HENRY JAMES , American novelist , playwright, essayist and critic ,James remains one of the most influential of the literary figures who were writing at the turn of the century.
The Turn of the Screw appeared in four parts in the first months of 1898 and is one of Henry James's finest troversial work. when it appeared Oscar Wilde declared it a most wonderful, lurid , poisonous little tale...
The new governess is in sole charge of two orphan children. Although they are both remarkably well- behaved, intelligent and affectionate, she becomes increasingly uneasy. Especially after she sees a stranger seemingly in search of something - or someone; a man whom she discovers is dead, like her predecessor. She then must fight a frightening battle for her pupils and against the forces of evil, a battle in which her victory will be even more terrible.
The Turn of the Screw is a subtle and unconventional ghost story that concentrates on the psychological rather than the actual. It is open to widely different interpretations. Are the ghosts a real danger to the children or merely imagined by a lonely and susceptible woman? But what is certain is that the novel exerts a chilly and lasting power over the reader"s imagination.
