Henry James

The Turn of the Screw Annotated Henry James

The Turn of the Screw is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James that first appeared in serial format in Collier's Weekly (January 27 - April 16, 1898). In October 1898, it was collected in The Two Magics, published by Macmillan in New York City and Heinemann in London. The novella follows a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted. The Turn of the Screw is considered a work of both Gothic and horror fiction. In the century following its publication, the novella's critical analysis has undergone several major transformations. Initial reviews regarded it only as a frightening ghost story, but, in the 1930s, some critics began to regard the supernatural elements as figments of the governess' imagination. In the early 1970s, the influence of structuralist critics resulted in an acknowledgement that the text's ambiguity was its key feature. Later approaches incorporated Marxist and feminist thinking, and The Turn of the Screw remains one of literature's most debated works of fiction.