The Turn of the Screw

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.

• The Haunting of Hill House (Penguin Classics)
• Chronicle of a Death Foretold
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
• The Turn of the Screw: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism)
• Heart of Darkness
• Beloved
• The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Short Stories
• The Crying of Lot 49 (Perennial Fiction Library)
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• The Turn of the Screw: A Norton Critical Edition (Second Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)