The Turn of the Screw -- Henry James

<p>" James] is the most intelligent man of his generation." -T. S. Eliot </p> <p>"The economy of horror is carried to its last degree."-Edith Wharton</p> <p>"The most hopelessly evil story that we could have read in any literature"-The Independent</p> <p><b>Henry James' <i>The Turn of the Screw</i> (1898) is one of the most gripping psychological novellas ever written; a grim tale that could equally be a tale of madness or a tale of the supernatural.</b> The depths and meaning of this story has been one of the most fascinating literary debates in all of literature. The intriguing asymmetry of <i>The Turn of the Screw</i>, between the seen vs. unseen, the internal v. the external, and good vs. evil, rises this book beyond what can be described as a simple ghost story.</p> <p>The novella begins on Christmas Eve with the recitation of a letter. The story quickly shifts to the perspective of a governess, who is the subject of the strangely ambiguous story. She had been employed by a dashing bachelor to take care of his niece and nephew in a remote country home. To her surprise, she is requested not to reach the uncle of the children under any circumstance. She is smitten by Flora, the little girl, but receives a letter that the boy, Miles, has been expelled from his school and would not be able to return. One evening, strolling outside, the governess is shocked to see a man in the tower of the house, and later in a window. When she describes him to Mrs. Grouse, the maid, she is