In his own critical preface to the volume of the New York Edition that includes The Turn of the Screw, Henry James makes a remarkable claim for the tale: "this perfectly independent and irresponsible little fiction rejoices, beyond any rival on a like ground, in a conscious provision of prompt retort to the sharpest question that may be addressed to it. For it has the small strength--if I should n't say rather the unattackable ease-of a perfect homogeneity, of being, to the very last grain of its virtue, all of a kind; the very kind, as it happens, least apt to be baited by earnest criticism, the only sort of criticism of which account need be taken."

On this, the centenary of its initial publication, The Turn of the Screw remains one of Henry James’s most remarkable narratives, one whose popularity when it was published is matched by its power to stir readers today. It is one of James’s most teachable texts, an indispensable reference point for such critical concerns as point of view and unreliable narration. As such, it is an invaluable introduction to the intricacies of James’s style and technique in the novels of the "major phase".

This revised Norton Critical Edition of The Turn of the Screw is again based on the authoritative New York Edition text, with history and notes. "Contexts" includes twenty-six selections from James’s letters, notebooks, and other writings centering on "my little book" the ghost story, and the supernatural. Four Charles Demuth paintings, inspired by James’s text, are included.

Since The Turn of the Screw has been a focal text in recent theoretical considerations of James and of the narrative generally, "Criticism" has been thoroughly updated to include seventeen new assessments, along with twelve earlier seminal essays.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included. ABOUT THE SERIES: Each Norton Critical Edition includes an authoritative text, contextual and source materials, and a wide range of interpretations--from contemporary perspectives to the most current critical theory--as well as a bibliography and, in most cases, a chronology of the author’s life and work.

COVER PAINTING: Miles and the Governess by Charles Demuth. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Frank and Alice Osborn.

Preface to the Second Edition

The Text of The Turn of the Screw

The Turn of the Screw

Textual History

Textual Notes

Contexts

JAMES, THE GHOST STORY, AND THE SUPERNATURAL

To Thomas Sergeant Perry · ["So Much for Cora"]

A Review · ["Mysteries * * * at Our Own Doors"]

A Notebook Entry · ["Subject for a Ghost-Story"]

A Notebook Entry · ["Another Theme of the Same Kind"]

To Violet Paget [Vernon Lee] · ["Not the Class of

Fiction I Myself Most Cherish"]

To Francis Boott · ["I See Ghosts Everywhere"]

To Bernard Shaw · ["The Imagination * * * Leads

a Life of Its Own"]

From a Preface · ["The Question * * * of the 'Supernatural' "]

Dictated Notes for The Dory Tower ·

["The Pressure and the Screw"]

Dictated Notes for The Ivory Tower ·

["My Poor Blest Old Genius"]

To Theodate Pope Riddle · ["Beneath Comment

or Criticism"]

Dictated Notes for The Sense of the Past ·

["The Ideal Thing for Dramatic Interest"]

JAMES ON THE TURN OF THE SCREW

A Notebook Entry · ["Idea of a Servant Suspected"]

A Notebook Entry · ["Grose"]

A Notebook Entry · ["Note Here the Ghost-Story"]

To Alice [Mrs. William] James · ["Finished My Little Book"]

To A. G. Benson · ["Of the Ghostly and Ghastly"]

To Paul Bourget · ["A Little Volume Just Published"]

To Dr. Waldstein · ["That Wanton Little Tale"]

To H. G. Wells · ["The Thing Is Essentially a Pot-Boiler"]

To F. W. H. Myers · ["The T. of the S. Is a Very

Mechanical Matter"]

To W. D. Howells · ["Another Duplex Book Like the

'Two Magics' "]

A Notebook Entry · ["Something as Simple as

The Turn of the Screw"]

",To W. D. Howells · ["A Little 'Tale of Terror' "]

To W. D. Howells · ["A Story of the

'8 to 10 Thousand Words' "]

Preface to the New York Edition · ["An Exercise of

the Imagination"]

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLES DEMUTH

"At a House in Harley Street"

"The Governess First Sees the Ghost of Peter Quint"

"Flora and the Governess"

"The Governess, Mrs. Grose and the Children"

OTHER POSSIBLE SOURCES FOR THE TURN OF THE SCREW

Robert Lee Wolff · The Genesis of "The Turn of the Screw"

Francis X. Roellinger · Psychical Research and

"The Turn of the Screw"

Oscar Cargill · The Turn of the Screw and Alice James

T. J. Lustig · "The Turn of the Screw" and

"Gabrielle de Bergerac"

Criticism

EARLY REACTIONS: 1898--1921

The New York Times · Magic of Evil and Love

New York Tribune · A Masterpiece by Mr. Henry James

The Outlook · ["The Story * * * Is Distinctly Repulsive"]

Henry Harland · Academy Portraits: Mr. Henry James

The Bookman · Mr. James's New Book

Droch · Henry James as a Ghost Raiser

John D. Barry · On Books at Christmas

The American Monthly Review of Reviews · Two Volumes

from Henry ]ames

The Independent · ["The Most Hopelessly Evil Story"]

The Chautauquan · ["Psychic Phenomena"]

Oliver Elton · ["Facts, or Delusions"]

William Lyon Phelps · [The "Iron Scot" Stenographer]

A. R. Orage · Henry ]ames, and the Ghostly

Virginia Woolf · ["Henry ]ames's Ghosts"]

MAJOR CRITIGISM: 1921--70

Harold C. Goddard · A Pre-Freudian Reading of

The Turn of the Screw

Edna Kenton · Henry James to the Ruminant Reader:

The Turn of the Screw

Edmund Wilson · The Ambiguity of Henry James

Katherine Anne Porter, Allen Tate, Mark Van Doren ·

A Radio Symposium

Robert B. Heilman · The Freudian Reading of

The Turn of the Screw

R. P. Blackmur · ["Her Ghosts, Her Other Selves,

Those Parts of Ourselves"]

Maurice Blanchot · The Turn of the Screw

Leon Edel · Introduction to Tales of the Supernatural

RECENT CRITICISM: 1970--PRESENT

Tzvetan Todorov · The Fantastic

Shoshana Felman · Henry James: Madness and the Risks of

Practice (Turning the Screw of Interpretation)

Henry Sussman · James: Twists of the Governess

Bruce Robbins · Recognition: Servant in the Ending

Ned Lukacher · "Hanging Fire": The Primal Scene of

The Turn of the Screw

Paul B. Armstrong · History and Epistemology:

The Example of The Turn of the Screw

T. J. Lustig · Henry James and the Ghostly

Henry James: A Chronology

Selected Bibliography