THE TURN OF THE SCREW

The Turn of the Screw is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James which first appeared in serial format in Colliers Weekly (January 27 – April 16 1898). In October 1898 it was collected in The Two Magics published by Macmillan in New York City and Heinemann in London. The novella follows a governess who caring for two children at a remote estate becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted. The Turn of the Screw is considered a work of both Gothic and horror fiction. In the century following its publication critical analysis of the novella has undergone several major transformations. Initial reviews regarded it only as a frightening ghost story but in the 1930s some critics suggested that the supernatural elements were figments of the governess imagination. In the early 1970s the influence of structuralism resulted in an acknowledgement that the texts ambiguity was its key feature. Later approaches incorporated Marxist and feminist thinking. The novella has been adapted numerous times including a Broadway play (1950) a chamber opera (1954) two films (in 1961 and 2020) and a miniseries (2020).