The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James

 Author : Henry James

Title : The Turn Of The Screw

Published : 1898

Publisher : Penguin 

Pages : 176

Genre : Gothic / Horror 

     An unnamed governess is hired to be the caretaker of a man’s young nephew, Miles, and niece, Flora, after the unfortunate deaths of their parents. Absorbed in his own affairs, the uncle grants the governess full authority over the caretaking of the children at his country estate named Bly. But Bly Manor has its own secrets, and the governess begins to see what she believes to be supernatural beings. The line between sanity and insanity blur with each passing day

     Ok, so you will have to bear with me on this one. So I really enjoyed the tv show The Haunting Of Hill House and is pretty much always the course with wildly successful Netflix show they get a second season. But with Hill House being a stand-alone story they had to go in search of a new source for its follow-up. Thus enter The haunting of Blye Mannor, I know not the biggest stretch in titles but hey hoe what can you do. So as many before me have done  I devoured it in fairly quick succession. Now knowing that the first season had been based on a book I went searching to see if this one had to. This being how I came to be reading  The Turn Of The Screw. A fate I seem to be falling into more and more these days watch the show then read the book. But to be fair I don't really think there is anything to wrong with that.  So anyway on with the book. 

     The Turn Of The Screw is a book that has been pondered upon by much wiser minds than mine and I suspect every angle has been pulled and stretched to fit whatever theory that person has as to the nature of the book. And I could have just read it and left it at that but as a book lover and reviewer, I figure what the heck I'll through my two cents in any way. I suppose we live in a time when Ghost stories have becoming the flights of Hollywood horror films. There are blood and guts aplenty and people will usually die in the most horrific ways. The directors and indeed writers of such things want their audiences to jump out of the skins and hide behind their favorite blankets. But once upon a time, things were a wee bit simpler. Which is not to say that when this book first came out I suspect people did get a fair fight from the narrative just that in the times we live in people have become far more jaded to the whole experience. 

     And in many ways to call this, a horror novel now seems a little odd. Maybe it would be better called  Psychological gothic. This a story that pulls you in inch by inch as our unknown narrator spins there yarn. The manor its self whilst a huge estate becomes this claustrophobic tormenter of the governess. She is ill-equipped to deal with what is taking place and unable to escape to freedom. All the more so due to the other inhabitants seeming unaware of these ghostly apparitions that appear to the poor girl. We feel her slip-on reality taking over just as surely as we can feel the sun on our skin during a warm afternoon. But as is always the case as the reader we are powerless to do anything to prevent those coming tragedies. It is a work that is skillfully put together and even so many years on from its first publication has an ability to hold you in its cold embrace 

     There is something to be said for books such as this they manage to find a different way to instill a sense of dread in their reader.  Back when this was written if he had filled it full of gruesome murders I suspect it would never have made it to become a work regarded as classic literature. Rather a penny dreadful that would have gone the way of many others. But The Turn Of The screw revolves around one key point. Our unknown narrator never sates whether these ghostly apparitions are in fact real or merely a symptom of the governess slipping into some unknown psychoses. In many ways, James has left it up to the reader to decide this point for themselves. It is a matter of whether you yourself believe in ghosts. And for me I think it is a great strength to this book, it allows us just a little freedom in our interpretation of events. Sadly these days it seems to become far more common to have every little thing explained as to leave no room for the reader to breathe. 

     At the end of the day yes The Turn OF The Screw is very of its time and there is nothing wrong with that. Most great writing does carry with it a greater sense of when it was written whilst still allowing it to appeal to a modern audience, as The Haunting Of Blye Manor has shown. I would say that whilst the tv shows did change a great deal of the book it still at its heart carry the same sensibility to it. For me, I think it is worth giving this book your time. It gives a different perspective on a genre that is all too readily available and if you have only seen the show well this will show you its heart.  A book that is worthy of being classed as a classic.