The Turn of the Screw

The Turn of the Screw

I am now reading a novel written by Henry James called The Turn of the Screw. It takes place in England at the end of the 1800’s. I picked it up because it is a well known ghost story, a genre which I like. This is not your average ghost story though, it is hard to read, the phrases are long and many times I find myself re reading entire paragraphs to understand what is going on.

The book begins with a group of friends telling ghost stories. One of them, an older man named Douglas, tells the story of a governess he once knew who went to work at a large country house. She was in charge of two young children, ages 8 and 10, who had lost their parents and had been adopted by their uncle. Douglas reads the story from a manuscript written by the governess herself.

The governess is a young 20 years old woman who comes from an unsophisticated environment and is very naïve and impressionable. She arrives at her new post both, happy to be in such an important position, but also afraid of not being up to the task. Immediately she feels that something is not right, she hears voices when nobody is there, she sees people that do not belong to the household outside the window or in the tower. The children seem to share a secret. She soon learns that the previous governess, a young woman like herself, is dead.

Since the story comes from the governess’ manuscript, it is written in the first person and is mostly about the feelings that she has as the strange things happen. It is confusing at times because it is not clear what is going on, but I believe that we are in the governess shoes, who also doesn’t understand what is going on.

The main question so far is whether she is imagining everything, or if the ghost of the previous governess is roaming around the house for an evil purpose.

The author is also vague in the description of actions and environments. Most of the writing is concentrated in describing the emotions of the governess and how they change, leaving most of the scenery and rest of the characters to our imagination.

Overall it is a strange book but one to think about. I would recommend it for a reader looking for something definitely challenging, but that is not too long.