The Turn of the Screw and other stories
Henry James
Ghost stories set in Victorian England. Would never know that James was
American. Probably not as frightening as when first written. The stories
fall into a formula. The title story has a sexual element that couldn't be
made explicit in that era. One of the ghosts is a paedophile but this wasn't something that was written about at that time, even though it was happening. The main tension of the book is this evil that cannot be spoken about. Gill found the stories formulaic - it was easy to predict the ending of Turn of
the Screw from reading the previous three stories. Interesting as a piece of social history. A good ghost story for Christmas time but not as good as she had expected.
Gill 12/9/99
Doreen re-read the Turn of the Screw but didn’t read the other stories – generally, Doreen doesn’t like Henry James, which is “too much like hard work”, and Caroline commented that she finds him “impossible to read”.
This story is a cold, dark evening’s read. It’s a very good, rather creepy story. Mannered, typical of Henry James, with stilted, formal dialogue but an excellent atmosphere. Worth reading, or even re-reading, because it’s quite short.
Doreen 7/11/99
By the same author
The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.