The Turn of the Screw - Henry James

My Rating - 4.5/10

"...If the child gives the effect another turn of the screw, what do you say to two children  ?"

"We say, of course," somebody exclaimed, "that they give two turns!"

Well, do they? I found this particular story not to give even a single turn. The Turn of the Screw is supposed to be one of the best psychological horrors, but it defied my liking. To start with, the language is too convoluted. There are too many descriptive digressions that make one lose up on the theme. It is like having a prolonged intermission in a movie - you tend to lose track of what happened last!

The story is too ambiguous. Nothing is made clear. The narrator speaks continuously of the evil influence of two spirits on the two children, but never is it made clear what exactly that influence comprises of! Apart from the fact that the two spirits had amorous relationships in their lifetime, even though they had class differences between them (which makes no sense to the modern reader. Maybe you have to go back to the nineteenth century to get the full effect of this horror!!), and were particularly close to the two kids (again how that can be evil completely defies me!!), there seems to be no more evil than their mere presence! 

Are the children really evil? Are there really evil spirits haunting the house? Or is the narrator mad? Well, never is it made clear. Throughout the story she (the narrator) is very confident of her righteousness, However, she pretends two apparently angelic children are in reality just hiding their hideousness. Is that complete madness, paranoia or schizophrenic behavior? It is true that this ambiguity is the only intriguing factor in the whole story, but it is just too great to make any sense. I completely lost track of the story some five times and oh, the language! God help the reader!

And finally, the ending! Well, it really made no sense. It was too abrupt. A child died, that is pretty horrific. Only I have no clue what caused his death. Did the governess imagine the whole of the last conversation with Miles and finally suffocated him to death? Or did the child die of the evil that possessed him? 

I might have missed some point somewhere, but this classic horror did not impress me. It was a very difficult read to begin with, and it failed to give me any cold shivers. 

So not impressed by this one!