Book Twenty-Seven: The Turn of the Screw

Short one today, because I don't have a lot to say about this book. It's so popular I expected a lot more from it, but frankly I was totally underwhelmed. Perhaps a twenty-first century reader who has access to CGI, movies, and the internet as a source of ghost stories can't really appreciate the subtitles of a good old fashioned novel, but I don't think that's the case here. I've read stories that have truly scared me (see House of Leaves) but this sure as hell isn't one of them.

The story is simple: A governess is hired to care for two children at a gloomy old country estate by the children's uncle, who resides in London. The children, Flora and Miles, appear to be perfect angels and everyone gets along famously, but the governess is troubled by a letter from Mile's school which expels him without explanation. Since the boy is so perfect, the governess can't see any reason why this would be, and starts having long, semi-hysterical trains of thought about this disquieting fact. Then she starts to see two ghostly figures appearing around the grounds - those of Quint and Mrs. Jessel, two of the former caretakers for the children who are now dead. Both appear to the governess to be quite evil, and have taken the children under their spell, though neither will admit it. Then comes a very tense battle of wills between the children and the governess, both of who are aware of the ghosts and both of whom are determined to pretend like nothing is happening.

This 1001 book madness has done a lot to alleviate the hatred of "old books" I had, and so far I've read some pretty great books from around this time period. Unfortunately, this book brought that all right back. Almost nothing happens, and the most dramatic and evocative parts of the novel are masked by weird, lengthy, overly explained narratives by the governess. The language in this book was so fussy it was almost foreign, and it took me a much longer time to read than it should have because I though it was so weird - not just old fashioned, but constructed strangely. A few sentences of strange description would happen, and then some action that would be completely skipped over, and then more sentences of the governess completely losing her head about some innocent remark Miles had said and inwardly obsessing over it for twenty pages. The creepy children motif has a lot of potential, and that's the most eerie part of the book, but it never becomes scary. I'm not ashamed to admit that probably the only TV show I watch is Supernatural, and even though they've done the creepy/evil child thing to death, it's still scarier than this book. Oh, well. I think this one's a pass for me.


In summary: Not scared, not entertained, and definitely not satisfied.