Seize Your Copy Giro Di Vite Written By Henry James Released As Publication

"It was as if, while I took inwhat I did take inall the rest of the scene had been stricken with death.
I can hear again, as I write, the intense hush in which the sounds of evening dropped, The rooks stopped cawing in the golden sky, and the friendly hour lost, for the minute, all its voice, But there was no other change in nature, unless indeed it were a change that I saw with a stranger sharpness.
"

Oh, I was not scared maybe just a little the last two days reading the sitelinkThe Turn of the Screw, but I was intrigued, and, I have to confess, confused by sitelinkHenry James beautiful but mazelike prose.
How he likes to dissimulate, and you can trust him to phrase his ideas and situations in a most imaginative way.
He plays with the reader, So dont go looking for clarity, if you do that as I may have done, or tried to until I realized it was in vain! you will be lost.
But if you insist on clarity, just try to decide whether the governess really did see the ghosts or if it was all a figment of her overexerted imagination.
In any case, this is one of the finest examples of a story where the style of writing itself suggests ideas to the reader without stating anything in concrete terms.
And that is why I enjoyed this elusive and ambiguous guessing game and how I suffered to get to this point!.


The narrative revolves on itself continuously via halfformed questions and elusive answers, But suddenly James presents us a real masterful writing, and despite its constant ambiguity, makes us go on:

"It was as if, while I took in all the rest of the scene had been stricken with death.
I can hear again, as I write, the intense hush in which the sounds of evening dropped, The rooks stopped cawing in the golden sky, and the friendly hour lost, for the minute, all its voice, But there was no other change in nature, unless indeed it were a change that I saw with a stranger sharpness.
The gold was still in the sky, the clearness in the air, and who looked at me over the battlements was as definite as a picture in a frame.
That was how I thought, with extraordinary quickness, of each person that he might have been and that he was not.
"

Simply brilliant, how could I not go on despite my confusion Nevertheless, there are so many things left unsaid, so may halfsentences, as we see in one of the dialogues between the governess and Mrs.
Grouse:

“Then you do know what she died of” I asked,
“NoI know nothing. I wanted not to know I was glad enough I didnt and I thanked heaven she was well out of this!”
“Yet you had, then, your idea”
“Of her real reason for leaving Oh, yesas to that.
She couldnt have stayed. Fancy it herefor a governess! And afterward I imaginedand I still imagine, And what I imagine is dreadful, ”

It is extraordinary, and unsettling I have to repeat, not to know what the truth is, For I discovered soon that there was no truth, so I had to go looking for my own if I could find it! James deceives the reader into believing The Turn of the Screw is a Gothic novel, but its meaning and subtleties, content and context leaps at the reader, especially the sophisticated reader who doesnt believe in a simple vision.


Where the ghosts real
For me this was never true, it is a simplistic explanation, and we can read so much more in Jamess prose.


If there were no ghosts, was then the governess insane
The poor governess that fell in love in just one meeting with the master, that continually rambles about what is happening, or what she imagines is going on around her.
She was living in a strange mans house, she could not mix with the lower servants, and besides her charges, the only person she can talk with is the housekeeper who has nothing to tell her.
She was totally alone and troubled, You could say she was suffering from female sexual hysteria, However, Ill not get into this discussion, Better to read what James says:

"Oh, yes, we may sit here and look at them, and they may show off to us there to their fill but even while they pretend to be lost in their fairytale theyre steeped in their vision of the dead restored.
Hes not reading to her,” I declared “theyre talking of THEM theyre talking horrors! I go on, I know, as if I were crazy and its a wonder Im not.
"

Is that true, or is she deluding herself

The governess seemed to adore the children, ”The attraction of my small charges was a constant joy”, although other times her own feelings are not so peaceful:

"Adorable they must in truth have been, I now reflect, that I didnt in these days hate them! Would exasperation, however, if relief had longer been postponed, finally have betrayed me It little matters, for relief arrived.
I call it relief, though it was only the relief that a snap brings to a strain or the burst of a thunderstorm to a day of suffocation.
It was at least change, and it came with a rush, "

Is there some kind of sexual relationship between the governess and Miles
That there is an a sense of sexuality in the air in The Turn of the Screw, of that I have no doubt.
If could be a latent desire, But there seems to be a possibility, He was not a small child, "Turned out for Sunday by his uncles tailor, Miless whole title to independence, the rights of his sex and situation, were so stamped upon him that if he had suddenly struck for freedom.
” There is more, as James reminds us:

"I went in with my light and found him, in bed, very wide awake at his ease.
“Well, what are YOU up to” he asked with a grace of sociability in which it occurred to me that Mrs.
Grouse, had she been present, might have looked in vain for proof that anything was out,
I stood over him with my candle, “How did you know I was there”
“Why, of course, I heard you, Did you fancy you made no noise Youre like a troop of cavalry!” he beautifully laughed,
“Then you werent asleep”
“Not much! I lie awake and think, ”
I had put my candle, designedly, a short way off, and then, as he held his friendly old hand to me, had sat down on the edge of his bed.
“What is it,” I asked, “that you think of”
“What in the world, my dear, but YOU”

But later on we discover how she is troubled with Miles:

“Dear little Miles, dear little Miles, if you knew how I want to help you! Its only that, its nothing but that, and Id rather die than give you pain or do you wrongId rather die than hurt a hair of you.
Dear little Miles” oh, I brought it out even if I should go too far, ”

The story seems indeed to turn around an axis of elusive sexuality, What did Quint and Miss Jessel do with, or to the children when they were in charge Does this have any link with the relationship between the governess and Miles There are allusions, but James leaves all open for the reader to decide.


Lets not argue if one way or another, for all these interpretations, can be justified, There is no absolute truth, And thats the beauty. As a matter of fact, I changed my point of view a few times during my reading, First, of course, I trusted the governess, then I thought she was unreliable and possibly mad, and then I was stricken by a possibility of a relationship with Miles.
If there was danger in Bly, why did she not send Miles away with Mrs, Grouse and Flora Why did she keep him alone with her in the house So we readers are very nicely lead in a merry chase as we try to understand what James wanted to communicate.
Probably that was just what he wanted, not a complete and easy understanding,

Perhaps when all is said and done the moral of the story of The Turn of the Screw is for each of us to decide.
Ultimately, it is the play with meaning, the constant questioning regarding what is happening, the overall ambiguity and freedom of interpretation that transforms the readers into participants, that makes this novella brilliant.


In the end, truth is forgotten, and logic seemed to have evaporated only the persistent and obsessive turn of the screw remains to remind us that all is not as it seems.
Feelings that continues

with me long after the final sentence,

I dedicate this review to my dear friend Vessey, with whom I read this book, Her fantastic reviews helped me when I first started writing mine!

Νομίζω πως υπάρχουν δύο τρόποι να ερμηνεύσει κανείς αυτό το βιβλίο, Είτε σαν ένα απλό γοτθικό μυθιστόρημα με φαντάσματα και περίεργες μεταφυσικές δραστηριότητες, οπότε μάλλον θα βαρεθεί και θα απογοητευτεί, είτε σαν μια αφήγηση του κλιμακούμενου κλονισμού της εύθραυστης και ευαίσθητης ανθρώπινης ψυχοσύνθεσης, που ισορροπεί ακραία ανάμεσα στο πραγματικό και στην ψευδαίσθηση, οπότε θα το λατρέψει.
Η αμφίσημη αφήγηση και οι διφορούμενοι διάλογοι άλλωστε, καθιστούν πιθανές και τις δύο εκδοχές. Ο συγγραφέας μέσα από το κλίμα της αμφισβήτησης και του απροσδιόριστου δεν περιορίζει τις οδούς επέκτασης του έργου του και επιτρέπει σε κάθε εκδοχή να ευσταθεί.

Αγγλική εξοχή της βικτωριανής εποχής, ειδυλλιακά τοπία, υπέροχη έπαυλη με τεράστιο κήπο, λίμνες, δέντρα, ευρύχωρα σκονισμένα δωμάτια, μια χούφτα υπηρετικό προσωπικό και απόλυτη απομόνωση. Μια νεαρή γκουβερνάντα έρχεται να φροντίσει δύο ορφανά παιδία ένα αγόριετών και ένα κορίτσιετών, που είναι υπό την κηδεμονία του θείου τους, ο οποίος όμως δε θέλει να έχει καμία σχέση μαζί τους. Όλα καλά μέχρι τη στιγμή που η γκουβερνάντα αρχίζει να βλέπει τα φαντάσματα δύο νεκρών υπηρετών και έχει την ακλόνητη πεποίθηση πως θέλουν να βλάψουν τα παιδιά και να τα διαφθείρουν. Άλλοτε τρομοκρατημένη και έτοιμη να το βάλει στα πόδια και άλλοτε θαρραλέα ξεκινάει ένα σκοτεινό, ατμοσφαιρικό κυνηγητό φαντασμάτων ή μήπως όχι

Ο λόγος είναι πυκνός και χειμαρρώδης, έτσι που να ταιριάζει απόλυτα με τα παιχνίδια που μπορεί να παίξει το μυαλό, τον τρόπο που μπορεί να χάνεται σε δαιδαλώδη μονοπάτια χωρίς διαφυγή, να φαντάζεται, να δημιουργεί, να αμφισβητεί και να απορρίπτει. Να γίνεται ουσιαστικά εχθρός του ίδιου του του εαυτού.

Σιωπές που μοιάζουν να εκτείνονται στο άπειρο, η αίσθηση μιας παρουσίας στο δωμάτιο την οποία αποφεύγεις να κοιτάξεις στην προσπάθειά σου να αρνηθείς την ύπαρξή της, το ξαφνικό σβήσιμο ενός κεριού που βυθίζει το δωμάτιο στο έρεβος, το παρατεταμένο άγγιγμα των χεριών δύο απροστάτευτων ανθρώπων, ο γδούπος που κάνει ένα παράθυρο όταν κλείνει και το ξαφνικό απόμακρο γέλιο ενός παιδιού στη σκάλα. Γνήσιος τρόμος.

Όλα αυτά δηλώνουν άρρητα πως αυτό που υπονοήθηκε, αυτό που δεν ειπώθηκε και δεν ειδώθηκε, αυτό που το αισθάνεσαι απλά και αποστρέφεις το βλέμμα σου για να το αποφύγεις, μοιάζει να στοιχειώνει περισσότερο από το έκδηλο και το προκλητικό.

Εγώ το διάβασα από εκδόσεις Άγρα σε μετάφραση του Κοσμά Πολίτη. Εννοείται βράδυ με κλειστά τα φώτα και κομμένη την ανάσα. Και το λάτρεψα για τον αυθεντικό μη επιτηδευμένο τρόμο και τις ψυχολογικές προεκτάσεις του. Και έγινε ένα από τα αγαπημένα μου βιβλία, από αυτές τις κλασσικές αγάπες στις οποίες επιστρέφεις κάθε τόσο σε μια προσπάθεια να ξανανιώσεις όπως την πρώτη φορά Turn of the Screw is a pretty cool story, It's about a governess who either heroically attempts to protect her two charges from malevolent ghosts or goes dangerously bonkers.
James leaves it ambiguous and I love that kind of story, Ambiguity works for me. Four for the plot, Kindof an abrupt ending though,

On the other hand there's his writing style, I was at this party once and the topic was what would you do if the world was ending and the answer was generally that we would have all the sex.
James writes like the world is ending and he's decided to have all the punctuation, Check this entirely typical sentence out:

I waited, but nothing came then, in the first place and there is something more dire in this, I feel, than in anything I have to relate I was determined by a sense that, within a minute, all sounds from her had previously dropped and, in the second, by the circumstance that, also within the minute, she had, in her play, turned her back to the water.

I don't even know what that sentence means, I haven't seen punctuation wasted like that since sitelinkFanny Hill, James has used so much punctuation that there was nothing but periods left to use in this review,

Fuck you Henry James,

.

Bienvenue sur Open Library | Open Library Seize Your Copy Giro Di Vite Written By Henry James Released As Publication