The Turn of the Screw

A little about the story

A young governess arrives at a country house to care for two apparently charming children, Miles and Flora. The position promises independence, but it also leaves her with considerable responsibility and little direct guidance from their absent guardian. When she begins to see unfamiliar figures around the estate, her concern for the children becomes entangled with troubling stories about the household’s past.

The account reaches the reader through a manuscript introduced at a gathering where ghost stories are being exchanged, placing another layer between experience and interpretation. As the governess tries to understand what she has witnessed, ordinary details acquire an increasingly urgent significance. Henry James keeps the pressure on what can be known, what can be inferred, and how confidently a narrator may speak for other people. The resulting novella offers both the atmosphere of a haunting and the more intimate unease of watching certainty grow where reliable evidence remains painfully elusive.

Things You May Not Know About The Turn of the Screw

• A story within a story. The governess’s manuscript is introduced through a fireside gathering, making its transmission part of the reader’s encounter with the events.
• Magazine publication first. The novella appeared in twelve weekly installments of Collier’s Weekly between January and April 1898 before its book publication.
• An original companion piece. Its first book appearance was in The Two Magics, paired with another long story by James, Covering End.
• An unnamed central voice. The governess narrates the main account without receiving a personal name, while Miles and Flora are identified from the outset.
• James revisited the text. The novella later appeared in the author-supervised New York Edition, alongside The Aspern Papers and two shorter tales.