Henry JamesFiction · Classics·1843–1916
The Turn of the Screw
Synopsis
A young governess takes charge of two orphaned children at the isolated country house of Bly and becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted by the ghosts of two former servants intent on corrupting her young charges. Henry James's 1898 novella never resolves whether the hauntings are real or the governess's own delusion, making it one of the most debated ghost stories in English literature.
How it reads
Prose complexity 7/10
Content warnings (2)
TraumaChild Death
- The book starts with a bunch of friends gathered in a house/mansion telling ghost stories to entertain themselves. The ghost story that the book is titled after is told by one of the guests, Douglas, after he has someone fetch the original manuscript written by an unnamed woman from his residence. Douglas describes the story as "beyond everything [...] for [its] general uncanny ugliness and horror and pain". And that's probably the most accurate description of the story. The Turn of the Screw is told from the perspective of a young governess employed to teach and take care of two children, the 8-year-old Flora and the 10-year-old Miles. Obviously, just based on the first sentence of the book, this is a ghost story. But the real horror of the story is not the ghosts, but the narrator herself, the governess. There's so much to be told about her, but that would be spoiling the story. But just as her opinion and attitude towards her charges, the children, fluctuated through the story, so did my opinion of her. Everything aside, I found her obsession with these kids disturbing. From the moment she sees the girl, she describes her as "a creature too charming not to make it a great fortune to have to do with her," and "the most beautiful child I had ever seen," and she literally loses sleep that night because she can't stop thinking about her?? She holds pretty much the same opinion, yet somehow even more exaggerated, about Miles, but the most disturbing instance of her with regards to him, in my opinion, was in the final scene, where she describes a moment of silence between her and the boy like: "We continued silent while the maid was with us – as silent, it whimsically occurred to me, as some young couple who, on their wedding-journey, at the inn, feel shy in the presence of the waiter." This simile is bad on its own - she's likening a 10-year-old boy and herself, a grown woman, to a couple on their honeymoon - but it's even worse when you remember that earlier in the story, once the governess expresses her concerns about this little boy possibly "corrupting" others in school, Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper, (half) jokingly says, "Are you afraid he’ll corrupt you?" Again, she's talking about a 10-year-old boy! There's just so much going on with her in this story. Her actions, her self-righteousness, her delusions, her cruelty, and the way she justifies them... And that ending... I audibly gasped. I don't know how I expected the story to end; I definitely didn't expect a happy ending, but I also didn't expect THAT.
- Περίεργο βιβλίο... Η πρωτοπρόσωπη αφήγηση μιας γκουβερνάντας που αναλαμβάνει να φροντίζει σε μια αγγλική έπαυλη δύο ορφανά υπό την προστασία ενός θείου τους, ο οποίος όμως ζει μακριά τους και δεν θέλει να έχει καμία άλλη σχέση μαζί τους. Πολύ γρήγορα αρχίζει να βλέπει (;) τα φαντάσματα ενός υπηρέτη και μιας άλλης γκουβερνάντας που της έχει καρφωθεί η ιδέα ότι διέφθειραν κάπως (σεξουαλική κακοποίηση;) τα δύο παιδιά. <br><br>Η γκουβερνάντα, ο ορισμός του αναξιόπιστου αφηγητή, μπλέκει τον εαυτό της και την ίδια σε ένα γαϊτανάκι ανάμεσα στην πραγματικότητα και τη φαντασία και μοιάζει να προβάλλει δικά της θέματα στα παιδιά. Δυστυχώς, παραείναι όμως φλύαρη στην αφήγησή της και το κείμενο χάνει σε δύναμη. Σίγουρα δείχνει την ηλικία του, καθώς δεν δικαίωσε στα μάτια μου τη θέση που έχει στην αγγλόφωνη λογοτεχνία.<br><br>Παράδοξα ξεκούρδιστη η μετάφραση του Κοσμά Πολίτη, παρότι μας έχει δώσει αριστουργηματικές μεταφράσεις άλλων βιβλίων. Βέβαια, και το πρωτότυπο, το οποίο διάβασα σε διάφορα σημεία για λόγους σύγκρισης, δίνει την ίδια αίσθηση πάνω-κάτω.
- A bit boring honestly !