The Turn of the Screw

I have John Peters's Speaking into the Air to thank for getting interested in the 19th c American pragmatist camp, so maybe it was inevitable that I'd think the first Henry James I've read was about communication. But I also do think that's the main thing going on in this story. Communication is variously too hard to do, too hard to prevent others from doing, an easy out to be avoided, and/or a mortal danger. Crucially (and again I don't think this is just because I've been writing about the under-coverage of class in Peters's media theory) it's always communication across class difference that causes real terror.

The prose style is, sometimes annoyingly but also compellingly, marked by long strings of short parenthetical phrases; it's often tough to parse, and it aids the impression that the narrator sees words/ideas as chess pieces that all have to be moved in just the right order. I'm curious to read more James and see if that style is particular to this story.

I found this more of a chore than a pleasure to read, and came close to giving up on it several times. I found the unnecessarily long sentences very hard to follow, and it constantly pulled me out of the story. If not for that I might have enjoyed the story, but as it was I was simply glad to get to the end of it. And what an abrupt end it was! Given the 'framing story' style opening, I was expecting a similar closing, and consequently found the ending very jarring.

I'm not sure whether it helped or hindered that I've seen at least one film adaptation of this book in the past, so was already aware of its plot. I'd have to agree with another reviewer, who thought this was one of those cases where the film (at least the version I recall) was preferable to the book.

Not really the Halloween read I was looking for.