by Henry James

 

After reading the first couple of chapters, I actually went onto Wikipedia to find out what this story is about. I felt like I had come into the middle of something that hadn't been explained.

 

This is actually not unusual for stories written around the turn of the century. They have the wordiness of Victorian novels but often jump into the action without much explanation. I hadn't read James before and doubt that I will read anything by him again. I'm glad to have tried another well known author, even if he isn't going to be of further interest.

 

I found the story very difficult to get into. The dialogue sounded like everyone was in a perpetual state of surprise, the characters were not distinct and the plot seemed to take far too long to progress. For a short book, that's not good. The description had sounded really good. I'm just not at all impressed with the execution. Reading felt like more work that ploughing through a long Dickens book.

3.5 Stars

The Turn of the Screw was written in 1898 and first appeared in serial format in Collier's Weekly This was a time when life was lived at a slower pace and Ghost /Gothic Horror Stories were the Reality TV shows of to day and in order to read this book one must take them selves back in time and experience this as a reader in 1898 in order to get the most of the book.

I throughly enjoy good old fashioned Ghost Stories, and especially ones where the writer allows the reader come to their own conclusion as to what exactly happened in the story and I can imagine The Turn of The Screw created great discussion among readers back in the day. I loved the execution of this story as the sense of time and place is not overplayed and yet its presence is powerful and the carefully crafted eerie atmospheric is subtly clever.

While I liked the way the story is presented to the reader and I enjoyed the opportunity to draw my own conclusions, I think the author did not give the reader enough facts to do so and this was a bit disappointing and my reason for my rating on this short novel.

Having said that I enjoyed this short novel and it was perfect October/Halloween reading.

As I said in my first pre-party post, I'm not much of a horror reader, and the ghost stories I like almost all either feature a ghost who is the author's messenger for some larger point, or they're chiefly characters who have had such an impact on another character's life, or on a given place, that their "ghostly" presence is in effect like a lasting shadow of their living presence.  Or, of course, we're really just talking fairy tale -- or satire / parody.

 

It goes without saying that this definition includes Dickens's A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Signalman; as well as the likes of:

 

* Aladdin from 1001 Nights (the genie is at least a kind of ghost, right?)

* A.S. Byatt: The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye

* Wilkie Collins: Mrs. Zant and the Ghost

* Henry James: The Turn of the Screw

* Naguib Mahfouz: Voices from the Other World: Ancient Egyptian Tales 

* Toni Morrison: Beloved

* Terry Pratchett: Wyrd Sisters

* Otfried Preußler: The Little Ghost (a wonderful children's story about not fearing "the other")

* Anne Rice: Violin (the last book by her that I read before she turned BBA)

* Theodor Storm: Der Schimmelreiter (The Dykemaster)

* The ghost stories of Edith Wharton (wonderfully atmospheric)

... and of course ...

* Oscar Wilde: The Canterville Ghost