The Turn of the Screw
by James, Henry
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Good
- Seller
-
Wichita, Kansas, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Image of actual book: hardcover book in good condition. Pages clean. Outer top edge of pages with slight stain. Some browning but in very good condition. Spine tight. Slight bumping and rubbing on back cover. It has been said about Henry James's shorter novel, "For sheer terror. . ."The Turn of the Screw" is the apotheosis of the macabre in literature." 1949. T1.
Synopsis
The Turn of the Screw is a short novel or a novella written by U.S. -born British author Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is ostensibly a ghost story that has lent itself well to operatic and film adaptation. Due to its ambiguous content and narrative skill, The Turn of the Screw became a favorite text of New Criticism. The account has lent itself to dozens of different interpretations, often mutually exclusive, including those of a Freudian nature.
Reviews
On May 24 2023, a reader said:
The Turn Of The Screw is a gothic novella by British author Henry James in which an inexperienced young governess, a parson's daughter, takes a position at a country house looking after two children. The master of the house, their uncle, gives her full authority, wanting no communication about the children.
Her welcome to the house by the housekeeper, Mrs Grose, is genuine, and she is immediately taken with the little girl, Flora. Her brother Miles arrives a few days later, inexplicably dismissed from his boarding school: he seems to be a delightful boy.
Things change when the unnamed governess spots first a man (who is apparently the ghost of the master's valet, Peter Quint) and then a woman, the ghost of the previous governess, Miss Jessel. From just their gaze, she discerns that these two are after the children.
She manages to drag information about them and their relationship from the reluctant Mrs Grose and, between them, they decide they have to protect the children from the harm they believe the apparitions intend. Her vigils yield more sightings of the two, and the governess is even more certain of their ill intent.
As time progresses, though, the governess begins to wonder if it is too late: the children seem to already be happily in the thrall of these two. Should she, against instructions, contact their uncle?
For a twenty-first Century reader, this classic, however well written, will likely be a chore to read, a characteristic of the dense nineteenth Century prose being verbosity: why use one word when ten or fifteen will do, and the small print doesn't help the reader's search for the relevant point in each sentence.
For example, "Yet when he at last arrived the difficulty of applying them, the accumulations of my problem, were brought straight home to me by the beautiful little presence on which what had occurred had as yet, for the eye, dropped neither stain nor shadow" is a sentence that might be distilled into a few words, if only the meaning could intuited, but really, life's too short to bother. In this case, maybe the movie will be better than the book.
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Better Bindings (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 2728
- Title
- The Turn of the Screw
- Author
- James, Henry
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Publisher
- The Heritage Press
- Place of Publication
- US
- Date Published
- 1949
Terms of Sale
Better Bindings
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Better Bindings
Biblio member since 2019
Wichita, Kansas
Ask Seller a Question
About Better Bindings
We offer new & used books. Our inventory includes hundreds of rare and out of print items.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.