The Turn of the Screw
Ratings149
Average rating3.3
An expertly crafted novella where James makes you put in a good deal of work to figure out what exactly is going on, but is highly rewarding. It is the story's ambiguity – most the the scenes can be interpreted in more than one way – that makes it so powerful. Read it slowly and take the time to let your imagination run wild.
I don't even know what I just read, but I finished it and had ghosts. Victorian ghosts.
I don't think I'm cut out for the classics.
Honestly, I'm so confused by this book that I barely even know how to write a review about it. I remember being properly creeped out by an abridged version of this book that I read when I was much, much younger, so I was looking forward to reading the unabridged version this time now that I'm older and much more attuned to 19th C writing than I used to be.But, boy, has Henry James stumped me.This is my third book with an unnamed narrator in a row and I still have a few more coming up. But anyway, an unnamed narrator answers an advertisement to apply for the position as a governess to two young children at Bly Manor. She starts to see two apparitions on the grounds around the place, and then what follows is so... hard to understand that I literally had to Wikipedia the book after finishing it to get an idea of what on earth just happened. It isn't that the plot got convoluted, it's just that James's writing style is so dense and murky - and this is coming from someone who loves, loves, loves 19th C writing!!Are the children evil? Are they not evil? Are they possessed? I have no idea.Who are the ghosts? Was Peter Quint paedophilic? What were their relationships with the children before their deaths? How did they die? Why are they still haunting the manor? I have no idea.And then, the ending. THE ENDING. It was so abrupt and even at that point, I had no idea whether Miles was in cahoots with the ghost of Peter Quint to try and kill the governess - or something?! Why did Miles die??? What did the ghosts have on the children???? Why did she send away Flora for and why didn't she allow children see each other before that? I HAVE NO IDEA. Honestly, it's so hard to write this review because I only had a very thin idea of what was going on as the plot progressed through this book. Suffice it to say that I respect it as a horror classic that it supposedly is, and I'm envious of people that enjoyed and appreciated it a lot more than I did because I really wanted to, but I'm probably not going to revisit this one and I didn't get much of the horror fix I had been hoping for.If you want more haunted houses, I'd recommend Edgar Allan Poe's [b:The Fall of the House of Usher 175516 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387708966l/175516.SY75.jpg 15570703] and I'm also currently reading Shirley Jackson's [b:The Haunting of Hill House 89717 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327871336l/89717.SY75.jpg 3627], both of which would probably be much easier to understand and would have more horror elements than this one did.
[a:Henry James 159 Henry James https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1468309415p2/159.jpg] consegue criar uma linha tênue de ~suspensão~ entre as duas possibilidades de percepção da história que é surpreendentemente constante. A ponto de eu me sentir ao mesmo tempo com medo das crianças e duvidando da narradora.O autor constrói o suspense muito bem, nos dando a exata quantidade de informações pra nos deixar “hãn??”. Além disso, o uso da linguagem na narração, com as quebras e inversões de sintaxe, convida uma leitura mais atenta e me forçou, muitas vezes, a terminar as frases antes de entendê-las por completo; acho que isso deu um ritmo interessante - e surpreendentemente fluido - ao livro, mas às vezes acabava fazendo exatamente o contrário, quando muito exagerado, e eu precisava reler uma frase algumas vezes, travando um pouco a leitura.Adorei o recorte da história e principalmente o ponto onde o livro termina, inesperado, mas suficiente, convidando a uma longa sessão de reflexão pós-livro heheh... Só senti falta de um desfecho pra frame story, que ficou meio perdida no início.
Too Boring. Sentences were too convoluted. I didn't care for anyone and did not find it scary.
This was a wonderful ambiguous story of being either about ghosts or an insane woman. However, the suspense it kept building up never lead to a real horrific moment. I kept waiting and waiting and one never showed up. I wonder if that is to keep the story tame enough to tell children? Additionally, the language was in a beautiful old victorian style that while wonderful felt intentionally obtuse most of the time. It was as if the author had a thesaurus out and looked for the most complicated version of every word in the sentence. Which ultimately came off as very pretentious imo.
Eu não entendi foi coisíssima nenhuma desse livro então tô indo ler resenhas, beijo tchau
A creepy interesting story. Well written but presented by a very unreliable narrator.
Still one of my favourite books, and a very good ne, even though my peers in the lit department tend to disagree haha
I actually quite liked this, it was mysterious and interesting. Miles, the little brat, I really liked, and I actually would have loved to see more of him. It's unfortunate it ends as it does, but it was a good little horror/ghost story.
The Turn of the Shrew by Henry James is a highly atmospheric gothic horror story, though at times it's difficult, maddening, and wordy. James published this tale in 1898 and I think it's critical to keep in mind that the language reflects the era, as well as the cultural norms present in the book. Listening to this book proved more challenging than Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House (my previous listen) both in terms of understanding the prose and in terms of empathizing with the protagonist. A governess comes to Bly to care for two young children. She begins seeing strange figures in the house. Are they ghosts of departed household staff, or is she nuts? A worthy question, albeit perhaps one that could have been explored in a short story rather than a novella. Apart from the complexity of the beautiful prose, I was challenged by the way the governess idolized the children. To a 21st century reader the way in which she viewed the children seems at best naive and at worst creepy. Perhaps this was James' intention? At any rate I found it somewhat difficult to fully empathize with her at various points throughout the book. Many moments were unsettling and atmospheric, even if I didn't totally understand the protagonist, or the way the book ended for that matter. I also highly recommend the audio version read by Emma Thompson with music added. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Summary: A governess begins caring for two children at a house in the country. At first, she is charmed by the children, but she soon notices that somethings is not quite right about them, and she realizes that something supernatural and frightening is happening at the house.
Mmm, I'm not sure how I feel about this one.
It was a bit of a labor to read, but I feel like that added to the psychologic tone for the most part, though occasionally it did take me out of the story. It helped to read along with the audiobook because it was narrated by Emma Thompson, so, I mean... c'mon. Emma Thompson.
I also thought it was weird that it started with a framing narrative that was entirely dropped after the beginning. It felt very unnecessary. Mostly, I just felt that it was all just a bit too slight. The hauntings were too mild to hang the story on, and the rest of the characters except the narrating governess were too underdeveloped for me. My interest was definitely caught, but I wanted to know more so it wasn't ultimately that satisfying. It was very “Oh, okay.”
Maybe it'll grow on me; I might update my rating and review once I've let it sit with me for a bit.
The real horror in this book is the abuse of clauses. Each paragraph is turned into a twisting, winding pile of word-molasses which, for me, killed any sort of atmosphere and tension the author had intended to create. A real shame.