Henry James

The Turn of the Screw Henry James

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 Miles. But Peter Quint is dead. To all immediate appearances, The Turn of the Screw is a ghost story. But are appearances what they seem? A subtle, self-conscious exploration of the haunted house of Victorian culture, filled with echoes of sexual and social unease, The Turn of the Screw is probably the most famous and eerily equivocal of all ghostly tales.