The Turn of the Screw, Henry James
The Turn of the Screw, Henry James
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The Turn of the Screw

Author: Henry James

Narrator: Simon Vance and Vanessa Benjamin

Unabridged: 4 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/23/2008

Categories: Fiction, Classic

Synopsis

One of the worlds most famous intellectual ghost stories, The Turn of the Screw is a haunting tale of suspected supernatural possession. A governess at a country house claims that Miles and Flora, two orphaned children in her care, are being controlled by spirits for some evil purpose. No one else can see the ghosts, and the children themselves are silent. Are they being dominated by spectral forces, or are they hiding something? Is the governess simply paranoid, or is something else going on? With its possibly ambiguous content and powerful narrative technique, the story challenges the listener to determine if the unnamed governess is correctly reporting events or is instead an unreliable neurotic with an overheated imagination.

Author Bio

American-born writer Henry James (1843–1916) authored 20 novels, 112 stories, 12 plays, and a number of literary criticisms.

James was born in New York City into a wealthy family. In his youth, James traveled back and forth between Europe and America. He studied with tutors in Geneva, London, Paris, Bologna, and Bonn. At the age of nineteen, he briefly attended Harvard Law School, but he was more interested in literature than law. James published his first short story, "A Tragedy of Errors," two years later and then devoted himself entirely to literature. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, he was a contributor to the Nation and Atlantic Monthly. His first novel, Watch and Ward, first appeared serially in the Atlantic.

After living in Paris, where he was a contributor to the New York Tribune, James moved to England. During his first years in Europe, James wrote novels that portrayed Americans living abroad. Between 1906 and 1910, he revised many of his tales and novels for the so-called New York edition of his complete works. Between 1913 and 1917, his three-volume autobiography-A Small Boy and Others, Notes of a Son and Brother, and The Middle Years (released posthumously)-was published. His last two novels, The Ivory Tower and The Sense of the Past, were left unfinished at his death.

Among James's masterpieces are Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians, and The Wings of the Dove. In addition, James considered his 1903 work The Ambassadors his most "perfect" work of art.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Rosie on October 02, 2020

I would not, having perused this book at leisure, for an indeterminate period of time, after it was recommended, indeed, after I was encouraged to make it my mission to enjoy it, and found it wanting, read this book again. If you enjoyed reading that sentence then you will enjoy this book. If not, th......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on October 24, 2019

I'll be honest - I found this a really hard, slow slog to read. James's prose is very convoluted by modern standards, with long compound sentences and archaic usage (the book was first published in 1898). I'm giving it three stars, rather than two, because of the significant influence it has been on......more

Goodreads review by John on November 24, 2016

Henry James is an undeniable pain-in-the-ass to read. The sentences just meander along, picking up extra clauses like lint and dander, until they become so fluffy you can barely identify their original shape. Syntactically speaking, he is hard work, harder than Conrad, and about as hard as Proust. Bu......more

Goodreads review by Rowland on June 15, 2010

The Turn of the Screw was originally published as a serialized novel in Collier's Weekly. Robert J. Collier, whose father had founded the magazine, had just become editor. At the time, James was already a well-known author, having already published The Europeans, Daisy Miller, Washington Square, and......more

Goodreads review by Onewooga on September 05, 2009

I have to say, you need patience to read Henry James. The man is a master of the clause and the prepositional phrase. If you are an English teacher forced to torture your students with diagramming sentences, James is your man. That being said, the stories are really quite subtle and sneakily brillia......more

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