Henry James-The Turn of the Screw

Henry James-The Turn of the Screw

Back in the early 1980's when I first read The Turn of the Screw, I had heard that it was terrifying, but at that time, I did not find it particularly unusual or unsettling. At best, it was eerie. Last year, I saw a BBC version of it with Colin Firth and Jodhi May, and I found that version too to be unremarkable. The Turn of the Screw is about two children living on the large estate who are possessed by ghosts and their nanny's efforts to save them. Dracula, and Frankenstein have endured for generations. I don't think The Turn of the Screw has held up the same way. The themes of preying on the innocent are the same as Dracula, but The Turn of the Screw does not shock and terrify today's reader in the same timeless way. It  really did not move me.

I think part of the problem is that Hollywood has inundated me, and all of us, with so many ghost stories and hauntings that we are jaded and unimpressed with the original versions of these tales of the occult. For the Victorian sensibility, this tale was probably novel and terrifying. The occult for them was all the rage, and James certainly fed that frenzy.