alone.

The prose is scary

1 star

This is a ghost story written in 1898. The scariest thing about it is the prose. It's terrifying! Seriously. Stay away!

The thing is hard to untangle. It's written in an archaic writing style, with an excessively wordy backward sentence structure. If I hadn't been working so hard to understand the sentences, I probably would have been able to pay attention to the story.

It's about a governess who is hired by an absentee uncle to watch over his niece and nephew in a gothic house. No gothic house is complete without a ghost. This guy got a bargain when he bought this place. It has two ghosts!

This story commits one of the major sins that I occasionally see in books and (especially) movies. The governess can see the ghosts. The two kids can see the ghosts. They refuse to speak about it! They spend the whole book dancing …

Subjects

  • Ghost stories