The Turn of The Screw and Other Short Novels (Signet Classics) |
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Author:
Henry James
By Signet Classics
Average Customer Rating:   
List Price: $4.95
Our Price: $1.95
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Product Description
Six classic stories-one volume
This indispensible anthology collects the short novels of Henry James, offering readers the full range of his skill and vision-the singular art and imagination of an author who profoundly influenced American literature
Amazon.com Review
The story starts conventionally enough with friends sharing ghost stories 'round the fire on Christmas Eve. One of the guests tells about a governess at a country house plagued by supernatural visitors. But in the hands of Henry James, the master of nuance, this little tale of terror is an exquisite gem of sexual and psychological ambiguity. Only the young governess can see the ghosts; only she suspects that the previous governess and her lover are controlling the two orphaned children (a girl and a boy) for some evil purpose. The household staff don't know what she's talking about, the children are evasive when questioned, and the master of the house (the children's uncle) is absent. Why does the young girl claim not to see a perfectly visible woman standing on the far side of the lake? Are the children being deceptive, or is the governess being paranoid? By leaving the questions unanswered, The Turn of Screw generates spine-tingling anxiety in its mesmerized readers.
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"Challenging her own irregularity...", 2008-12-27
That governess - is she just a love-struck melodramatic whack-job or is she genuine in her visions and concerns for her wards? James' language is over-labored and spends to much efforts getting nowhere at times - and to no great effect. Shakespeare is less complicated and more colorful. The color is often stripped out of the writing - and painted back in with a lighter wash. It moves the story forward - but often requires a step back here and there to clear things up. There is honest fear built up through the course of the tale - and I certainly felt that "waiting for the next shoe to drop" sense - but nothing that would keep me up at night.
wow., 2008-12-01
Too bad people today are too stupid to read. It appears that if it takes longer than 30 minutes to tell a story from start to finish that it's not interesting.This book is brilliant; it's classic. If you're smart, read it. If you're a moron, watch Sponge Bob.
Title, 2008-10-02
If you are just wanting the story, don't get this version. This version has all of the analytical stuff in it. The print is very little, too.
Turn of the screw..., 2008-05-07
I found this to be a rather boring classic. I just couldn't really get interested in it enough to not be confused. I didn't even understand what happened in the end. I stayed confused for most of the book. I started over several times but still couldn't keep up with who was speaking who they were speaking about. So I can't recommend this book. Sorry.
Honestly? Don't read it for fun., 2008-03-24
It's hard to know how to rate this. Of course, it's ridiculously presumptuous for me to give a classic of English literature anything less than the full rating, but honestly? It's hard to read. The sentences are so elliptical, and the sensibilities of the narrator so difficult for a modern reader to intuit, that I finally rated it for its appeal to a casual reader. Reading it now, I didn't really suffer any thrills of horror. The ghost story really hasn't been the same since Stephen King started writing. Instead, what struck me was the flightiness of the governess, her daisy-chains of inference, and at least two instances where she reports things to the housekeeper as facts that contradict elements of her own narrative. That's the beauty of the story for me, the deftness with which James instills doubt about the credibility of his narrator. So, as a foundation of the horror genre and part of the English lit cannon, may every library contain at least one copy. But it's probably best actually read in the context of a class, where it can be appreciated for its structure and significance and no one will expect reading it to actually be fun.
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.4
EAN: 9780451530677
ISBN: 0451530675
Label: Signet Classics
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: 2007-09-04
Publisher: Signet Classics
Studio: Signet Classics |
