Henry James

The Turn of the Screw Henry James

The classic ghost story of how a young governess is hired by a man who has become responsible for his young nephew and niece after the deaths of their parents. The young boy, Miles, is attending a boarding school, while his younger sister, Flora, is living in a country house in Essex, where she is cared for by Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper. Flora's uncle, the governess's new employer, is uninterested in raising the children and gives her full charge, explicitly stating that she is not to bother him with communications of any sort. The governess travels to Bly and begins her duties. Around the grounds of the estate, the governess begins to see the figures of a man and woman whom she does not recognize. The figures come and go at will without being seen or challenged by other members of the household, and they seem to the governess to be supernatural. She learns from Mrs. Grose that the governess's predecessor, Miss Jessel, and another employee, Peter Quint, had had a close relationship. Before their deaths, Jessel and Quint spent much of their time with Flora and Miles, and the governess becomes convinced that the two children are aware of the ghosts' presence ... "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James is one of the greatest pieces of Gothic horror fiction ever written. This edition is illustrated with a large selection of posters and lobbycards from the 1961 movie adaptation, "The Innocents". "The horror of the story comes from the force with which it makes us realize the power that our minds possess for such excursions into the darkness; when certain lights sink or certain barriers are lowered, the ghosts of the mind, untraced desires, indistinct intimations, are seen to be a large company."- Virginia Woolf, 'The Supernatural in Fiction'