A young gentlewoman begins her career as a governess when a handsome bachelor hires her to care for his little niece and nephew. She is sent to Bly, the country manor where the children are tucked away n the care of a motherly housekeeper. Little Flora and her brother Miles are so adorable and angelic as to be called exquisite; the governess is instantly enamored of their childish charms. But before she can become a slave to their every delightful little whim, the governess sees—something. A pale face pressed against the window and a dark figure on the other side of the lake, staring with devious intent at little Flora and Miles. When she describes these mysterious watchers to the housekeeper, they are identified as Peter Quint and Miss Jessel—and the horror immediately grows, because not only are Quint and Miss Jessel bad, immoral people, but they are dead. Convinced that the children’s young souls have been corrupted, our nerve-wracked governess fights to save some remnant of goodness in the preternaturally perfect little darlings—even while the ghostly fiends strive to possess them. Author Henry James weaves a masterful web of intense suspense that still penetrates more than a hundred years later. A uniquely layered structure (an unnamed narrator is listening to a manuscript read by a fellow houseguest; the manuscript is told in first-person by the hapless governess) completes the casting of the spell; a reader can never be sure what (if anything) is real and what (if anything) is imagined. One thing is certain: The Turn of the Screw will keep you biting your nails, jumping at every noise, and absolutely glued to the page.

posted Jul 6, 2010 at 10:03AM

 Add a Comment