The Turn of the Screw

A young, inexperienced governess is charged with the care of Miles and Flora, two small children abandoned by their uncle at his grand country house. She sees the figure of an unknown man on the tower and his face at the window. It is Peter Quint, the master's dissolute valet, and he has come for little Miles. But Peter Quint is dead. Like the other tales collected here - `Sir Edmund Orme', `Owen Wingrave', and `The Friends of the Friends' - `The Turn of the Screw' is to all immediate appearances a ghost story. But are the appearances what they seem? Is what appears to the governess a ghost or a hallucination? Who else sees what she sees? The reader may wonder whether the children are victims of corruption from beyond the grave, or victims of the governess's `infernal imagination', which torments but also entrals her? `The Turn of the Screw' is probably the most famous, certainly the most eerily equivocal, of all ghostly tales. Is it a subtle, self-conscious exploration of the haunted house of Victorian culture, filled with echoes of sexual and social unease? Or is it simply, `the most hopelessly evil story that we have ever read'? The texts are those of the New York Edition, with a new Introduction and Notes. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Product details

• Authors: Henry James
• Assisted by: J Lustig (Editor), T J Lustig (Editor), T. J. Lustig (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press Trade
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 07.04.2008
• EAN: 9780199536177
• ISBN: 978-0-19-953617-7
• Dimensions: 127 mm x 196 mm x 17 mm
• Series: World's classics; Oxford World's Classics; World's classics; WORLD'S CLASSIC; Oxford World's Classics; WORLD'S CLASSIC; World's classics
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Fiction > Narrative literature > Main work before 1945; FICTION / Short Stories (single author), Short Stories, FICTION / Occult & Supernatural, FICTION / Horror, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 19th Century, Horror & ghost stories, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Horror and supernatural fiction, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, LITERARY CRITICISM / Novel as Form