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 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?

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 Ivory Tower ·["The Pressure and the Screw"]

Dictated Notes for The Ivory Tower ·["My Poor Blest Old Genius"]

To Theodate Pope Riddle·/"Beneath Commentor 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 Nice [Mrs. William] James·["Finished My Little Book"]

To A. C. 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 Mice ]amesT. ]. Lustig·"The Turn of the Screw" and

"Gabrielle de Bergerac"

Criticism

EARLY REACTIONS: 1898-- 1921

The New York Times·Magic of r·vn ano Love

New York Tribune·A Masterpiece by Mr. Henry ]ames

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

Henry Harland * Academy Portraits: Mr. Henry ]ames

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 James, and the Ghostly

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

MAJOR CRITICISM: 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