The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers By Henry James

Henk

Henry James is quite innovative and bold with unlikeable or unreliable narrators in these two stories

The foreword to this edition of
The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers was really flowery (and the academical one was rather spoilery), which made me very scared of how I would like
Henry James his writing style, but both ended up being very solid tales.
Interestingly enough I liked the Aspern Papers (close to four stars for me) more than the more famous Turn of the Screw (three stars).

Aspern Papers
I had never met so stiff a policy of seclusion; it was more than keeping quiet - it was like hunted creatures feigning death.
A paparazzo avant la lettre travels to an old woman and her niece who live in a dilapidated palazzo in Venice. The object of interest, papers of the great (fictional) American poet Aspern, are kept by the elder woman, who was his former love interest. The atmosphere of decay, solitude and listlessness is expertly rendered by James. It is a lost world, where our narrator and his prey live in, a Grand Tour world were servants are just like an other species and one can just disappear a whole season for leisure. In that sense the class obsessed and indolent setting reminded me a bit of
Pride and Prejudice.
The ending of the tale is a bit comparable to the ending of the movie LaLaLand, with a choice being offered between following one's heart or one's financial interests.

What is especially striking of this tale is that our narrator is quite unsympathetic, not only does he tries to profiteer of the elder woman but he also plays with the feelings of the younger to try and get his ways. Still as a reader I was pulled into his story and you feel you are rooting for him, despite comments of him like: I couldn’t linger there to act as guardian to a piece of middle-aged female helplessness.

Turn of the Screw
Well, that, I think, is what I came for - to be carried away
Nowadays an unreliable narrator is quite normal but in this famous tale there is a constant ambiguity as we follow a young governess. She goes to a remote mansion with two kids entrusted to her care. Her predecessors mysteriously disappeared and even died, the boy in her care is kicked of school due to a terrible transgression and she herself starts to see things.
Also she starts to feel more and more unhinged: No, no - there are depths, depths! The more I think over it the more I see in it, and the more I see in it the more I fear.
And conveniently for the story she keeps turning down possibilities to get outside help or just abandon her dreadful surroundings.

Again the atmosphere in this work is very well done, although I always have a bit trouble with works that just state something is terrible or dreadful, instead of explicating what we should be finding terrible or dreadful. It is something
Joseph Conrad does in
Heart of Darkness a lot as well, maybe it is typical of late 19th century writing, but it just feels a bit as a cop out for me.

While reading I multiple times thought that I’d like to read an adaptation from the children’s perspective, the governess indicates a strong will to protect them, but I am really curious to see how they feel about being kept from school and under constant surveillance for their own "security".

A lot of questions and interpretations of
The Turn of the Screw are possible, attesting for the quality of ambiguity James imbued this novella with.
True ghosts or true madness?
Sexual abuse?
Did Mrs Grose see or not see anything?

But in the end, even in these Halloween like October days, I never really felt scared by the story so maybe my expectations going in were a bit to high and I must say I enjoyed the Aspern Papers more.

William2

“A Turn of the Screw” is fabulous. I wish all his works, especially his later ones, were as ecstatically readable.

Lobstergirl

Please note, four stars does not mean I approve of dialogue like this:*

"So she went to -"

"To?"

She hung fire. "To the gentleman's residence."

"The gentleman's residence?"

"Yes, you know, in case of -"

"Oh, yes, well..."

She hung fire. "He wasn't exactly a gentleman."

"Wasn't a gentleman?"

"No, and it caused problems later -"

"Later? If only it had been sooner."

"Sooner?"

They hung fire.

"Everything depended on when she went -"

"When she went? Why? Because of -"

"Yes." He hung fire. "Or -"

"Or?"

"Well - you could say that it prevented -"

"Oh, of course. It prevented." She hung fire.

He hung fire.

They hung. Fire. "And then of course the child -"

He gasped. "The child? What of it?"

"It was thought that -"

"Who thought it?"

"It. It thought it."

"What? It? Why, oh -" one of them gasped, no one was sure which one.

* Not actual Henry James dialogue, except for the "hung fire" bits.

Holly

Well, you certainly have to concentrate on the prose in this one; be prepared to pay attention.

A classic story with a classic question. Did all this really happen as the governess tells it? Were the children really possessed by the malevolent spirits of their dead servants? Was the governess really a half-crazy repressed old maid victim of Victorian society who in turn victimized her young charges? I prefer the former, but either one is horrifying in its own way.

Although a certain type of woman, from a certain strata of British Victorian society, may have been heavily oppressed by the morals and social expectations of the era, this is largely a myth. The very era itself is named for a woman. The same society also produced women like Christina Rossetti, May Morris, Evelyn de Morgan, Marie Correlli, Elizabeth Gaskell, Beatrix Potter, Ada Lovelace and many others; which clearly could not have happened if conditions were as 'anti-woman' as are popularly attributed.

I have seen three different film adaptations of this book. The first is titled "The Innocents" and the acting is old school melodrama, but the look of the black & white film is perfect; very gothic. Bly House and the entire estate have that lovely, eerie appearance. The last one was titled "The Turn of the Screw", and with an interesting twist, was set in the 1960's. The story remained true to the novel, in spite of the mod costuming. The cinematography was not as atmospheric as the black & white version, much more sunlit, but still visually appealing.

I know that some readers struggle with the prose of Henry James. The story is worth adapting your reading style; it is just a novella. This book will not appeal to fans of gore and bloodshed.

Ria

I was planning on buying The Turn which was 3euros but i found this edition with two stories for the same price. didn't expect to care for the second story but i ended up enjoying both of them 👌.

Flybyreader

The Turn of The Screw

I never thought it would be possible to tell a ghost story in such a dry manner but here we are, Henry James, you’ve done it.
The Jane-Eyre duplicate governess, dreaming about the master of the house while taking care of his nephew and niece becomes entangled in a poltergeist web. Or does she? Do they really exist or is she mad? Well we can safely say that she is mad as she goes nuts over a letter but calmly meets the phantom of the dead governess? She is hysterical, her reactions are so childishly absurd that I was dumbstruck most of the time. The only horrifying thing in the house is the children: Their too-mature manners and the way speak freaked the hell out of me. It’s like they’re possessed by a 35-year old auntie. But what do I know? I have absolutely no idea what’s going inside the house, where the “good-looking” gentleman of the house haunted by spirits is. Our weird governess is trying to prove she’s not mad by passive aggressively forcing the kids to say they see the “ghosts”, too. I do not know what kind of madness is at large here in this asylum of a house. Also, James’s exhausting narration and style was another turn of the screw for this uninteresting story. - 2 stars

The Aspern Papers

At what lengths are you willing to go for the relics of your favorite author? The narrator is after the letters of Jeffrey Aspern, a famous but deceased poet and goes to Venice in search of the poet’s lover, an old widow living with her niece. Trying to gain their trust and put his hands on the precious papers, this weasel of a man uses his social skills to achieve his goal while his conscience weighs more at times as he questions the morality and ethics behind his purpose. However, this does not prevent him from destroying the once peaceful life of the two women but he finds it all the more difficult to reach the letters he dreamed of. Henry James takes up an intriguing story with a passionate protagonist but his usual dry style overshadows the potential. - 3 stars.

Roy Lotz

For the second time, I have had the misfortune of choosing to reading Henry James alongside another difficult author. The first time it was Proust; this time, Joyce. So, instead of getting the desired relief from literary headache, I get an extension of it. But, of course, the fault is mine, not Henry’s.

When reading Henry James’s work, I am reminded of a remark Stephen King made about Stanley Kubrick: that “he thinks too much and feels too little.” One gets the impression that, as Henry wrote, he did not vicariously experience the feelings and perspectives of his characters; instead he manipulates them at a far distance in the service of his aesthetic goal. This makes reading his work a peculiarly cerebral experience. Instead of identifying with James’s protagonists, the reader gazes upon them from far-away—like watching pedestrians from a tall building.

Maddening, frustrating, and exasperating as he writing-style is, I am always impressed by the end of it. James has mastered the art of using the structure of language to mirror the structure of his plots. Instead of merely relaying information, James’s sentences show the reader what is going on in their very composition. As the protagonist tries and fails to guess at a mystery, the sentences try and fail to reach their objects—like a snake coiling around itself. Annoying as this sometimes is to read, I am so amazed by the end that I can give James nothing but kudos.

The Turn of the Screw is famous for its use of ambiguity. Is the governess crazy? Or are there really ghosts? Or do the ghosts make her crazy? Or does her craziness somehow reify the ghosts? I’ve heard it argued, and with good reason, that this ambiguity is what makes the story so endlessly intriguing—the implication being that those who try to definitely answer the story’s riddle are doing it a disservice. But what’s the point of a riddle you don’t try to answer? In fact, if you don’t try to answer it, is it even a riddle? So, in the spirit of literary puzzles, here’s my attempt.

I am for the mad governess theory. One obstacle to this is that she was able to describe people she never met with enough precision that the housekeeper immediately recognized them. However, it’s reasonable to suppose that she might have overheard or otherwise been told something about the two deceased former inhabitants. What’s more, her descriptions of the ghosts contain some odd features: she describes Quinn as wearing borrowed clothes, and knows that he isn’t a gentleman; and she describes Miss Jessel as “infamous.” Now, how could you tell any of those things merely by looking at someone? Her descriptions contain more information than could be plausibly gathered through a glance, which is why I think she was parroting something she’d been told.

Another obvious clue is that nobody else can see these ghosts. But what’s even more compelling is how creepily fond the governess is of the children. Her feelings towards them are unhealthy in the extreme. She idolizes them, and then comes to distrust and suspect them in their every action. Her ‘ghosts’ could then be a kind of manifestation of her extraordinary possessiveness. She fears so keenly that somebody or something would take her away from these children she so adores that her mind produces villains who aim to do just that. Her feelings are similar to that of a hyper-jealous lover who sees signs of infidelity lurking in every shadow and hiding in every word.

At this point, one is forced to think about how much the narrator may have omitted from her tale. For all we know, she may have mistreated—even abused—the children. This would explain why Flora comes to hate her so passionately. And it may also explain Miles’s death. I will admit, however, that Miles’s death is particularly hard to account for within the governess-is-mad theory. Did she poison him? Smother him in her arms? It seems a bit far-fetched, but certainly still possible.

The Aspern Papers was less perplexing and more readable. The prose, less gnarled; the characters, more life-like. I suspect this is because it was written earlier in James’s career, when his own distinct style was yet imperfectly developed. That being said, it was certainly masterfully done. The main character, even though he is something of a scoundrel, is endearing because of his dorkiness. And the description of the pent-up women lingering in their large Venetian house is nearly Dickensian.

So now, after finishing these two little gems, I am left wanting to read more of good ol' Henry. He may indeed “think too much and feel too little,” but that’s only a flaw when you’re not as smart as he was.

Sheri

The Turn of the Screw is a haunting and creepy novella published in 1898 about a female caretaker of two orphaned children in the country home of the children's uncle. The caretaker believes that the house and grounds are haunted. Other people employed at the residence are not sharing the same experiences as the nanny and so it could be that there really is something evil hovering around the country estate or the entire scenario is playing out only in the mind of the nanny. It is up to the reader to the decide the truth. Is the nanny sane? Is this a true haunting? The unreliable narrator of the story makes it a difficult decision.
Is the ending of this tragic story supernaturally solved or is it criminal?

Diana

The Turn of the Screw [1898] – ★★★★

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“Wasn’t it just a story-book over which I had fallen a-doze and a-dream?” [James, Ed. 2004: 33].

This is a horror novella penned by James in 1898 at the invitation of Robert J. Collier for his magazine. First published as a series, it tells of a hired governess who comes to Bly, a country estate in Essex, to supervise two children, Miles and Flora. The children are orphans under the responsibility of their uncle who, in turn, does not have much time to spend with them and resides in London. The young governess willingly assumes her responsibilities, being totally delighted to be in charge of two beautiful, lovely and well-behaved children in such grand estate. However, Bly soon opens its horrors to the governess and she becomes aware that there are at least two ghosts in the house that haunt the children. The Turn of the Screw is now infamous for its multiple story interpretations and all kinds of meanings that can be read into the text. Nevertheless, whether one reads the story as a straightforward ghost tale or as a more complex psychological study of one nanny losing her mind, it is still a scary and intriguing read, which leaves much to think about and discuss upon finishing.

The Turn of the Screw is different from others novels of James in that there is an implication of danger of a horrid kind. The story is told through a first person narrative, and our narrator is “the youngest of several daughters of a poor country parson” [Ed. 2004: 26]. We follow her thoughts and encounters as she becomes a governess to two children at Bly. She is not alone in the house as housekeeper Mrs Grose accompanies her, and very soon, our heroine is convinced that the house is haunted by the ghosts of a previous governess Miss Jessel and a valet Peter Quint. More than haunted, the narrator is convinced that the two ghosts are after the children – Miles and Flora. There are two ways to read The Turn of the Screw. It can be read as a morbid tale of creepiness whereby ghosts haunt the country estate and take strange “possession” of the children, or it can be read as a story of our heroine’s emotional or mental breakdown whereby she either imagines or hallucinates spiritual elements. The novella is clever enough to give each theory enough evidence. As soon as readers may think they deal with ghosts, there is immediately something in the narrative which somewhat contradicts that, perhaps pointing to active imagination or mistaken perception. This ambiguity is what makes the story so fascinating, with only subtle hints left behind as to the real danger.

If the narrator is to be believed (how else would she know detailed physical descriptions of previous dead servants?), the story is rather scary, and there are chilling passages where she details her ghostly encounters. The beauty and innocence of the children are contrasted with the dark and disturbing behaviour of the ghosts visiting them. The children’s own behaviour becomes strange, and they are as though under the spell of monstrous and evil intentions of the two ghosts who “corrupt”. But, even here there is this lack of clarity. Who really desires to corrupt? The ghosts – the children; the governess – the children; or maybe even the children try to corrupt the governess? The novella can really be read as evil coming from different directions.

There are many clues in the story that we are dealing with an unreliable narrator, who is impressionable and easily excitable. We have to take the narrator’s word at face value, but her account is highly emotive, and she herself admits to her confusion. Thus, there is also a theory that the ghostly encounters in the story are part of the governess’s active imagination or that she hallucinates them. The governess’s mental breakdown as a theory was proposed as early as 1919 [Ed. 2004: 192], and there are passages in the novella such as “I’m rather easily carried away” [Ed. 2004: 31] and “she was…untried, nervous”, and that before her were “serious duties and little company…really great loneliness” [Ed. 2004: 28]. Sometimes the narrator doubts herself, even that she was “in life”. Clearly, that could be some proof of her losing her grip on reality.

The governess of Miles and Flora also becomes completely infatuated with them. She tells us how [Flora] “was the most beautiful child I had ever seen” and the children are described as being “remarkable”, “incredibly beautiful” and “radiant” [Ed. 2004: 30, 37]. The governess senses in them a “positive fragrance of purity” and is “dazed by their loveliness” [Ed. 2004: 30, 37, 44]. Even though the housekeeper is also enchanted by the duo, and we have little reason to doubt the narrator’s description of children, her expressions regarding the children are often emotional and it is telling that neither Miles’s school headmaster nor his uncle (both males) want the boy near them, also suggesting that, probably, the governess’s and Mrs Grose’s good impression of children may be exaggerated. Miles was expelled from his school and spent a lot of time with his uncle’s valet Quint, who was not a gentleman. It is also telling and slightly ironic that, although both Mrs Grose and the governess narrator refuse to believe the hard fact that Miles was expelled from school, they do succumb to a paranormal belief that there are spirits in the house.

The governess is so obsessed with, and enraptured by, the children and everything they do that she may have imbued them with some divine characteristics, abilities and secrets. She also may want to be part of their secrets and pact. Thus, she may see ghosts because of her desire to be part of the mysterious games the children apparently play, rather than other way around. The governess seems to rejoice in the fact that there is this unusual connection shared between her, and Flora and Miles. Thus, she tells us “the element of the unnamed and untouched became, between us, greater than any other” [Ed. 2004: 78]. She also tells us that the children are aware of the ghosts, but if we read the book closely, we discover that there is little evidence to support that (apart from the narrator’s perceptions). The narrative is so persuasive that we begin to believe this theory, even in spite of the fact that the narrator admits herself later that there is little proof that Miles and Flora can see ghosts, and that it would distress her if she ever loses her power to see ghosts [Ed. 2004: 80]. In the same vein, the governess’s desire to feel useful and needed, as well as become a protector of children may have meant the imagining of a situation whereby she has to protect the children against evil ghosts. She later says “we had been, collectively, subject to an intrusion”, “…cut off…together…[and] united in danger” [Ed. 2004: 42]. This will provide the necessary drama and diversion in her monotone life on the estate, some situation where she may feel “a sudden vibration of duty and courage” ” [Ed. 2004: 45].

Even the ghosts of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint can be seen as the heroine’s inverted mind projections of herself (“tragic”) and the master of the house (“deep”). The affair between Quint and Miss Jessel was doomed, and our narrator may hint in this way on her own doomed and unstarted affair with the master of the house. If there is a talk of the ghosts of Miss Jessel and Quint trying to “destroy” the children, the narrator may also subconsciously think that their uncle would also harm them by being absent, and she could destroy them with her smothering love, and badly-educated and uncultured ways. Her own loss of what is real may be due to her sexual repression. When the “handsome” master of the house held her hand after her interview, “she felt already rewarded” [Ed. 2004: 29], and it is telling that the ghosts she meets give her “bold, hard stare[s]”. The most revealing passage in support of this theory is that when the governess is walking alone, she has the desire that her employer meets her on her way and sees how well she is doing. The heroine refers to the gentleman when she says: “it would be as charming as a charming story suddenly to meet some one. Some one would appear there at the turn of a path and would stand before me and smile and approve” [Ed. 2004: 39].

The later account in the novella of the governess’s thoughts and actions also fits more accurately with the theory of her slowly losing her sense of reality, rather there being a straightforward ghost story. If before the heroine tells us how Bly was like “a fairy tale…place” [Ed. 2004: 38] and enjoys the place almost like a proprietor, later in the story she may be realising that Bly will never be hers, the master of the estate will never return her feelings, and the children will also never be hers. The governess also feels her inadequacy to cater for such intelligent children. She feels she has nothing to teach Miles, saying to us that Miles “was too clever for a bad governess, for a parson’s daughter, to spoil” [Ed. 2004: 65]. When her dear Miles then tells her that he wants “to get away…to new field”, to be with his “own lot” and to “see more life” [Ed. 2004: 85], the governess may have become disturbed and hurt by that statement. She previously thought Miles was happy with her at Bly since he never mentioned his old school. Similarly, Flora may have been sensing something strange in her governess and attempted to run away (probably, even afraid of her). Even other servants started to perceive the governess differently, while the governess starts to feel that any future will hurt her darlings [Ed. 2004: 110, 84].

What can be the result of such feeling of alienation and hurt on the governess’s part? Then comes the climax of the story. The secrets here are out and the game is up. Following the governess’s narration, Flora turns “ugly”, apparently when she is no longer her secretive Flora who sees ghosts, and moves away [Ed. 2004: 103]. Our “heroine”’s only hope becomes Miles, whom she immediately whimsically compares to her husband on their wedding day [Ed. 2004: 113]. The separation between her and the boy becomes the reality, and, perhaps, to maintain her grip on the house and on Miles, the nanny resorts to the only action she thinks available to her – unimaginable horror. There is a line in the book to that effect where the narrator refers to “a perverse horror of what I was doing”, and to “an act of violence” [Ed. 2004: 115]. All this is related in a rather obscure form with another ghostly encounter, and the whole situation may be read in other ways. Henry James indirectly implies and leaves the readers to draw their own conclusions.

Because of the language used, long and complex sentences, and the indeterminate conclusion, The Turn of the Screw is not as instantly satisfying as may be desired, and its reading may be rather daunting. However, those who delight in reading between the lines will find the novella engrossing and atmospheric. It could challenge with its ambiguity, and Henry James must be given credit for the subtle way he deals with evil and true horror in his book. By not pinpointing or describing the meaning of horror, he makes the story take an even darker turn, and the line between the mind and the body, between the inside and the outside, between the spiritual and the earthy, and between the imagined and real, becomes blurred.

Sketchbook

James is always about thwarted desire and/or sexual repression,
like the man's own life. In "Screw" the sublimated sexuality of the governess turns her into a mental case; she destroys 2 children with her fantasies of corruption. Are the kiddies innocent? I dont think so, but they are sweet. The (deceiving) framework is a ghost story. This fools Dum Reader.

In "Aspern" a naive-repressed editor tries to coax
a crusty dowager and her cock-hungry niece to part with some
historic papers, but the ladies have a sexual price. In James
depths of feeling can only be whispered. He's a romantic,
but secretions make him blush. I love the game-play in James. It's just like real life.

Pedro

Leí este volumen de la colección Biblioteca Jorge L. Borges entre 2006 y 2007; incluye dos novelas cortas,
Los papeles de Aspern y
Otra vuelta de tuerca, así como algunos relatos.

Hoy, el último día de abril de 2023, a partir de comentarios guardados y memoria, completé y corregí una breve reseña de cada una de las novelas, a las que se puede acceder a través de los hipervínculos del párrafo anterior.

Henry James fue un escritor elegante y sutil. Para quien tenga interés en parte de su vida y obra, hay una excelente biografía novelada de sus últimos años,
The Master: retrato del novelista adulto, del excelente y ecléctico escritor irlandés
Colm Tóibín.

Sam

Ok, I didn't actually read the Aspern Papers, just The Turn of the Screw. It was recommended by a member of our book club.

Firstly, I found it hard going. It often took me two attempts at reading a sentence to understand it clearly. I can't quite put my finger on the problem, it was clearly written in English, but the sentence structure (which was probably perfectly correct) was (in some parts) almost unintelligible.

The story itself is almost as confusing. I actually had to 'Google' it afterwards to try & make sense of the plot. Alas, the dissertations about it on the internet are almost as confusing as the tale itself.

If you haven't read it, the tale starts with a house party, where the guests have been telling ghost stories. One of the guests tells of a tale he has, but he has to send away for the documents, which (a few days later) duly arrive and he begins to read; at which point we are taken into a first person narrative of events which have happened in her past, she being a governess, who had written the events that make the story, to the guy reading it, prior to her demise.

What follows is that she basically gets a job (her employer lives in London) looking after the orphaned niece & nephew of her employer, who live in the countryside, with strict instructions not to contact him for any reason.

Then ghosts turn up & for some reason the governess only talks of them to Housekeeper (who hasn't seen them) whilst becoming more and more convinced that the children are communing with the spectres in secret and that the spectres (of the previous governess & her employers former valet, with whom the previous governess had had an affair) are there to 'take the children' (not a direct quote, but the best way to express an unclear concept, I presume to whatever unpleasant afterlife the two have ended up in).

Now having googled it, apparently there are two schools of thought; the first being that there are no ghosts and the governess is mentally unbalanced (apparently James was very interested in mental illness and I read something about a case study of a lady called Alice having been used as a source for the story, but it was a brief reference, with limited other information). As a direct result of the governess not being prepared to speak to the children about it, which seems very weird to me, I find myself agreeing that the woman was clearly mental. However, she describes Quint, the valet, in detail, without having known of his existence before the apparition appears to her a second time and also, from the introduction to the tale (the unconnected house party ) she apparently goes on to work for other families in other places with no further incident. Surely, if the entire thing was her mental illness, it would have continued throughout her later life?

Personally, I kind of think that the girl, Flora, may have had something to do with it. Her character seemed partly unrealistic and partly mentally unstable. Perhaps it was her all along, and it only stopped when .

Anyway - overall, I didn't like it. Very little was explained satisfactorily, the ending was rather abrupt and as previously mentioned . Not my cup of tea.

Nancy Oakes

I've really only finished "Turn of the Screw," which I quite liked. I'll get to "The Aspern Papers" and then come back to post about this book as a whole.

Meredith

My edition is a Wordsworth, containing two-for-one novellas: The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers. With a colossal effort and what amounted to skimming, not actual reading, I reached the last page of The Turn of the Screw, which could be one of the dullest, driest, most needlessly verbose and inactive books I've ever read. (What's worse than a book where you have to read the same paragraph ten times, but you're still saying WTF?).
However, I am not going to read The Aspern Papers. I might just take a couple of Asperns instead.

Adrian Buck

Henry James is a bad writer. I feel I can say that now that I have read these two novellas. I first tried this volume thirty years ago, and was quickly bounced out by the impenetrability of his prose. At that time I blamed myself, not him. On returning, I proceded slowly, occassionally reading aloud the sentences that failed to make sense the first time. This is a good technique, though not one that is based on the premise that James's prose has a speech-like quality.

The problems are (in reverse order of difficulty); lengthy mid-sentence digressions, unhappily placed adverbials, and lexcial mistakes. I decided early on in The Turn of the Screw that these might not be problems, but features of a first person narrative showing us the hysterical, perhaps psychotic nature of the young governess....The narrator of The Aspern Papers is, however, a cynical man of letters, so one might expect some decent writing. Unfortunately the 'features' persisted.

Both stories had their merits. In Turn I enjoyed the pacing, and the perhaps unintentional comedy of young Miles's diction (I think it was inspired by
Stalky & Co. but didn't quite come off). In The Aspern Papers I enjoyed the depth and subtlety of the characters' motivation - you don't often get that in English fiction, look to Eastern Europe instead. I probably won't be reading any more Henry James, but I might give Lawrence Durrell another chance, I was bounced out by him too, thirty years ago.

piperitapitta

«Venezia è anche un sogno, di quelli che puoi comperare»

Inizio a leggere "Il carteggio Aspern" per due motivi: da un po' di tempo ho una gran voglia di leggere qualcosa di Henry James - e questo già è strano, perché ho letto solamente "Ritratto di signora" per cui non posso definirmi né esperta né appassionata di quest'autore ma, nonostante ciò, desidero fortemente tornare a "respirare" qualcosa di suo, di ottocentesco ma nordamericano - e perché iniziando a leggere l'autobiografia di Stefan Zweig "Il mondo di ieri" ho sentito fortemente il richiamo al decadentismo veneziano, a quel clima finis austriae che, sia pur politicamente lontano dalla città della Serenissima, e ancora storicamente a venire, aveva già iniziato ad avvolgerla e a isolarla come una perla nella sua ostrica.
La storia è semplice e lineare: un giovane e appassionato critico del famoso e defunto poeta Jeffrey Aspern riesce con l'inganno a farsi concedere alcune stanze in affitto dalle signorine Bordereau, l'ormai vecchissima Juliana - musa ispiratrice del poeta in gioventù - e la nipote Miss Tina.
Lo scopo del critico, che è anche il narratore del romanzo, è quello di entrare in possesso di alcune lettere - da qui il carteggio del titolo - che Aspern scrisse alla giovanissima Juliana ai tempi del loro idillio.
Meno lineari, invece, sono i risvolti psicologici dei tre personaggi, i loro comportamenti - spesso imprevedibili - il dedalo di stanze del vecchio palazzo grigio e rosa in cui si svolge tutta la storia, misterioso e impenetrabile come le inestricabili calli della laguna.
Restano, a completare il quadro, lo sciabordio delle acque, il lento passare di una gondola nella notte, voci e mormorii nella nebbia, gli improvvisi squarci di luce e la splendida scrittura, raffinata e decadente, di Henry James.
Più che claustrofobico, come viene definito questo romanzo in molti commenti, lo definirei immobile; anche se la sua è un'immobilità solo apparente, perché all'interno di queste pagine si muove un'epoca intera: un'epoca che ormai, come Venezia, poggia sull'acqua e della quale è possibile cogliere solo il riflesso.

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Sipario! Anzi, no.

L'avevo letto nel commento di @Procyon Lotor, che mancava un capitolo o forse più, ma me n'ero dimenticata.
Ieri, leggendo «Giro di Vite», questa storia mi è tornata in mente e sono andata a cercare una versione online per scoprire innanzitutto se era vero.
Era vero, alla versione pubblicata dalla I Grandi della Narrativa di Repubblica nella traduzione di Nadia Fusini (mica pizza e fichi) manca non un capitolo, ma almeno tre.

Ecco, mi sento più o meno come gli spettatori di quel cineforum di Bologna che qualche mese fa hanno assistito alla proiezione di Tree of life, l'ultimo capolavoro di Terrence Malick, a "rulli invertiti" senza rendersi conto di niente.

http://corrieredibologna.corriere.it/...

Ora, posso dire in mia discolpa - In attesa di conoscere nomi e cognomi di quelli che gli hanno dato quattro o cinque stelle senza accorgersi che manca il capitolo finale di @PL si è abbattuto sul mio orgoglio di lettrice come una mannaia - che «Il carteggio Aspern» funzionava benissimo anche così; la parte mancante non aggiunge alcuna rivelazione clamorosa alla storia, se non fosse, però, che la priva completamente di quell'ironia di cui parlavamo a tre nei miei feedback; ironia che io non ero riuscita a cogliere e che invece si manifesta in tutto il suo fulgore nei capitoli cesoiati da questa edizione disgraziata.

Mi chiedo, ma com'è possibile? James aveva finito l'inchiostro e ne ha pubblicata prima una versione ridotta e poi dopo averlo acquistato ne ha pubblicata un'altra, la Fusini era in vena di scherzetti, oppure quelli della Repubblica si sono completamente rinc****iti?

Nel frattempo, ironia per ironia, quella di James e quella della sorte, aggiungo la quinta stella.

Renee

The writing is excellent and had a gothic almost romantic feel to it. I am not a fan of the genre but can still appreciate well thought out plot. May even read more ot James short stories.

Subashini

Holy #spinsterlit, Henry James! The Turn of the Screw is definitely not the frightening story I expected it to be, though it was disquieting and troubling in many aspects. Victorian morality, childhood innocence, claustrophobia, hysteria, and displaced feelings all converge in this deliberately cryptic, ambiguous tale. James' ornate, labyrinthine sentences will either drive you nuts or make you ignore your phone and read with rapt attention, and I had the latter experience. Having read Washington Square I knew somewhat what to expect with his language, though I'm still nervous about tackling one of his bigger books.

Underlying this story is a strong sense of irony. A parody of gothic literature, somehow. One that turned into its own weird, hysterical thing.

I'm not rating this edition since I only read Screw. 4 stars for that. I'll get to Aspern Papers at some point, once I've recovered from this.

Julie

I've had at least as much fun reading commentary about the novella The Turn of the Screw as I did the work itself. This is classic Goth horror- with ghosts and governesses, creaky mansions and eerily ethereal tots. Is our heroine, who falls in love at the drop of a kerchief, the victim of a household haunting conspiracy or is she merely batty? What was the sinister exploit that got Miles expelled from boarding school? What connivances is Flora calculating behind her angelic blues? To whose insanity is Mrs. Grose an unwitting contributor?

The language is a bit of a slog, stealing away some of the story's tension. But I love that James leads us ever on into the gloom and fog, then drops us abruptly, leaving unanswered a mystery that will spawn countless doctoral dissertations and VC Andrews' pulp fiction.

X

The Turn of the Screw was quite good, but difficult to read due to the gothic language. The subtle mystery and non-so-subtle supernatural elements were gripping, but the ending left me, at least, still wondering about a few unresolved things.

I had no idea what to expect from The Aspern Papers, but I found it easier to follow than The Turn of the Screw and even enjoyed its lovely Venetian setting and the narrator's attempt to outwit the old lady who possessed the papers in question. I'm not sure if I liked the ending or not, but it was what the narrator deserved, I guess.

Mariam Keshealshvili

ორივე ნაწარმოები ძალიან კარგი იყო. ასევე აღფრთოვანებული ვარ ჯეიმზის წერის სტილით, ამ წიგნში თავმოყრილია ორი სხვადასხვა ჟანრის მოთხრობა და რაღაც მომენტში წიგნის ყდას დავხედე ნუთუ ამ ორივე ნაწარმოებს ერთი ავტორი ჰყავს-მეთქი რადგან ორი რადიკალურად განსხვავებული ჟანრია და თხრობითაც საკმაოდ განსხვავებულია. თუმცაღა ორივეს დაჰკრავს ავტორის ხელწერა ფინალთან მიახლოებისას.

მიუხედავად იმისა, რომ წიგნი მოცულობით მცირეა ისევე როგორც თითოეული ნაწარმოები კითხვისას ეს ასე არ მოგეჩვენებათ - ჰენრი ჯეიმზის ნაწარმოები დაბურული ტყესავითაა და მართლაც, რომ მარწუხების გაკვალვა უწევს მკითხველს თუმცა სიუჟეტი ისეთი მიმზიდველია, რომ არ გაძლევს მოდუნების საშუალებას შესაბამისად ბოლო სანამ ბოლო გვერდამდე ჩახვალთ ისეთი გრძნობა გექნებათ თითქოს საუკუნეა წიგნი ხელიდან არ გაგიშვიათ.

ჯეიმზის ნაწარმოებს კიდევ ერთი თვისება ახასიათებს - მას სურს, რომ კითხველი არამხოლოდ სიუჟეტს ეცნობოდეს არამედ გახდეს ნაწარმოების ნაფიცი მსაჯული. დაე მკითხველმა განსაჯოს და მანვე გადაწყვიტოს რომელია სიუჟეტის სწორი ხაზი.

მოკლედ ჰენრი ჯეიმზის სხვა ლიტერატურას აუცილებლად დავუბრუნდები, როგორც კი ამის შესაძლებლობა მომეცემა.

David

The Turn of the Screw: Some poor chap was horribly abused by his governess but her cunning was such that, as an adult, he doesn't understand what he endured. And now he shares the story that she first used to prevent him from seeking help from a responsible adult as a ghost story! At parties! Awkward and really unpleasant. A bit like someone saying "There was a ghost in my wardrobe when I was a child! It would have killed me if I'd ever told anyone about Dad raping me."

The Aspern Papers: Much more enjoyable. Mad old hags, Venice and a dead writer's love letters. Narrator steels himself to do anything to get his hands on the spoils, but when the aged spinster eyes the flies of his jeans, it turns out that he would do anything for love (but he won't do that).

Helen

All I got from this book is the answer to the following questions:

1. Which author used so many commas, colons, semi and full, hyphens and exclamation marks, that his over-long sentences became impossible to comprehend?

2. Which fictional character would you most like to push down a long flight of stairs?

All I need now is for someone to ask.....

Jair Martín

“Un clásico es un libro que nunca termina de decir lo que tiene que decir”, escribía Italo Calvino en la introducción de “Por qué leer los clásicos”.
Podemos decir entonces que “Otra vuelta de tuerca”, de Herny James es a todas luces un clásico.

E. G.

Introduction
Preface

--The Aspern Papers
--The Turn of the Screw

Notes

Rosamund Taylor

Two entertaining novellas -- in some ways, I found The Aspern Papers to be more accomplished and satisfying, even thought The Turn of the Screw is much more famous.

The Turn of the Screw is James' most well-known ghost story, and it may be the first instance of the horror trope of a possessed child. Told from the perspective of a governess who travels to an isolated house to care for two children, it captures a tense and dramatic atmosphere, while never answering any questions. We're not sure how much we can trust the governess's account, and whether she is a witness to horrifying events, or is seeing things that aren't there, or a mixture of the two. James holds us in suspense, and the suspense never really lifts, as few answers are forthcoming. I enjoyed this, but felt it was a little bit too Freudian -- so much seems to represent repressed sexuality that the ghosts got lost at times.

The Aspern Papers is set in a beautiful and decaying palazzo in Venice, belonging to two unmarried women, a niece and an aunt. The unnamed narrator gains access to the house under false pretences: he claims to be looking for a simple lodging, but he's actually trying to wrest some paper from the older aunt. These belong to Jeffery Aspern, a beloved American poet, who had an affair with the aunt many decades ago. The novella captures the unlikeable and avaricious narrator, who is willing manipulate those around him and toy with their emotions. This is an interesting character study, and a tense and readable story. Though less imaginative than The Turn of the Screw, I found it more satisfying.

Charlie Morris (Read, Watch & Drink Coffee)

The Turn Of The Screw is a tough book to read. The writing is extremely flowery and I found it difficult to get through each sentence, so I ended up switching to audiobook halfway through which made for a much easier experience.

Getting used to the prose, I could instead focus on the unreliable narrator, as it’s up to the reader to decide the truth. Is the governess sane and really plagued by these supernatural hauntings? Or is something much more sinister going on? I love a story that torments you with having to make such a vital decision based on your own engagement with the characters, so I did really enjoy this side of the story.

However, the main problem I have with classic ghost stories is that I always expect them to be scary, and that’s very rarely the case. I loved The Woman In Black because the painful exploration of grief made me emotional, and I enjoyed The Haunting Of Hill House because of the lingering eerie atmosphere in the house and thought-provoking discussions around mental health.

Although The Turn Of The Screw also asks you to address whether the governess is mentally stable or not, it didn’t have the same effect on me this time around. So I was again let down with The Turn of the Screw because it didn’t scare me. It’s certainly a little creepy, but it didn’t have anything else to really pull me into the story. I’ve seen various film adaptations and absolutely love The Haunting Of Bly Manor which expands on this story in a brilliant way, so maybe I was just expecting more because of this.

Of course, it’s thanks to Henry James’ original work that these brilliant adaptations have been made, so I do appreciate this book and it’s another classic that I will read again in the future to hopefully get more out of on a second read.

Jeanette

I bought this book in order to read The Turn of the Screw and ended up enjoying the other story, The Aspern Papers, more than I did The Turn of the Screw.

The Aspern Papers- 4 Stars
I thought James did an amazing job of building tension in the Aspern Papers. Will the historian get the papers he so longs for? Should he even have them? What will he do to get them? What will the women who possess the papers do to them? And just what is her story? I read this short story with eagerness and bated breath wanting to know the conclusion but also fearing it a bit. I started caring as much about the fate of those papers as did the historian.

The Turn of the Screw- 3 Stars
Honestly, I did not find this story to be a thrilling ghost story so much as a story about a hysterical women who jumped to crazy conclusions and made absurd assumptions.
People who read this book generally pick one of two sides regarding the ambiguous nature of the story. I have no doubt which side I fall on.

K.

Trigger warnings: death, death of a child, manipulation.

3.5 stars.

I honestly don't have a lot of thoughts about this, which surprises me a little because I've heard over and over about how creepy The Turn of the Screw is. And yet.

I think in both cases, these are stories that I would have appreciated more if I a) had studied them in detail and b) hadn't read them consistently at like 10.45pm when I was half asleep. Because, like, I just went and read the Wikipedia pages for both of them and certainly in the case of The Turn of the Screw, the various interpretations - is she crazy or are there really ghosts? etc - are far more interesting to think about than the story itself.

Aaaaaaanyway. The Aspern Papers is a compelling story about a manipulative white dude trying to take advantage of naive women and failing. And The Turn of the Screw is a gothic horror story that's either about ghosts or insanity, depending on your interpretation. Ultimately, I don't know that I'd reread either of these, but I'm glad I picked them up all the same.

Stephanie

Hmmm this was different to what I was expecting. I think it's the type of book that needs a reread

Title	:	The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers
Author	:	Henry James
Rating	:
ISBN	:	0141439904
ISBN-10	:	9780141439907
Language	:	English
Format Type	:	Paperback
Number of Pages	:	272
Publication	:	First published January 1, 1898

The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers by Henry James

The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers Reviews

The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers Reviews

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