Henry James, Melville and Twain

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 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 too to be unremarkable. It is about two children living on the large estate who are possessed by ghosts and their nanny's efforts to save them. 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. Dracula, I don't think The Turn of the Screw has held up over the years. The themes of preying on the innocent are the same as in 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.

The occult for them was all the rage, and James certainly fed that frenzy.













Life on the Mississippi-Mark Twain

Sometimes a writer becomes so a part of our culture and everyday existance that it is hard to step back and effectively evaluate his or her writing. Samuel Clemens is the quintessential example of this phenomenon. I would not attempt to review Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn because I cannot step back and give an objective opinion. I read these novels so many years ago that all I can say is that I like them.
Life on the Mississippi is another matter. Recently when I was researching my next novel, I decided to read this work. I was able to see with fresh eyes why Twain is considered our finest American author. Although he writes in a folksy Southern voice, as if he is just "one of the boys" working on the riverboat, he is indeed no yokel chronicling his adventures on the great river. This is not really a novel; it is more of a memoir.

Clemens brings to life the stories and the characters from his youth when he was an intern pilot on a Mississippi steamboat in the mid 19th Century. Some of the people we meet are seedy, some dangerous but every one of them was humorous. Probably the funniest character of all was Twain himself. He poked fun at himself throughout the book and his mishaps trying to learn the complicated and ever changing navigation of the mighty river.
Life on the Mississippi gives the reader an intimate look at life along the river and how it changes over the years from a great commercial trade route to a river for pleasure boating with the coming of the rails.
Life on the Mississippi is very different from the adventures of Tom and Huck but this book gives you great insight into the great American author and humorist, Mark Twain.