The Turn of the Screw
by Henry James
The story begins quite traditionally with friends sharing ghost stories 'around the fire on Christmas Eve'. One of the guests talks about the governess in the country, who was tortured by supernatural visitors. But in the hands of Henry James, the master of nuances, this little story of terror is an elegant pearl of sexual and psychological ambiguity. Only a young governess can see ghosts; he only suspects that the previous governess and her lover are controlling two orphaned children (a girl and a boy) for a bad purpose. The household staff does not know what he is talking about, the children run away during the interrogation, and there is no owner (uncle of the children) of the house. Why does a young girl claim that she doesn't see a perfectly visible woman standing on the far side of the lake? Do children cheat, is the governess paranoid? Leaving the question unanswered, The Turn of Screw creates spine tingling anxiety in magical readers.
