Should have read classics discussion

This is the group read for January. I have wanted to read a Henry James book for quite some time and hopefully, this one is a good representation of his writing. Enjoy the discussion and happy reading!

I own an antique copy of this one! Read it in bed at night :) Probably not the best choice for bedtime reading, LOL. I thought it was pretty awesome :)

I'm getting to this one, it is on my Kindle. I have to finish up my library books first, they have slowed me down quite a bit on the reading this month.

Lisa wrote: "I'm getting to this one, it is on my Kindle. I have to finish up my library books first, they have slowed me down quite a bit on the reading this month."

Ordered this one, don't know where it is. Read it a long time ago, and was looking forward to rereading with the group.

I'm not a big Henry James fan--I admire his stories more than his storytelling. But I do like Turn of the Screw.



The question they throw at you in high school is, (view spoiler)[Are there really ghosts or is the governess just crazy? (hide spoiler)] But I think that's kind of beside the point. It's really about titillation--turning up the heat, ratcheting it up a notch, turning the screw. Which, of course, (view spoiler)[the governess does at every opportunity (hide spoiler)], but so does everybody, including the narrator: "Someone else told a story not particularly effective, which I saw he was not following. This I took for a sign that he had himself something to produce and that we should only have to wait."

And Douglas: " 'Is in old, faded ink, and in the most beautiful hand.' He hung fire again."

And the governess: "I remember the whole beginning as a succession of flights and drops, a little seesaw of the right throbs and the wrong." !!!

And then there's Mrs. Grose pumping it up, just to keep thing interesting in the too quiet country.

Skepticism at any point would spoil the pudding (view spoiler)[as happens later on when Mrs. Grose finally steps up (hide spoiler)]. The creepiest thing about the story is Douglas's willingness to share the story—not just the telling of it, but the actual manuscript, written by the woman for whom he professes such profound (ahem) respect—for the delight of guests who are clearly not his confidants but are merely in the mood for a really gruesome ghost story. (Oh, wait, that's us.)

What is Douglas's motive in revealing the governess's story? If he (subconsciously?) wishes to score points for titillating his audience, what was the governess's motive in telling him, in that shaded corner of the garden when he was just a lad? Funny that he found her a most charming and agreeable person—that certainly doesn't come out in her manuscript. Just sayin'...

I see that someone has marked 'spoilers' which I don't know how to do and probably couldn't on my iPhone. I shall be as vague as possible accordingly.

I have never read Henry James and assumed, for no apparent reason, that I wouldn't like his work. True, this is the only book by him that I've read, but concerning this alone, how wrong I was! He kept my attention and tension at a high throughout the novella.

I really appreciated his subtlety in describing the whole scene. This achieved an eeriness that more explicit writing could not. All of the threads weren't carefully tied up, which I do tend to find annoying; it's the OCD tendency in me! I do, however, appreciate what he was attempting to achieve and in this he is successful. Maybe I won't be so quick to dismiss an author again ...

Hilary wrote: "I see that someone has marked 'spoilers' which I don't know how to do and probably couldn't on my iPhone..."

Marking spoilers is easy. If you hit reply at the bottom right of a comment, it will automatically insert the first few lines of the comment you are replying to into the comment box. Go ahead and do it so you can see what I mean. See: Those lines are bracketed with the letter "i" (for italic) between open/close angle brackets "<>". The first one turns on the italics; the second one, which also has a "/" before the "i" turns the italics off. Spoilers work the same way: just start the spoiler with "spoiler" between <> and end with "/spoiler" between "<>". All the text between the spoiler tags will disappear unless you click on the word "spoiler". That's basic html coding, and there are other fun things you can do. They are described in a little instruction box if you hit "(some html is ok)" at the upper right of the comment box.

Hilary wrote: "All of the threads weren't carefully tied up..."

Ah, but James was very careful about that kind of thing, so if he left something hanging out there, it wasn't accidental. The story continues to be creepy even after you think you've got it figured out, because some things just don't add up whichever conclusion you come to.

Thanks so much for the help, Longhare! I shall give it a try. I know that certain things don't work on my phone though, but thanks. I really appreciate it!

Oops it doesn't seem to work on my phone. I'll have to get my laptop back from my kids (big kids!). Just a query: if this is the only thread for this book, do we need a spoiler alert? I deliberately didn't attempt a comment until I'd finished the book. I'm not entirely au fait with all this new-fangled technology! [g]

I think at this point you don't need a spoiler alert.

Ok, great. Thanks Emily! :-}

Finished! Feel like I'm just...sliding in under the wire. Yep, *checking watch* it's still January.

Amazing. And it just ends. Bam.

Great, Katy! :-)

I'm so bummed month is up and I didn't get to this one hopefully I will do better next month I really enjoy this group.

Hi Jennifer, you could still read it. It's a novella so it's not long. Only if you have time, of course! :-)

Jennifer, please still read it! I have only barely cracked the book and I will comment when I'm done. Thanks everyone for continuing to discuss this and other books without the moderator. I really appreciate it!

well thanks to your encouragement and it being available online again from the library I got it read. I'm not sure what I thought of it, I guess I felt a little confused by it overall. Is this a good representation of his other writing? I don't believe I had ever read him.

Hi Jennifer, I actually enjoyed it, but I haven't read anything else by James with which to compare it.

Jennifer, The Turn of the Screw is NOT representative of James' writing. I think it is a horrible book, but I enjoyed The Bostonians and thought The Portrait of a Lady was okay.

Hi, Everyone-
I finally finished The Turn of the Screw yesterday. I didn't really like the story, but I did like the writing. I like Longhare's comments above. The ghosts seem like they are supposed to be real to me, not just in the governess' imagination. I think it's just Henry James doing his best to tell a creepy story. I am not that into ghost stories, so the story itself does not grab me. But I do like the author's descriptions of all the subtle unsaid things that pass among the characters. And I find I do like James' writing style overall, even though his sentence structure is often not at all straightforward.

Sorento62 wrote: "Hi, Everyone-
I finally finished The Turn of the Screw yesterday. I didn't really like the story, but I did like the writing. I like Longhare's comments above. The ghosts seem like they are suppose..."

I read this one a long time ago, so it was good to read it again.

I also love James' style and depiction of the subtle things the pass between characters.

I could never decide if the ghosts are real. I tend to think the governess thought they were real.

She certainly frightened the children, one to death.