The Turn of the Screw (Illustrated) (Top Five Classics Book 29...

In a remote English estate in the mid-19th century, an inexperienced young governess is given charge of two beguiling orphans—an eight-year-old girl and a ten-year-old boy. Immediately, she must confront secrets in the house: why was the boy expelled from his boarding school? and what was the fate of the previous governess? And then the house seems to be haunted by ghosts. Are they malevolent former denizens of the household bent on the children’s destruction? Or something else? Henry James, the Master of American letters, who had a special love for ghost stories, takes supernatural horror a step further in one of the true masterpieces of the genre. This Top Five Classics illustrated edition of The Turn of the Screw features the 1898 text of the novella in book form, as well as the illustrations by John La Farge and Eric Pape that accompanied its initial run in Collier’s Weekly. An informative introduction and author bio are also included. Cover illustration by Stephanie Brown

Amazon.com Review

The story starts conventionally enough with friends sharing ghost stories 'round the fire on Christmas Eve. One of the guests tells about a governess at a country house plagued by supernatural visitors. But in the hands of Henry James, the master of nuance, this little tale of terror is an exquisite gem of sexual and psychological ambiguity. Only the young governess can see the ghosts; only she suspects that the previous governess and her lover are controlling the two orphaned children (a girl and a boy) for some evil purpose. The household staff don't know what she's talking about, the children are evasive when questioned, and the master of the house (the children's uncle) is absent. Why does the young girl claim not to see a perfectly visible woman standing on the far side of the lake? Are the children being deceptive, or is the governess being paranoid? By leaving the questions unanswered, The Turn of Screw generates spine-tingling anxiety in its mesmerized readers.

From the Back Cover

The Turn of the Screw (1898) , Henry James’ transcendent ghost novella, is the story of a governess trusted with the care of two well-to-do children: when possessed with a psychic connection to two former employees of the estate, the Governess does everything she can shield them from the incarnation of evil.

About the Author

Henry James (1843-1916), born in New York City, was the son of noted religious philosopher Henry James, Sr., and brother of eminent psychologist and philosopher William James. He spent his early life in America and studied in Geneva, London and Paris during his adolescence to gain the worldly experience so prized by his father. He lived in Newport, went briefly to Harvard Law School, and in 1864 began to contribute both criticism and tales to magazines.In 1869, and then in 1872-74, he paid visits to Europe and began his first novel, Roderick Hudson. Late in 1875 he settled in Paris, where he met Turgenev, Flaubert, and Zola, and wrote The American (1877). In December 1876 he moved to London, where two years later he achieved international fame with Daisy Miller. Other famous works include Washington Square (1880), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Princess Casamassima (1886), The Aspern Papers (1888), The Turn of the Screw (1898), and three large novels of the new century, The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904). In 1905 he revisited the United States and wrote The American Scene (1907).During his career he also wrote many works of criticism and travel. Although old and ailing, he threw himself into war work in 1914, and in 1915, a few months before his death, he became a British subject. In 1916 King George V conferred the Order of Merit on him. He died in London in February 1916.

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