Horror James, Henry: The Turn of the Screw (illus). v1. 05-Jul-2021

[GrannyGrump]

THE TURN OF THE SCREW

HENRY JAMES (1843–1916)

WITH A PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR

ILLUSTRATIONS BY:
ERIC PAPE (1870–1938);
JOHN LA FARGE (1835–1910);
BIRKET FOSTER (1825–1899)

The Turn of the Screw is a haunting tale of suspected supernatural possession. A governess at a country house claims that Miles and Flora, two orphaned children in her care, are being controlled by spirits for some evil purpose. No one else can see the ghosts, and the children themselves are silent. Are they being dominated by spectral forces, or are they hiding something? Is the governess simply paranoid, or is something else going on?

(—Publisher’s blurb)

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Henry James (15 April 1843 – 28 February 1916) was an American author who relocated to Europe as a young man, eventually becoming a British citizen in 1915. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language.

As well as fiction, James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916.

His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analyzed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language, and remains his most widely adapted work in other media. He also wrote a number of other highly regarded ghost stories, and is considered one of the greatest masters of the field.

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The Turn of the Screw was first published in 1898. This ebook is in the public domain where copyright is “Life+80” or less, and in the USA.

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Although the library already contains Pynch’s excellent Complete Works of Henry James , I thought we could stand to have a stand-alone ebook of this iconic ghost (?) story. This includes the illustrations from the original serialization in “Colliers Weekly” magazine, and preface taken from Novels and Tales of Henry James (1908).

So dive in, and revel in the chills afforded by this recounting of a terrifying experience by an unreliable narrator.
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EDIT TO ADD: Uploaded file with corrected opf information. Previous downloads 43.

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[GrannyGrump]

I forgot I meant to add this comment --- check out the header illustration just at the beginning of Chapter 1. The governess with her arm around Miles --- is hers the hand cupping his head, or the hand gripping his shoulder??? And whose fingers are creeping in from the left-hand frame of the picture?

[Thalassa]

Hey GrannyGrump,

Thank you so much for uploading this tale and for the hint regarding the header illustration! Not so sure I would have detected this without your hint, watching this with the ReadEra app on my smartphone. But having turned it into landscape mode for this particular purpose, the eerie details of the illustration can be seen indeed.

One question before I start reading -- is the Author's Preface possibly a spoiler in this case and should one better start with the Prelude?

Finally one little observation:
In the reading list (list of book covers and titles), the title is missing a letter, i.e. the final "w", see the following screenshot

https://www.directupload.net/file/d/...x62cxr_jpg.htm

Thanks again!

[GrannyGrump]

Hi Thalassa -- I uploaded corrected file to fix the title display.

As to the Preface by Henry James, I did not find it to be a spoiler --- he comments about his writing intentions and how he feels about the mood of the story and the characters, and responds to some criticisms, and so on. Not really any discussion of plot. So I guess it will be up to you. (I personally almost always read prefaces AFTER I read the story . )

[Thalassa]

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

Hi Thalassa -- I uploaded corrected file to fix the title display.

As to the Preface by Henry James, I did not find it to be a spoiler --- he comments about his writing intentions and how he feels about the mood of the story and the characters, and responds to some criticisms, and so on. Not really any discussion of plot. So I guess it will be up to you. (I personally almost always read prefaces AFTER I read the story . )

Thank you, GrannyGrump, much appreciated!