Loading...
102nd out of 731 books
—
492 voters
The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Fiction
by
Henry James
To read a story by Henry James is to enter a fully realized world unlike any other—a rich, perfectly crafted domain of vivid language and splendid, complex characters. Devious children, sparring lovers, capricious American girls, obtuse bachelors, sibylline spinsters, and charming Europeans populate these five fascinating nouvelles, which represent the author in both his e...more
Paperback, 432 pages
Published
October 28th 2008
by Bantam Classics
(first published 1898)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
2,075)
I'm kind of amazed that I read this in high school, and I'm wondering what I got out of it back then. I remember putting it on the "I like this one" list, but past that, I don't know. After a re-read, I still put it on that list, but I imagine I've put it there for very different reasons. I've struggled a long time with my relationship with Henry James; I very much appreciate him and admire him, but sometimes I do wish he'd just get to the point. He seems to do this much more gingerly ...more
There was an article in the New York Times a few months ago about how no one could go to the trouble to read Henry James any more. I enjoyed Daisy Miller so I decided I’d have to read some more James and see what I thought. Also for some reason the library in Nîmes has a substantial collection of his work. Anyway I didn’t like The Turn of the Screw quite as much because it wasn’t really a statement on a certain echelon of nineteenth century society the way Daisy Miller was, but I still found ...more
Confession: I read this for two very bad reasons, both self serving. Number one: it's part of the "literary canon" (although I realize that could be objected by many knowledgable folks) that I've never read and in an attempt to make myself feel better about being left out, I picked it up. Number two: "Henry" is one of our many name options for boys and, always wanting to make the literary connection for our kids, this was the Henry I thought most people would immediately...more
view all 4 comments
I suppose if I was in A/P English this is what it would have been like. No Alas Babylon in there. If someone wanted to tell me a story and they started with the first sentence of Turn of The Screw, after the 5 minutes it took them to say it, I would call them an asshole and tell them to shove their ghost story up their ass. Five commas? In the first sentence? Fuck You. Why are you making it so hard to read this story? Now maybe that’s how they wrote ghost stories in 1898, but left face it. If He...more
I put this collection down with the sense that its affect - which I may or may not be aware of in these days to come - will extend well into the future. Reading these stories was a joy for the act itself. James' prose is full and deep and intelligent, and I had to pay close attention to the rhythm and direction of his long, frequently-punctuated sentences to follow its intent. With this language, James constructs the inner world and thoughts of his characters and their societies, and traces the ...more
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 brilliant. I kept thinking, OK, where is this going, Henry, and then we'd get there and I'd think: WOW. My favorites in this collection do not actually include "The Turn of the Screw," which was my...more
Can't........go........on........any longer. It's dumb for someone like me to criticize a literary classic, but it's not often that I've come across a writer that moves so slooooooooooooooooowly.
In 'Turn of the Screw,' any interesting buildup is ultimately followed by a letdown, leading to a confounding and frustrating ending. I know that scholars love to debate the meaning of this psychological thriller, but I don't care enough to wonder. There were moments when I thought it was...more
In 'Turn of the Screw,' any interesting buildup is ultimately followed by a letdown, leading to a confounding and frustrating ending. I know that scholars love to debate the meaning of this psychological thriller, but I don't care enough to wonder. There were moments when I thought it was...more
3/5 for the 'other stories', 4/5 for The Turn of the Screw itself, so more of a 3.5/5 overall. The other stories didn't leave much of an impression on me. As far as classic supernatural/ghostly tales go, I think I prefer the more explicit otherworldliness of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories. The Turn of the Screw was suitably atmospheric, although I found it hard to divorce from my previous impressions of the story, especially the souped-up version delivered by the recent BBC TV adaptation. I lik...more
This is a tough one to rate because it's five short nouvelles (as James would call them) in one book, and I would argue that they're of varying quality.
The best, I believe, is "The Beast in the Jungle"-- I would give that five stars if it were on its own. I would give "Daisy Miller" and maybe "The Jolly Corner" four stars, "The Turn of the Screw" three stars... and then I absolutely hated "Washington Square."
"The Jolly...more
The best, I believe, is "The Beast in the Jungle"-- I would give that five stars if it were on its own. I would give "Daisy Miller" and maybe "The Jolly Corner" four stars, "The Turn of the Screw" three stars... and then I absolutely hated "Washington Square."
"The Jolly...more
Also includes "Washington Square," "Daisy Miller," "The Beast in the Jungle," and "The Jolly Corner" -- all 5 star stories.
I first thought that I would never get through this book, I've constantly thought of James' writing as 'heavy.' And it's not that he uses obscure words (though I reached for the dictionary once or twice), it's simply that he uses so many.
Of the four stories in here, the one I liked best was "The Friends of the Friends," dealing with a strange relationship between two people who never actually met. But, the famous "The Turn of the Screw" was not bad either.
...more
Of the four stories in here, the one I liked best was "The Friends of the Friends," dealing with a strange relationship between two people who never actually met. But, the famous "The Turn of the Screw" was not bad either.
...more
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.
But he is great. This is an unbelievable work of fiction--one of the best horror stories in the English language. It is loaded with meaning, yet it is deliciously ambiguous. You could spend months...more
But he is great. This is an unbelievable work of fiction--one of the best horror stories in the English language. It is loaded with meaning, yet it is deliciously ambiguous. You could spend months...more
James is often a difficult author for me. As much as I enjoy what he writes about, I often find that his writing style can get in the way -- even though many consider him a 'writer's writer.' That being noted, Turn is one of his more enjoyable works. His concept of a ghost story, with all of its ambiguity, becomes fascinating in much the way a Poe story might -- that there is a gradual unraveling and revelation in it. Throw in the notion that the story being told might come from an unreliabl...more
I was a little disappointed with The Turn of the Screw. I don't usually find older language difficult to read, but the style he used to tell the story was really wordy and hard to get through. I've wanted to read this story since I was young, so maybe I was expecting too much. However, I did find the telling of the ghosts and their interactions with people incredibly well-written, eerily descriptive, and overall what I was hoping to find in this story. The dialogue was choppy and difficult t...more
This collection contains The Turn of the Screw, Washington Square, Daisy Miller, The Beast in the Jungle, and The Jolly Corner. I didn't find James' writing to be as difficult to read as some have complained, as long as I read it as if the characters were speaking the words. The Turn of the Screw was being written as if the Governess was telling the story aloud, and as such, there are a lot of pauses and fragments. I really enjoyed reading James, though I found that he seemed to have an obsessio...more
30. Turn of the Screw by Henry James
This story, for me, was like a recipe that required me to chop a lot of vegetables before I could start cooking. In the end, I immensely enjoyed this psychologically driven suspense story. The story centers around a governess who is newly employed to a lonely house with several other servants and two beautiful children, Flora and Miles. Their uncle is the guardian and he stays off premises in London. Right away, the governess begins to see stran...more
This story, for me, was like a recipe that required me to chop a lot of vegetables before I could start cooking. In the end, I immensely enjoyed this psychologically driven suspense story. The story centers around a governess who is newly employed to a lonely house with several other servants and two beautiful children, Flora and Miles. Their uncle is the guardian and he stays off premises in London. Right away, the governess begins to see stran...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Diana
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Those in need of a good ghost story; fans of Impressionism/Early Modernism
This novella is brilliant, and, due to its brevity (approximately 100 pages), a quick and easy read. James's story, centered around a young governess working in an isolated English estate who begins to see visions of malevolent ghosts, scared me more than I would like to admit. Alright I confess, I became so frightened reading it alone in my bedroom during the wee hours of the morn, that I was compelled to rush to Steve's room for a comforting cuddle (despite a fleeting paranoid thought that, ...more
To date, I have only made it through "The Turn of the Screw" (which resulted from a reference to the story in "The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel" by Diane Setterfield). Having not read 19th century literature in quite some time, it took a while for me to get used to James' writing style, and I took advantage of the Kindle's dictionary function more times than I would like to admit. That said, it was a compelling, hard-to-put-down ghost story, and there's a reason it's considered...more
Bronwen
added it
I adore Henry James. It’s hard to pin down exactly why, but there are times when he’s the only thing for me to read.
These short novels are dark. They trace obsessions - with death, with the letters of a famous dead poet, with a future premonition, with propriety. They feel exquisitely inevitable.
I finished the last short novel on the airplane. I am now in California with Sophie, where we hike the ridge, cook this, and discuss everything.
These short novels are dark. They trace obsessions - with death, with the letters of a famous dead poet, with a future premonition, with propriety. They feel exquisitely inevitable.
I finished the last short novel on the airplane. I am now in California with Sophie, where we hike the ridge, cook this, and discuss everything.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
For the most part, I really enjoyed the short-stories in this book. I love writing short-stories myself and these are totally inspiring. I had to read Daisy Miller: A Study for class, but I ended up reading the rest of them, too. Mr. James is sometimes hard to understand, but he's so witty and humorous, even if it's dry, that I could not stop reading until I read them all. He's interesting and totally worth reading more about.
Elizabeth Hernandez
rated it
Recommends it for:
wordy writers and readers
Recommended to Elizabeth by:
Bill Joliff
I learned that I don't like Henry James so much. I say this not to the point of meaning that he is a bad writer, but that he's not a writer who's work interests me in more than short story form. I made it through these short stories, barely, and I learned something 1) some ultimate point in each story 2) that I don't like Henry James. While James has something intereting to say he doesn't just come out and say it, he stretches it out to breaking point with far too many discriptives and metaphors...more
I found Henry James to be a very difficult writer to understand. His syntax was discordant with many clauses inserted in the middle of sentences that served to break up the thought of the sentence. Also, his in depth journeys into the minds of his characters demand that you read slowly and comprehensively. I enjoyed The Beast in the Jungle the most out of them all. The Turn of the Screw, possibly the most well known story, felt unresolved and left me with many unanswered questions. This book was...more
November/December book club pick. Review is only for The Turn of the Screw.
Interesting, but I felt like I was waiting the whole book to find out what happens at the end and it doesn't happen until the last sentence. I also find it difficult to read books where I'm not sure if I can trust the narrator. As far as the debate over whether the ghosts were real or not, I remained skeptical throughout. Although I'm still undecided, it seemed the governess jumped to many conclusions and b...more
Interesting, but I felt like I was waiting the whole book to find out what happens at the end and it doesn't happen until the last sentence. I also find it difficult to read books where I'm not sure if I can trust the narrator. As far as the debate over whether the ghosts were real or not, I remained skeptical throughout. Although I'm still undecided, it seemed the governess jumped to many conclusions and b...more
Aaahhh... James... why is nothing easy with your works? This one leaves more questions than answers. How does the story really end? What is the real mystery here? The ghosts or the children? The governess is a likable character but not necessarily a reliable narrator. Worth reading again just to get some things straight.
Psychologically gripping stories in every way. Loved the haunting The Jolly Corner, about a man entering 20th century NYC feeling displaced and wonderment at the same time; and that wonderful short novel, Washington Square. Catharine Sloper is an awesome heroine: Spiteful, passive, and strong in the end. Wow.
Once you can get your mind wrapped around the old language, this book leads you into a story that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. It holds mystery as you are forced to acknowledge weather the nanny is actually crazy or is actually seeing ghosts.
The style may be 'old' but the story will live on forever.
The style may be 'old' but the story will live on forever.
This was my first foray into James and I've never seen so many clauses in my life. Wow is he hard to read. Would it have killed him to write at least one sentence in a straightforward way? I barely got what this story was about and it didn't scare me at all. My first James will be my last James.
I really enjoyed this collection of old fashioned ghost stories. I was expecting a heavier style but found it a quick read. Many of the stories never quite confirmed or denied the existence of ghosts, could it have been hallucinations? (I noted that Mr James seemed more comfortable with heroines not heroes whose imaginations might have run away with them).
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
Henry James, OM, son of theologian Henry James Sr., brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James, was an American-born author, one of the founders and leaders of a school of realism in fiction. He spent much of his life in England and became a British subject shortly before his death. He is primarily known for a series of major novels in which he portrayed the ...more
More about Henry James...
Share This Book
1 trivia question
More quizzes & trivia...
