The Turn of the Screw

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Penguin, 2001 - Fiction - 176 pages
Miles and Flora, two beautiful orphans, are left in the care of their new governess. The governess is haunted by visions of the past and becomes increasingly uneasy about the children's well-being. But are the ghosts really a threat or just the fantasies of a lonely woman? One of the most eerily atmospheric stories in the English language, The Turn of the Screwhas been the subject of films, plays and opera.

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About the author (2001)

Henry James was born on 15th April 1843 in Washington Place, New York to a wealthy and intellectual family and as a youth travelled between Europe and America and studied with tutors in Geneva, London, Paris, Bologna and Bonn. He briefly and unsuccessfully studied law at Harvard but decided he preferred reading and writing fiction to studying law. His first novel, Watch and Ward, was published in 1871 after first appearing serially in Atlantic Monthly. After a brief period in Paris, James moved first to London and then later to Rye in Sussex. He became a British citizen in 1915 to declare his loyalty to his adopted country as well as to protest against America's refusal to enter the war on behalf of Britain. Henry James was a prolific writer and critic and from around 1875 until his death he maintained a strenuous schedule of publications in a variety of genres- novels, short story collections, literary criticism, travel writing, biography and autobiography. He died in 1916

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