The Turn Of The Screw

Written by Henry James

Narrated by Geoffrey Giuliano and The Ark

“If a child gives the effect another turn of the screw, what do you say to two children—?”

“I don’t know what I don’t see, what I don’t fear!”

“Miles and Flora saw more — things terrible and unguessable.”

“For there again, against the glass ... was the hideous author of our woe — the white face of damnation.”

“I want my own sort!”

Henry James

The Turn of the Screw is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James which first appeared in serial format in Collier's Weekly. In October 1898, it was collected in The Two Magics, published by Macmillan in New York City and Heinemann in London.

Henry James OM was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Icon Audio Arts
• Release date: Feb 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887677583

Henry James

Henry James (1843-1916) was an American author of novels, short stories, plays, and non-fiction. He spent most of his life in Europe, and much of his work regards the interactions and complexities between American and European characters. Among his works in this vein are The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Bostonians (1886), and The Ambassadors (1903). Through his influence, James ushered in the era of American realism in literature. In his lifetime he wrote 12 plays, 112 short stories, 20 novels, and many travel and critical works. He was nominated three times for the Noble Prize in Literature.

Reviews for The Turn Of The Screw

[ishtahar · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I've never read any Henry James before (a terrible admission for an English graduate) so I really wanted to love this book. I didn't.I thought the language was stilted and unnecessary, the story was something and nothing hugely padded out with superfluous narrative and the characters two dimensional. Plus it didn't scare me at all. Some ghost story!!

[jlsmither · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've hesitated for a while now on writing this review. For one thing, I had to re-read the book. I "read" it first as a recording in my car. While that often works quite well (I highly recommend Frank Muller's reading of Moby Dick), it didn't seem to work here. I had a little trouble following the characters' motivations and felt like I was missing something. When I got to one very dramatic, tension-filled moment during a "driveway moment," I turned off my car, excited about what would happen next. When I got back into the car later, all I heard was "The End." I backed the CD up, listened to the final scene again, but that was it. Really?

So I decided to give it another try. I'd heard that some work by Henry James is important to find in its first edition, because he made changes later in life that aren't really improvements. I checked online and looked through the 4 or 5 editions in my local library, but all the versions I found ended with the same line (I don't want to repeat the line here because it gives a major plot twist away, but I will say that the story never returns to the frame story it opens with).

I re-read the book on my kindle, and I enjoyed it much more than the recorded version. The tension between whether the ghosts are really haunting the estate or whether the governess is making it all up (and what her motivations might be for doing so) comes through much stronger, and that's such a fascinating thread throughout the story. But I still felt let down by the ending. There's not really any foreshadowing of the event, which seems to jump out of nowhere in only the last SIX WORDS of the book. There's no explanation of what happens afterward, no denouement of any kind. It just... ends.

So, while I liked the book as a whole, I might "Jane Eyre" this one, meaning that I'll likely invent a new ending for it in my head to feel a little more satisfied.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Nogal moeilijk verhaal over verschijningen; de lezer wordt op het verkeerde been gezet. Thema's: onschuld kinderen, overbescherming door volwassenen.

[bragan_8 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A young woman is hired as a governess for two orphaned children, with only one condition: the children's guardian, who lives elsewhere, doesn't want to be bothered with any reports or questions about them. Despite the worrying nature of this request, she very much enjoys her job and the two angelic children... until the ghosts start showing up. And until she starts wondering whether the children are quite as angelic as they seem.The basic story here is decent. The disturbing elements are nicely subtle and slow-building, and there's an intriguing ambiguity about the whole thing. But Henry James' writing style I do not get along. I can deal with wordy Victorian prose, in general, but James takes it to an entirely new level. Reading one of his sentences is like navigating a labyrinth: it's full of unexpected turns and distracting side passages, and by the time you've reached the end of it, it's hard to remember the route you took to get there. It was just way too difficult for me to give myself over to a sense of creepiness when I often had to read a sentence over two or three times before I could extract the meaning out of it without getting lost in the middle (generally somewhere around the fifth or sixth comma). And James is definitely not an author you want to read while still working on your first cup of morning coffee, or while desperately trying not to nod off at bedtime -- which, unfortunately, are the main times I've had available to read lately.

[pilgrimjess · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

“No, no—there are depths, depths! The more I go over it, the more I see in it, and the more I see in it, the more I fear. I don’t know what I don’t see—what I don’t fear!” This is my first Henry James book (novella really) and having read it has left me with very mixed feelings about so much so that I actually finished it much earlier in the day and have left it until now to write a review.As I swing from aversion to admiration.Firstly I found it a little difficult to read,the syntax with its use or perhaps that should be over-use of commas was initially baffling as by the time that I'd finished the sentence my mind had wandered and I had totally forgotten what it was all about so had to re-read it.Despite the brevity of the book the language used was certainly densely packed. Then there was the proliferation of adjectives describing the children (angelic,sweet,beautiful etc) which was initially entrancing but eventually annoying and felt that their innocence had been over-laboured to put it mildly.Now some people will now doubt feel that the lack of action (and gore) is a let down, after all it is never really obvious whether or not the children can see the ghosts of Miss Jessel and Mr Quint or whether they were merely the work of a mind that was suffering from a breakdown. Certainly lovers of modern horror genre will be disappointed but then this is over a hundred years old so not aimed at the modern market. However, I rather enjoyed this element as it leaves the readers to make their own minds up and in many respects makes it all the more relevant to today's society. In an age where visual violence abounds on our TV screens we have come to a certain extent anaesthetised to it but what any parent really fears is the corruption of their children by outside an unseen influences. Only now it is probably the internet of other media devices. This in many respects is a tale of the battle between good and evil,nature and nurture. Perhaps given that James was a confirmed bachelor this is all the more surprising.An interesting worthwhile read that constantly makes you with an ending that took me totally by surprise and not an easy to put down and pick up at a later date but in the end the syntax won out hence the middling score.

[janeajones · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

TURN OF THE SCREW is Henry James's most famous ghost story. Set on an English estate, Bly, the narrator has been hired as governess for two young orphans, Miles and Flora. The previous governess, Miss Jessel, and Peter Quint, the valet of the children's uncle, had died under mysterious circumstances, and their ghosts may have returned to reclaim the children. The tale is highly ambiguous as the reliability of the narrator is in question. Are there really ghosts or is she mad? The tale was written in 1898, and the repressed Victorian sensibility of the narrator seems a bit quaint even for the time -- but perhaps that was part of James's technique of character development.I saw the film THE INNOCENTS, based on the story and starring Deborah Kerr, when I was a young teenager and was more frightened than I had ever been in a film -- the memory stays with me to this day, at least 45 years after I saw it.

[kelley.logan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Haunting and haunted and ambiguous. Don't read this for a pat ending.

[maryanntherese · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A tale of a ghost in Victorian England.

[carmenere_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I reread this one for my library book discussion group. I found this classic to be a bit more risqué than my first read of it several years ago. A good discussion was had about the children and the ghosts and their influence on their young lives. Just what did they do to these children?!Briefly discussed the governess and her imagination but we agreed the ghosts were real. The author’s excessive use of punctuation aside, it’s a pretty good ghost story.

[engpunk77 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Read this about 4 times in college, and I was thinking about it today (thinking about how much I enjoyed discussing literature at length and writing essays about my crazy interpretations). I enjoyed arguing a thesis about what was actually haunting the house...I believe I argued that it was a forbidden lust or something.

[jackkane_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

'The Turn of the Screw' isn't really about ghosts. James explores the debilitating effects of the sexual repression pervasive under the absurd 'morals' of the Victorian age. The governess is clearly unstable - the 'turn of the screw' is a reference to her insanity. The spooks in the novel are pedophilia and patriarchal repression, both the direct product of Victorian mores.I found James's style too heavy. Between his long, tortuous sentences, and the subject matter, the novel is a tough read - despite its brevity. To James's credit, his execution of the unreliable narrator technique is impressive.The most remarkable aspect of the book is the sensitive subject matter, and James's success in avoiding censorship.'The Innocents' (1960) with Deborah Kerr is a great screen adaptation of 'Turn of the Screw.' Look it up, it's well worth watching!

[bderby_5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

James explores both the supernatural and the psychological in this ghost story. It would do well to teach this text to students who are familiar with Jane Eyre as there are parallels between Jane Eyre and the governess in this novella. This is a good James text to cover with secondary students because of its short length. Since it is so short, James's notoriously dense prose will be easier to delve into. Don't expect to be finished with this text quickly just because it is short; it will take just as long to unpack the details (and sometimes the plot) from this James work than it would to explore a longer text by an author with an easier writing style.

[klmesoftly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like most novels with ambiguous endings, this one has had me thinking over the past few days. It's a haunted house story, in the sense that the narrative follows a young governess as she moves into a country estate to be faced with the pair of ghosts that haunt the two children in her care, but it's by no means the typical "chills & thrills"-type horror novel. There's little scary about these supernatural beings but the fact that they seem bent on corrupting the children in some way, continuing the negative influence they'd had while alive. An influence towards what, one wonders, as there are implications but it's never made explicit. In fact, the majority of the novel is concerned with this sense of taboo - wrongs so unspeakable but titillating the characters can only speak around them in innuendo, trying to force each other into revelation first. I'd definitely recommend giving this a read, but expect (and embrace!) the loose ends.

[someguyinvirginia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Henry James. Reading is work is like wading through a jungle of commas and just before you can't take any more coming across something that is beautiful. Like eating chicken wings in Heaven; you’ve still got to work too damn hard for a little that is sublime.Everyone knows the story. It’s worth reading and the percentage of commas to sentence does fall after the first half.

[saskreader · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I know this is supposed to be a classic psychological gothic-type mystery, but I just didn't find it very effective. Yes, there is a big scary secret revealed, but from my point of view (as a reader and movie-watcher in the 21st century), it just wasn't as unnerving as it was meant to be. Perhaps it should be viewed as the predecessor of all the psychological thrillers around today.

[mromano_95 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story of a governess whose sexual repressions cause her to believe that the children she is caring for are in danger of attack by an evil male spirit. So real is the spirit to her that she in turn terrorizes the youngsters. The reader likewise becomes confused. Is the ghost real or is it a figment of her repressed imagination? Hence the supernatural element of the story. The Freudian themes and symbols, she sees him on a tower (phallic anyone?), as well as the possibility of implanting in others one's own beliefs and memories, keeps the work suspenseful and the reader engaged.

[novelcommentary · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Turn of the Screw was a quick delve into what was considered one of the first ghost stories. Henry James delivered this novella in serial version in the late 1880's and his writing takes some getting used to, what with the constant clarifications and interjections between the commas. For example: "I could only get on at all by taking “nature” into my confidence and my account, by treating my monstrous ordeal as a push in a direction unusual, of course, and unpleasant, but demanding, after all, for a fair front, only another turn of the screw of ordinary human virtue." It's an elaborate style but seems to add to the tale being told by an unnamed governess given the charge of two young children , Flora and Miles. Their uncle, her employer, has no desire to raise his newly orphaned niece and nephew, and in fact wants no communication from her on how it's going. Soon she discovers that Miles has been expelled from school and more shockingly, there seem to be visions of two dead, former employees of the country house known as Bly. From here the story explores the governess' struggle to try and wrest the children away from the pull of these ghosts. The most interesting aspect of the novel is the dueling consideration whether this is a horror story or a character study of mental illness. Are the ghosts real or a figment of her imagination? You choose. LinesThere was nothing in me there that didn’t meet and measure him. . . . I had, thank God, no terror. And he knew I had not.” The best way to picture it all is to say that I was off my guard. They gave me so little trouble—they were of a gentleness so extraordinary. I used to speculate—but even this with a dim disconnectedness— as to how the rough future (for all futures are rough!) would handle them and might bruise them.I daresay I fancied myself, in short, a remarkable young woman and took comfort in the faith that this would more publicly appear. Well, I needed to be remarkable to offer a front to the remarkable things that presently gave their first sign.He has red hair, very red, close-curling, and a pale face, long in shape, with straight, good features and little, rather queer whiskers that are as red as his hair. His eyebrows are, somehow, darker; they look particularly arched and as if they might move a good deal. His eyes are sharp, strange—awfully; but I only know clearly that they’re rather small and very fixed. His mouth’s wide, and his lips are thin, and except for his little whiskers he’s quite clean-shaven. He gives me a sort of sense of looking like an actor.”It was like fighting with a demon for a human soul, and when I had fairly so appraised it I saw how the human soul—held out, in the tremor of my hands, at arm’s length—had a perfect dew of sweat on a lovely childish forehead.

[maggieflo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An inexperienced young woman is hired to become the governess of two small children near the town of Bly in Victorian England. The children have no parents and it is their uncle who hires her. She is informed that she is not to contact him at all u less there is a good reason. The two children are Miles and Flora. Soon, two ghosts appear, Quint and Jessel, who were the former caregivers of the children.It never becomes clear if it is the governess alone who sees these ghosts or if the children do as well. Who is the crazy one... Who knows.

[charrlygirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Narrated by Emma Thompson, I enjoyed re-reading this classic, gothic novella for the third time.

I know many readers are not impressed by this book, but I enjoyed it, (again). I know it's rather verbose, especially considering the length of the book, but I found more than a few of the sentences to be outright chilling.

I've always loved psychological horror and ambiguous stories, so this one hits most of the marks for me. My original rating of the book, at 4 stars, stands.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

James certainly creates a haunting atmosphere, relentlessly ratcheting up the tension throughout this tale of the evil forces confronting the young governess who arrives at a large Victorian house to look after two seemingly cherubic orphans, Mile and Flora.However, at times I found James's highly stylized writing almost impenetrable (to a far great er degree than I had experienced with some of his longer works). Thomas Hardy said of James that he wrote with "a ponderously warm manner of saying nothing in infinite sentences". Well perhaps he should know!, However, on this occasion I wouldn't disagree at all. In this story James seems more concerned with showing how elaborately he could write than in delivering a flowing story.

[japaul22 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this short novel that is basically a ghost story. The story is told through the first person account of a governess who is hired by the uncle and guardian of two children who live in a house in the country. The governess is told that the uncle doesn't want to be bothered at all about the kids and the governess is left to fend for herself with them. Soon after arriving at the house, the boy is sent home from his boarding school for unidentified misbehavior and the governess begins to see two ghosts. She finds from the housekeeper that these are the ghosts of former workers at the house. I wouldn't consider any of that info to be spoilers, but I won't give any more of the plot away for those who haven't read this yet. I'll just say that James is very good at giving just enough info to make your imagination run wild and there is not a neat, clean ending so your imagination can continue filling in the details after you're done reading. I read this on my kindle and I was shocked when I clicked "next page" and saw THE END.One thing that took me a long time to get into is the sentence construction and use of way too many commas!!!! For instance:In the first weeks the days were long; they often, at their finest, gave me what I used to call my own hour, the hour when, for my pupils, teatime and bedtime having come and gone, I had, before my final retirement, a small interval alone.Yikes!! That's a complicated sentence for a really simple idea.

[bookconcierge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Audiobook performed by Simon Vance and Vanessa BenjaminA ghost story and psychological thriller. A young woman is hired to be governess to two young children, Miles and Flora. They are the wards of “the master,” their uncle, who has taken on their guardianship after their parents died in India. He is unmarried and really not interested in the children or the running of the household. In fact, after hiring the governess he tells her to simply deal with whatever comes up and not to bother him at all. James begins the tale with a gathering of friends at Christmas. They begin telling ghost stories, and eventually one of them mentions the document he received from a young woman (she is never named). He then begins to read the tale. This opening puzzles me, because James never returns to this gathering of friends. The rest of the novel is devoted to the governess’s manuscript / notes on what happened. Having arrived at the mansion, she is charmed by the angelic Flora, enjoying their lessons and spending time with her. She also befriends the housekeeper, Mrs Grose, who answers some of her questions about the previous governess, Miss Jessel. Things begin to go badly quickly however. A strange figure is seen in one of the mansion’s towers. Miles returns from school, presumably for holiday, but in reality has been expelled without explanation. The governess is certain that some malevolent entity is intent on capturing the children in her care, and she is determined to prevent it from doing so. All the uncertainty and secrecy serve to increase the emotional tension in the story. It is dark, and puzzling, and disturbing. I am not a fan of the ending, which seems abrupt and unexplained. But then, a good ghost story SHOULD leave us wondering. The audiobook is performed by Simon Vance, who voices the introduction, and Vanessa Benjamin who narrates the governess’s manuscript. They are both accomplished voice actors and do a marvelous job with James’ work.

[zumbanista · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Disappointed after hearing all the praise of this novella, possibly was more shocking in its day and I’ve now become jaded by ghost stories. Lots of gothic atmosphere, tension and uncertainty. While the language wasn’t all that difficult, the style and manner of writing made it a bit difficult to get through. Long sentences with many clauses served to confuse me and lose the gist at times. Not really an enjoyable read so it felt longer and I was glad when it ended. Can’t recommend, but glad I filled in the gap of my reading of classic literature.

[killerx-2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Intense? No. Boring.

[andjhostet-527429 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a fairly difficult read, with dense prose and antiquated terms. It felt much longer than it was. Great story though and I see why it's a classic. There is a lot of depth to the short story. Is the governess crazy? Are there ghosts? Are the kids possessed or merely acting out?

While I struggled with this, it was a very rewarding read.

[amcheri-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really struggled to stay engaged in this one. Emma Thompson did a great job narrating but the language made it difficult for me. There were some intense parts and I did mostly enjoy the tale.

2.5 rounded up for Goodreads.

[gregorio_roth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A Victorian Ghost Story about the evils of men and the fear of the uncivilized... WE find a governess who is duty bound to protect the children in her charge from the things that go bump in the night. The story presents the isolation caused by a guarded Victorian rectified World.

[lycomayflower · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I honestly don't remember much about this now? It was neither as impressive nor as unimpressive as I have heard. Fairly atmospheric, decent ambiguous ending. I'm glad I read it, if only because now I will get it when other books or movies are referencing it.

[quondame · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found nothing to appeal in this famous story and quite a lot of it's artistry was of itself and to an end for which I was largely indifferent if not hostile. The governess's certainties about her charges were particularly repulsive as was the 3rd handed really 4th - taking no responsibility presentation of the narration. The drawn out, undeciphered causality and the classism and rigid but relativistic moralism inherent as the basis for the situation are additional turnoffs.

[libbromus · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I saw the 1999 BBC movie years ago and it scared the begeezus out of me (I'm a lightweight). So, I decided I'd read it and see if it was just as psychologically scary in print. It's not, so I could actually enjoy the story. Got the chills at the end. I'd say if you're not terribly desensitized or jaded this one does the job for mild psychological tension, which is all I'm good for, so phew!