The Turn of the Screw: Henry James’s Ghost Story of the Governess, Flora, Miles and the Ghosts of Bly
A young Englishwoman arrives at Bly to become governess to Flora and Miles, two orphaned children left in the care of their uncle, the owner of the house. Soon after her arrival she discovers that the children are visited from time to time by a man and a woman... who had died a year earlier.
Author: Henry James (1843–1916)
Title: The Turn of the Screw (1898)
Format: English paperback (Oxford World’s Classics, The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories), 336 pages
Scope: Novella; ghost story
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0199536171 (ASIN 0199536171)
Quint and Miss Jessel
Thanks to Mrs Grose, the housekeeper, the governess learns who the two mysterious figures are: Peter Quint, the uncle’s valet and trusted servant, and Miss Jessel, the children’s previous governess. Protecting Flora and Miles from them becomes the young woman’s obsession, and she does everything she can to stand between them, convinced that Quint and Jessel mean the children harm.
Ghosts, or a Troubled Mind?
Some critics argue that this is not really a ghost story at all, since the only witness to the apparitions is the governess’s own troubled mind. At no point do the children confirm that they see the ghosts, which makes the book even more unsettling and frightening than it already is.
A Story Within a Story
The novella opens at a Christmas gathering in an old house, where guests are telling ghost stories. One of them, Douglas, says he has a tale more terrible than any of theirs: a manuscript written by a governess he once knew. Everything that follows is her account, which means we never see events except through her eyes. This frame is the key to the book’s famous ambiguity, because there is no one to confirm or deny what she says.
The Great Debate
For decades readers took the ghosts at face value. In 1934 the critic Edmund Wilson published an influential essay arguing that the apparitions were hallucinations of a repressed governess, and the argument has never really ended. James himself kept quiet, calling the story a "pot-boiler" and "an amusette". The text supports both readings almost perfectly, which is a remarkable feat: every detail that seems to prove the ghosts are real can also be read as proof of her disturbed state of mind.
Henry James
James (1843–1916) was born in New York and spent most of his adult life in England, becoming a British subject the year before his death. He is best known for psychological novels such as The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl, which explore what goes unsaid between people. The Turn of the Screw, first published in 1898, is shorter and more gripping than his major novels, and a good place to start with him.
On Stage and Screen
The story has inspired many adaptations. Benjamin Britten turned it into an opera in 1954, and Jack Clayton’s film The Innocents (1961), starring Deborah Kerr, is often counted among the finest ghost films ever made. More recently it was loosely reworked as the Netflix series The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020).
Reading Tip
James’s sentences are long and winding, especially in the governess’s moments of panic. Do not rush them: reading slowly, even aloud, lets the tension build exactly as he intended, and you will notice how carefully he chooses what not to say.
Then reread the ending.
Why Read It
It is one of the great ambiguous tales in English literature, and every reader ends up choosing a side. The Oxford edition adds several other stories by James, along with notes that help with his famously intricate prose.
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