The Turn of the Screw ~ Henry James
We have been studying James' novella at college this year and it was really this book that got me more interested in the gothic romantic genre. It's the story of a governess who takes care of two children, Miles and Flora, at a large country house in Essex named Bly. Throughout the book James portrays the governess as mad and delusional, but at the same time, it is possible to interpret it in another way - she's sane and the house is truly haunted by the ghosts of a previous servant, Peter Quint and the children's previous governess, Miss Jessel. The governess, if she is delusional, eventually scares Flora into a fever, is almost oblivious to Mrs Grose, the housekeeper's true feelings and kills Miles as she desperately defends him from Quint's ghost. If, however, she is correct and the children have been influenced and 'corrupted' by the apparitions, then the novella may end with Miles being purified - not killed.
To be frank; you can't be sure which way to read it - James leaves the whole tale up to interpretation by the reader. The context and themes are very important to attempting to understand the novella. It does seem that a lot of social critiques are made, especially of sexuality, religion and class; but what is interesting is how we understand the story now, compared to how someone would have read it in the late 19th/early 20th century.
Personally, I prefer to read it as a typical ghost story, but in any case, as Oscar Wilde said, The Turn of the Screw is 'a most wonderful, lurid, poisonous little tale'.
