The Turn of the Screw
The governess of two enigmatic children fears their souls are in danger from the ghosts of the previous governess and her sinister lover.
Stats for nerds
3recommend
7mentions
7people
2017–2026years
43% recommend29% neutral29% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Easy. The turn of the screw by Henry James. Literally anyone who absolutely loves James primarily appreciates his descriptive form.
Another author that comes to mind is Zizek. His books could easily be reduced to a boring 2 page essay, but instead they are taken on a wild ride through cultural and theory and philosophical history and virtually encoded in philosophy jargon in order to absolutely reek of intellectualism. I'm 0% ashamed to admit openly that keeping up with him as I read makes me proud of my brain and attention capacity way more than I actually agree with his specific political philosophy in a work.
- I strongly disliked Morrison's books when I read them, though I'll happily concede they're expertly written.
Some fiction books I've read as an adult and appreciate:
Gone with the Wind, Fields of Fire, American Psycho, The Turn of the Screw, Anna Karenina
Some from school:
To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Frienheit 451, Moby Dick, Brave New World
Some of the more pop fictiony:
American Gods, The Stand, His Dark Materials, A Song of Ice and Fire, Imajica
- Also, his pre-modernist novels are incredible. The Turn of The Screw is one of those books that has stuck with me since I read it. Highly recommend.
- The author has stated that the end was inspired by The Turn of the Screw (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turn_of_the_Screw) so my feeling is: you’re not really supposed to know. I’ve always interpreted the ending as the dissolution of the main character’s persona and the return of Phaedrus.
- Sorry to say, but what I remember most after finishing The Turn of the Screw was how utterly underwhelmed I was by the "great" Henry James.
- That was the first work of his I read, and I didn't like it at all. "Horror" from the 19th century sometimes doesn't hold up too well, and the same concept's been done to death at this point, arguably more effectively. I'm not sure of the history of that conceit, but possibly The Turn of the Screw is famous more for its novelty than for being particularly good per se.
I kept reading him, though, and loved Washington Square. Hated Daisy Miller. The Aspern Papers was fun if not really very good. I'd started reading The Liar and it was very promising, but one of my kids ruined my copy before I finished and I haven't gone back to it yet.
TL;DR give him another try, TTotS isn't his best stuff, and his quality's kinda all over the place.
