It’s Throwback Thursday where we review a Classic from literature. In honor of Halloween, we’ll be reviewing ghoulishly scary and spooky books throughout the month of October.
The Turn of the Screw
Henry James (Adult Fiction)
It’s Christmas Eve and, as is ancient tradition, ghost stories are being told by a group of friends sitting around a fire. Now a ghost story with one child in it would be—as everyone might agree—horrible, gruesome, and terrible even. But a ghost story with two children? Well, that would be just an inexcusable and abominable turn of the screw. Wouldn’t it? This is such a story.
Contrary to popular belief, just because a story is labeled a “classic”, doesn’t mean that you are automatically inclined to love it, rave about it, or recommend it. Sometimes old doesn’t instantly equate to great. The Turn of the Screw is one such book. Written in 1898, Henry James’ gothic novella is considered one of literature’s most famous ghost stories…but perhaps not the best. The story is verbose, inordinately descriptive, and James throws about commas like strings of beads during Mardis Gras (“They moved slowly, in unison, below us, over the lawn, the boy, as they went, reading aloud from a story-book and passing his arm round his sister to keep her quite in touch.”). Adding to the tedious reading that awaits even the most patient of readers, we are presented with an unlikable and unsympathetic heroine (a governess) who puts her own need for vindication and legitimacy above all else. As a result, she fails her employer, she fails her friend, and she gravely fails her two small charges. Those around her pay the ultimate price for her incessant need to claim victory and prove her sanity. The fact that she did it despite the ongoing harm she constantly inflicts upon two young children ultimately proves to be one too many turns of the screw.
Sometimes, when a story is exceptional, you got lost in it. Other times, the story just simply loses you. The Turn of the Screw is regrettably an example of the latter.
Rating: 3/5
* Book cover image attributed to www.goodreads.com
The Dusty Jacket 