The Turn of the Screw

By: Henry James

Narrated by: Simon Vance, Vanessa Benjamin

One of the world's most famous intellectual ghost stories, The Turn of the Screw is a haunting tale of suspected supernatural possession. A governess at a country house claims that Miles and Flora, two orphaned children in her care, are being controlled by spirits for some evil purpose. No one else can see the ghosts, and the children themselves are silent. Are they being dominated by spectral forces, or are they hiding something? Is the governess simply paranoid, or is something else going on?

With its possibly ambiguous content and powerful narrative technique, the story challenges the listener to determine if the unnamed governess is correctly reporting events or is instead an unreliable neurotic with an overheated imagination.

©2006 Henry James (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Psychological study disguised as a ghost story

Any additional comments?

This brilliant book is a psychological study disguised a ghost story.

To really understand this book, you have to know something about the time it was written. This book was published in 1898 in Victorian England, in a society so uptight, it was considered improper to utter the word "leg" in mixed company. Gasp! Victorian society with riddled with blatant hypocrisy and double standards. On the surface, it was rigid, prudish and stuffy but this was to camouflage the sexual and moral decadence that often went on behind closed doors. While the legs of furniture were draped with cloth to avoid appearing too sexy, the patriarch of the house might be molesting the scullery maid when nobody was looking.


There are two first-person narrators throughout the story. Our first narrator introduces us to the story and gives us some background info. He's crafting of the story. The second narrator, the Governess, is telling her version of the story within the main story.

On the surface, this is a ghost story told from the point of view of a young, newly hired governess who will be in charge of a young boy and his sister in a haunted manor. The new governess begins seeing what she believes are ghosts peering into the windows. Are they really ghosts? Or is it a peeping Tom spying on the young children? Is this governess hallucinating? Everything is vague and it is left to the reader to decide these things.

Beneath the surface, this is the story of child sex abuse and pedophilia. Immediately after the governess starts her new job, the head housekeeper passes on some gossip about the boy Miles. She says that in spite of his angelic innocent demeanor, the boy has been "bad" in the past, he would disappear for hours in the company of Peter Quint who was "much too free with the boy” and engaged in "depravity." To deal with the disturbing scandal, young Miles was sent away to boarding school but he was quickly expelled after he tells some of his classmates about the sordid things Peter Quint did to him.

The author purposely misleads the reader about the true identity of many of the book's characters. At the beginning of the book, a small group of guests sits around a fire telling stories in the evening. An older man named Douglas tells the story we read. Douglas appears to be telling a story about himself when he was a child, changing his name to Miles. There is an Uncle who, for mysterious reasons, suddenly leaves his Grand Manor House and with no explanation, refuses to ever see Miles again. Could the Uncle and Quint, the man who molested Miles/Douglas, be the same person? There are other moments in the story when the Governess and the housekeeper complete each other's sentences, as if they are one person, talking to themselves.

Why would the author deliberately make things so confusing for the reader with a cover story about a haunted manor? It is all probably part of an elaborate smokescreen to veil the real, much more shocking, scandalous subject matter: pedophilia. Because one did not speak of such depraved matters like pedophilia in repressed Victorian England, Henry James had to jump through hoops to veil the real subject of his novel. Genius, when you think about it

Strange, ambiguous - a dissatisfaction that lasts

What did you like best about The Turn of the Screw? What did you like least?

It had a captivating tension that unfolded both slowly and rapidly. It had an ambiguity that created mystery. The ambiguity remained unresolved, creating ultimate dissatisfaction. But the dissatisfaction lasts in a way that is paradoxically satisfying. The (non) resolution left me annoyed, and as if I was supposed to have viewed the story another way all along.I suspect the reaction to it in the early 21st century may be quite different to when it was first written.

Would you recommend The Turn of the Screw to your friends? Why or why not?

Probably yes

What about Simon Vance and Vanessa Benjamin ’s performance did you like?

old English voices and modulating with different charactes.

Do you think The Turn of the Screw needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

I don't think this question makes sense.

Ghost Story

I haven't decided if the governess is telling the truth or trying to hide something about herself. Or maybe she is delusional.

Ultimately disappointing

The mystery is not a mystery to the modern reader -- only to the protagonist (who is not easy to like -- I simply didn't care what happened to her). The ending is too predictable -- and unsatisfying.

The classic "gothic horror" tone is entertaining, I guess (that's why I gave it three stars), but you should read it more as a short story (it IS short). And do not expect Simon Vance to be the reader -- he is out of the story completely in less than 15 minutes.

Who done it, Murder or love?

I love the mystery of this story and i go back and forth on the ending depending on my mood. This is a great astory that is written so well that you get to decide the ending.
Narrration is not to be missed.

I didn't think I liked Henry James

But I do. I was just too young to "get" Henry James before. Vanessa Benjamin is perfect for this book.

Good story but not too scary

I enjoyed this book, even though it wasn't as scary as I'd hoped it would be. Great narration, and a creepy, slow-building story line.

A true classic

I do really enjoy the story and the performance. the work may be a bit dated though.

An Enduring Classic Wonder

This is o e of the books that started it all, the whole victorian "gothic" ghost story genre. It's positively brilliant. I feel sorry for those leaving the reviews calling this story "boring". It's enthralling. It's terrifying. It's psychological horror. It's cerebral and intelligent. And all the confused reviewers calling this "old English"? This is very, very *Modern* English. Even Shakespeare was Modern English. Old English is not at all intelligible to today's English speakers. It's closer to German than today's English. It wasn't even intelligible to Chaucer, whose work was in Middle English, which is several hundred years more recent than "old" English. It's sad that our kids don't know their heritage and think Henry James is "boring". He's way better than anything produced today. Masterful.

Compelling, creepy and rich in its ambiguity

My first exposure to Henry James was this tight little psycho-drama of a ghost story. 'Turn of the Screw' is one of those amazing little stories that twists the reader back and forth between the extremes of believing the narrator is legitimate in her fear of actual ghosts or believing she is simply mad. James' story turns on this dilemma. One slight rotation to the right and all bets are off.

For a ghost story, I was far more creeped out by the two 'angelic' children, the vacant setting, and the remote English country house. Anyway, while not blown away by the story, I still found it compelling, creepy and rich in its ambiguity.