Overly highbrow ghost story
The Turn of the Screw, a novella by American-turned-British author Henry James, was originally published in serial form in 1898 issues of Collier’s Weekly magazine. I’m not sure why it is generally considered a novella, since it is certainly long enough to qualify as a novel. Perhaps amid the oeuvre of Henry James this is a short work, but it is definitely quite longer than it needs to be. Despite being a highly revered example of a Victorian ghost story, The Turn of the Screw proves itself neither horrifying nor entertaining, just rather tedious.
The novella begins with an unnecessary introduction. A group of friends are gathered around a fire exchanging stories. One of them happens to have an extensive manuscript given to him by a former acquaintance, a fictional memoir that makes up the rest of the book. The author of this manuscript, at the time her narrative opens, is a young woman looking for employment as a governess. She receives a peculiar offer from a Londoner to reside at his country estate, called Bly, and educate his niece and nephew, of whose guardianship he has assumed following his brother’s death. The gentleman makes it clear that he rarely if ever visits Bly himself, and he wants the governess to simply handle matters out there without ever bothering him under any circumstances. After having accepted the position, she arrives at Bly and meets her young charges, a girl of eight named Flora and a boy of ten named Miles. Although Miles has been expelled from boarding school for reasons unknown, the two children exhibit unusually angelic behavior—so angelic, in fact, that the governess suspects they may be hiding something.
Since it is common knowledge that this is a ghost story, what they may be hiding should come as no surprise. While the behavior of the children is a little creepy, and the paranormal happenings at Bly are uncanny, neither is by any means frightening. In fact, when apparitions of the dead begin to reveal themselves, the governess and her coworker, the housekeeper Mrs. Grose, respond to such terrifying occurrences with remarkably blasé attitudes. They barely feel threatened enough to alter their daily routines. At one point Flora goes missing, and Mrs. Grose is more upset that the little girl went out without her hat than by the fact that a child is missing in an isolated country estate inhabited by spirits of the deceased. In addition to ghosts, another shocking Victorian horror yields its ugly head: a woman who may have fornicated with a man beneath her station. Egads!
Though the title may call to mind a torturous Edgar Allan Poe tale, it’s really just an irrelevant figure of speech that’s uttered twice during the narrative. Unlike Poe (or any number of horror writers of this era—Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert W. Chambers, Robert Louis Stevenson, William Hope Hodgson, H. G. Wells, and so on), James doesn’t realize that horror fiction should be both sufficiently macabre and at least a little fun. Instead, he takes a more Joseph Conrad approach by drowning his tale in pretentious verbiage until all the amusement is smothered out of it.
The introductory fireside scene is not bookended with a conclusion. The story of the governess ends abruptly and quite inconclusively, with many important questions left unanswered. The tepid anticlimax leaves the reader with the feeling that one’s time has been wasted. Given James’s literary reputation, he may very well be one of the English language’s master practitioners of the literary arts, but that doesn’t mean he can write a good ghost story. The Turn of the Screw is a dull and overrated work.
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Four out of five fail to impress
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| F.D. Millet |
This is the fifth book in the ten-volume Stories by American Authors series published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1884. It opens with a selection by Henry James, who is easily the most famous author included in the series. Somehow I’ve managed to get this far in life without reading any Henry James, so I don’t have any basis for comparison, but based on his reputation alone I’m guessing his story “A Light Man” is not one of his better works. The narrator of the piece reunites with a former classmate who is serving as a secretary to an aged man of wealth. After moving in with the rich geezer, both old friends begin to compete for his affection and imminent bequest. There are some opportunities for suspense here, but James mostly squanders them in favor of pretentious verbosity. The result is too much description and not enough plot.
The second entry fares much better. In “Yatil” by F.D. Millet, an artist makes the acquaintance of a circus performer whose nickname serves as the story’s title. Their paths coincidentally cross in Turin, Paris, and New York. While the artist/narrator leads a relatively secure and comfortable existence, the performer lives a pathetic life of hardship. Nevertheless, his optimistic perseverance is quite touching. There’s some unnecessary digression into Yatil’s personal superstitions, but as a whole you really feel for the guy and become personally invested in his struggles.
“The End of New York” by Park Benjamin could best be described as a “What if?” story. Written in 1881, it foreshadows the Spanish-American War of 1898. A diplomatic incident ignites conflict between Spain and the U.S. which leads to a Spanish naval attack on American shores. New York City is bombarded by the heavy guns of the Spaniards, while the outclassed American military is powerless to stop it. Benjamin, a former Navy man, intended this story to serve as a warning of the inadequacy of the U.S. fleet. The story is an interesting historical artifact of its time, but Benjamin’s preoccupation with the details of armaments and munitions deadens the plot. This novella-length work is by far the longest piece in this collection, and it feels totally out of place in a literary anthology.
Usually the weakest links in these collections are the humorous stories, and this volume is no exception. Nineteenth-century humor just hasn’t held up well over the years. George Arnold’s “Why Thomas Was Discharged” is a formulaic romantic romp in which two foppish idlers attempt to woo a pair of beauties at a beachside resort. It’s pleasant enough, but too long and drawn out for such frivolous subject matter. In “The Tachypomp: A Mathematical Demonstration” by E.P. Mitchell, an underachieving student tries to win the hand of his mathematics professor’s daughter. In order to do so, his prospective father-in-law requires him to solve a seemingly impossible math problem. There’s some fun bits along the way, but Mitchell tries too hard to be clever and ultimately the story gets bogged down in mathematical jargon.
This fifth installment of Stories by American Authors is indicative of the series as whole so far, which consistently fails to impress—except for Volume III, which was pretty good. This overview of late nineteenth-century American fiction is particularly disappointing when you compare it to Scribner’s 1898 series Stories by Foreign Authors, which is far better overall. I’m only halfway through the American series, however, so it still has five volumes left to prove to me it hasn’t been a waste of time. Hopefully, it will redeem itself in its latter half.
Stories in this collection
A Light Man by Henry James
Yatil by F.D. Millet
The End of New York by Park Benjamin
Why Thomas Was Discharged by George Arnold
The Tachypomp by E.P. Mitchell
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