Customer Reviews

The Turn of the Screw (Bedford Series in History & Culture)

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One of the most seductive of all ghost stories, Turn of the Screw is a sophisticated and subtle literary exercise in which the author creates a dense, suggestive, and highly ambiguous story, its suspense and horror generated primarily by what the author does NOT say and does not describe. Compelled to fill in the blanks from his/her own store of personal fears, the reader ultimately conjures up a more horrifying set of images and circumstances than anything an author could impose from without.

Written in 1898, this is superficially the tale of a governess who accepts the job of teaching two beautiful, young children whose uncle-guardian wants nothing to do with them. On a symbolic level, however, it is a study of the mores and prejudices of the times and, ultimately, of the nature of Evil. The governess fears that ghosts of the former governess Miss Jessel and her lover, valet Peter Quint, have corrupted the souls of little Flora and Miles and have won them to the side of Evil. The children deny any knowledge of ghosts, and, in fact, only the governess actually sees them. Were it not for the fact that the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, can identify them from the governess's descriptions, one might be tempted to think that the governess is hallucinating.

Though the governess is certainly neurotic and repressed, this novel was published ten years before Freud, suggesting that the story should be taken at face value, as a suspenseful but enigmatic Victorian version of a Faustian struggle for the souls of these children, yet numerous other interpretations find their ardent supporters as well. Assembling an assortment of scholarly, critical essays on this ambiguous novel, editor Peter Beidler provides a variety of other interpretations, ranging from psychosexual to feminist and materialist. The authors of each of these interpretations find ample material in James's ambiguities to support their own interpretations, since James himself never provided any explanations. The editor's fascinating collection of interpretations of James's most elusive novel make this is a fine resource for serious students. Mary Whipple

I have to admit that this story really confused me upon first reading but all the critical and historical sources in the text enhance my understanding and raise some very interesting points.

This book is absolutely awesome. It gives you the complete story plus a number of very insightful essays about the story. I've learned more from this one publication about The Turn of the Screw than I have from the cumulation of all my other sources combined.

Long before DaVinci Code, Turn of the Screw was generating all sorts of controversy. Are the ghosts genuine or a product of neurosis? Who sees them? Just what is going on with the young master, and is he actually perpetrating all the terror? Then there are readers who dislike James's style. For me, these and other questions enhance my enjoyment of this essentially timeless story. James's elegant language merely adds another layer to the deliciously creepy atmosphere. The Turn of the Screw is fun to read and enjoy as a ghost story, pure and simple. For double the fun, check out the DVD. Just don't watch it alone!

I've just finished reading "The Turn Of The Screw" by Henry James, a nineteenth century classic novella which can be read on various different levels. I read the 2003 edition, "The Turn Of The Screw: Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism", which includes the "Complete, Authoritative Text with Biographical, Historical, and Cultural Contexts, Critical History, and Essays from Contemporary Critical Perspectives", edited by Peter Beidler - I enjoyed both Henry James' story, and this edition's analyses, immensely.

To begin with a short summary of the plot - set in the 1840s, written by James in 1897, and published in 1898 - a young woman is employed as governess to two children, Flora and Miles, by their absent uncle. She is to live at their magnificent country mansion, and is directed not to contact their uncle in London at all, but to take on all responsibility for their care. She learns that their previous governess died tragically, after falling pregnant to another 'lower' servant, who also died suddenly. And she begins to see apparitions of these two 'sinister' ghosts - written in the first-person, the reader sees the governess's viewpoint, ruminations and thoughts - the text draws the reader into her firm beliefs that these two ghosts are intent on 'grasping' and 'possessing' the two 'angelic' children. If you want to know more - I can recommend you read it.

Did James intend "The Turn Of The Screw" to be a simple ghost story? Should we presume that the ghosts, as we see them through the eyes of the governess, are real? Is this fictional world's reality truly as she sees it? Or, as analyses have suggested, are we in fact reading the story of a nineteenth century woman's psychological break-down in reaction to Victorian sexual repression? And did James intend to critique the rigid class system, and rigid gender roles, of Victorian England, as modern analyses further suggest?

If you've read "The Turn Of The Screw" - what did you think?

Thank you for the quick shipment! The novel is in great condition and will be a nice edition to my library.