Customer Reviews

The Turn of the Screw

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

An excellent mystery/horror novel! When I was in 12th grade, my class was assigned this book to read and I absolutely loved it. The characters are done with depth but also have a mystery. You cannot be sure what is exactly happening until the very end. Even still, the author does not end the book with an answer but a question mark. Is the governess really mad or are those kids demon possessed monsters. And what about the mysterious uncle that never makes an appearence in our book? This book will keep you guessing, that is for sure.

This little book started off very slowly as the diary of a governess of two children at a country estate. She sees apparitions of her dead predecessor and another dead hired hand and thinks that they are trying to take the children away with them to the other world. She keeps her eye on the children constantly to protect them from this evil. The first half to two-thirds of the book is very wordy, repetitive with convoluted language, often making no sense, full of unnecessary adverbs. It seems like very poor writing until you put it in context: it was written by a mentally disturbed woman who is describing her life and situation. Near the very end, the action does pick up once her insanity begins to emerge. The two children, who first loved her, become fearful of her; a servant takes the little girl away to protect her, leaving the little boy alone with the batty governness. I won't spoil the end but it's not for the faint of heart. I liked "Daisy Miller" better I think, but Henry James does tend to put an odd spin on things.

I really enjoyed this book and the question about whether or not this is a ghost story or a psychological story. After I finished reading it, I had to question what actually happened and this spurred to me to look into the debate surrounding this story, which I found more interesting than the book itself. The character development is good and James' writing builds interest throughout. I found the formatting to be good quality for my Kindle.

The Turn of the Screw is a rather famous and critically renowned novella in American literary history. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I started into the story. I specifically avoided the wealth of critical theory and interpretations out there. After finishing, I'm very curious to see the many possible discussions that have been spurred by this book.

The narrative style is simple and easily accessible. For modern readers, it may present itself a little daunting at first because of the high/antiquated language of the 19th century. But truly, it's not a difficult read. The language is very lovely. The descriptions are vibrant and intriguing. And the story is interesting.

The way the plot is laid out was somewhat interesting to me. It starts with a group of characters sitting around telling stories and one of them decides to read this account from a journal he's discovered/received. The rest of the story is then this journal.

That presentation in itself isn't terribly odd. What was intriguing to me was that the framing was simple and subtle but the overall purpose is ambiguous. We're told that the original storyteller (the man who has the journal) has a connection to the governess. The exact nature of his connection is left ambiguous to the extent that I sometimes wondered if he (the man) was a grown version of one of the children in the story (assuming a different name). Once I decided that wasn't the case, I was interested to see if he would have some sort of epilogue for what happened AFTER the final words of the journal. If he was close enough to the governess to now have her story, then it's somewhat strange that we have this exclusion of his own interpretation or of commentary after the fact.

The story of the governess and the children is interesting...eerie...somewhat chilling at times. It's not a shocking tale of horror and fear. But James does a great job of portraying the horror of emotion that the governess feels and that makes its way into the life around her. The interactions with the ghosts and the nature of the behavior of the children were strange and distanced. It was difficult for me to decide what was real and what was imagined. Many times I thought the governess was going insane. Other times I was certain she was on the right track. In many instances it felt like her leaps of logic were a little too far fetched and that she made too many wild assumptions. But it was interesting to see how things played out with her and with her interactions with her single confidant Mrs. Grose.

The ending left me stunned and with a whole set of new questions to think on. I enjoyed the story. It is definitely engaging. I really wanted more of a wrap up...more closure...more something after the current ending. Still, leaving this abrupt, shocking ending is certainly more powerful and long-lasting than if the author had stepped back and wrapped everything up in a nice neat bow.

Overall, this was a good story and I look forward to reading more by Henry James when I get the chance.

****
4 out of 5 stars

This may have been terrifying back in the day, but is not now. Mildly unnerving yes, but not scary. That being said, it is a great read. I really liked the slow, elusive style of the story. I was under the impression it was a novel; it is actually a short story.

My daughter needs books for school all of the time. It was great to find this book for such a great price and available to be sent during the Winter Break. She was able to start reading in preparation of the restart of school.

This is one of the few classics thats short, complexly/eloquently written and still wildly entertaining. I'm a high school student and this is one of the few texts that i have ever enjoyed that was "sophisticated" reading.

I honestly cannot stress how much i love this little book, i really think everyone at some point should read this. For these reasons:

1) It's short (around one hundred pages).
2) It's a straight up suspense/horror story. No excessive detail found in most 19 century text, it's plot driven and enjoyable. (think parnormal activity.. suspense building and building then BANG sudden ending)
3) It's a classic! It's entertaining, short and reads like a modern piece of fiction. Yet you're enriching your literary mind at the same time!
4) IT'S FREE!

this is an amazing book, it's a one sitting classic with creepy children, pedophiliac ghost and possibly gay little boys.. oh and the narrator is probably crazy :)

Everyone should read this, wither your an english major who never got around to this underground work or a middle school student who's bored one afternoon.

READ IT BOOKWORMS!

oh and it's on the AP Lit list :)

Knowing that Turn of the Screw helped shape the story for Dark Shadows - the gothic 60's Soap- and being an avid fan, I decided to read this.....I didn't get far. The style of writing in this book is so convoluted that my eyes would read but my brain would quickly trail off trying to throw out the unecessary words and just get to the freaking point of each sentence!! I got the gist of the story but it just took to much mental energy to understand what was being said.

I will only purchase books from the bookstores from now on. The print was small and the book was The Turn of the Screw (Tor Classics)what I would consider poor quality.