richardwiggins's review against another edition
4.0
In London people sometimes leave piles of old books outside their houses on the pavement, in case passers by want to take any of them. At least 18 months ago I found an battered copy of this book, which I have since glued and taped back together.
I’m not a reader, or at least I haven’t been until about 6 weeks ago, so tackling my first three pieces of late 19th century fiction was a tall order for me. It was a slow but pleasant experience. Some chapters whipped by, but others I had to study to take in the full meaning.
Stories one and three are linked by ghosts / apparitions. The Turn of the Screw is a genuinely scary story, though subtle in its scares. The language is formal and florid (remember I only have 20th / 21st fiction to compare this to) so you get a slow, creeping style of horror. There is never a sudden shock or revelation that you have not been prepared for. The Victorian context in which it was written is important because the scares often come when the character’s ridged ideas of “proper behaviour” and order are challenged. In that way, both this and The Third Person are radical pieces of fiction, deliberately challenging the readers idea of how society should run. Though, this third story is far, far funnier than the first and as a result was my favourite of the three. The ghost provides little menace, rather acts as a device through we can get to know two completely different distant cousins who find themselves living in an old relative’s house. You get a great odd couple dynamic, comparing their diverse reactions to the ghost.
Stories one and two are linked by troubled, precocious children with terrible parents who’s knowledge far outstrips those you’d typically see in “little charges”. The Turn of the Screw finds significant terror in slowly introducing the disobedient and manipulative elements of the children. I fully believed in the ghost throughout the book and that they had taken to instructing the children and leading them to destructive behaviours. The child in The Pupil couldn’t be more different. This sickly and brilliant 10-13 year old does everything he can to reveal to the protagonist that his parents are abusing and manipulating him. He is a tragic character the decency of whom far outstrips that of the family they have come from.
I would like to re-read these once Inam more confident with my reading and see what extra details I can pick up / further appreciation I can take from these stories. It’s definitely made me interested in dipping into some of the great gothic novels.
I’m not a reader, or at least I haven’t been until about 6 weeks ago, so tackling my first three pieces of late 19th century fiction was a tall order for me. It was a slow but pleasant experience. Some chapters whipped by, but others I had to study to take in the full meaning.
Stories one and three are linked by ghosts / apparitions. The Turn of the Screw is a genuinely scary story, though subtle in its scares. The language is formal and florid (remember I only have 20th / 21st fiction to compare this to) so you get a slow, creeping style of horror. There is never a sudden shock or revelation that you have not been prepared for. The Victorian context in which it was written is important because the scares often come when the character’s ridged ideas of “proper behaviour” and order are challenged. In that way, both this and The Third Person are radical pieces of fiction, deliberately challenging the readers idea of how society should run. Though, this third story is far, far funnier than the first and as a result was my favourite of the three. The ghost provides little menace, rather acts as a device through we can get to know two completely different distant cousins who find themselves living in an old relative’s house. You get a great odd couple dynamic, comparing their diverse reactions to the ghost.
Stories one and two are linked by troubled, precocious children with terrible parents who’s knowledge far outstrips those you’d typically see in “little charges”. The Turn of the Screw finds significant terror in slowly introducing the disobedient and manipulative elements of the children. I fully believed in the ghost throughout the book and that they had taken to instructing the children and leading them to destructive behaviours. The child in The Pupil couldn’t be more different. This sickly and brilliant 10-13 year old does everything he can to reveal to the protagonist that his parents are abusing and manipulating him. He is a tragic character the decency of whom far outstrips that of the family they have come from.
I would like to re-read these once Inam more confident with my reading and see what extra details I can pick up / further appreciation I can take from these stories. It’s definitely made me interested in dipping into some of the great gothic novels.
susannagb_'s review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
circularcubes's review against another edition
This book was absolutely awful. I came in, perhaps, with high expectations, having seen and enjoyed both The Innocents and The Others. I found it to be dreadfully written, with dialogue that made me want to fling the book against the wall. I had no idea what was going on half the time, and instead of being intrigued by the unstable narrator, I was completely confused as to what was going on. There were two other short stories in this version of the book, but I didn't even bother to give them a try.
mags_louise's review against another edition
4.0
4.5⭐
I've never read any Henry James stories before. But I've always been intrigued by his writing style and especially by The Turn of the Screw. And I have to say once you get used to the writing style it's a very fascinating and complex read. That gets you the reader thinking! And the other stories featured in this collection all explore the same themes in different yet very engaging ways and it's a very worthwhile read.
I've never read any Henry James stories before. But I've always been intrigued by his writing style and especially by The Turn of the Screw. And I have to say once you get used to the writing style it's a very fascinating and complex read. That gets you the reader thinking! And the other stories featured in this collection all explore the same themes in different yet very engaging ways and it's a very worthwhile read.
isabelldominica's review against another edition
2.0
read my complete review here: http://isabellsbooks.blogspot.de/
MY THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK
At first I found it very easy to both get into and read the story. The beginning of it was quite understandable and quickly to go through. The book created anticipation for what was to come next during its first pages because the storyteller emphasised the greatness and shockingness of the story that he was about to tell. He made the reader want to read this story.
The beginning reminded me a lot of "The Time Traveller" because it was similarily structured: some people meet with each other and tell each other stories and then the book proceeds to be that story that is told in that surrounding. And as in "The Time Traveller" I also found it a bit sad that the lightness of the dialogues from the beginning did not continue throughout the rest of the book but made way for the retelling, which was much more difficult to read and understand.
When the retelling started, it read itself much more complex for me and I often caught myself drifting away to other thoughts. It was very hard for me to concentrate on many parts of the books, wherefore I had to reread many passages a couple of times until I fully got the meaning of them.
The book consists of many very very very long and fragmented sentences that make it too easy to lose and drown oneself within them and never reach the end of them. This structure made it quite hard to focus on the book and because I had to concentrate so hard on it, I often got a headache from reading this story.
I found it quite interesting that the main story of the book had a female protagonist and a female side character as its two main characters. Foremost the protagonist, the governess, seemed very likeable to me.
I really enjoyed the dialogue scenes between the governess and the minor character Mrs Grose because that was always when I found the governess to be the most charming and likeable. She laughed quite a lot, which I liked, and she also seemed smart, especially in comparison to Mrs Grose. Mrs Grose seemed to function as a contrast to the governess in those dialogue scenes.
Unfortunately, there were far too few conversations in this story, wherefore it was really hard to follow the story most of the time and I had to force myself through most of it.
I didn't like the vagueness of the book. No questions were really answered, all was left up for interpretation. And as the reader I couldn't really make sense of anything because even when I tried to see some logic in the long sentences, there wasn't any and the story didn't actually intend for there to be any sense, which was quite frustrating. Even the characters themselves couldn't make any sense of anything and also seemed to not really want or try to.
It was too bad that the characters from the beginning never showed up again because I would have loved to know what they had thought of the story and what effect it had had on them. It felt wrong not to mention them again in the end.
CONCLUSION
It was incredibly hard to follow this story because of the very long and complex and extremely fragmented sentences. Everything was so confusing that it made my head hurt when I tried to make sense out of anything. The characters themselves seemed to have been kept in the dark because they always only spoke in riddles or repeated what they or someone else had just said. Therefore there was no moving action in this story but everything and everyone seemed to rotate on the exact same point all the time. This was also why I felt like the story was far too long although it was already a short story with only about 100 pages. The author could have happily left out quite a lot of unnecessary and confusing sentences. The confusing writing style also frustrated me because I always had to reread everything again and again and still didn't fully understand it. As a non-native English speaker this always made me question my English skills which I hated.
I am very relieved to have finished this book now and to be able to put it behind me.
What I found positive in this story were the likeability of the main character, the governess, and some of the dialogue scenes that were quite interesting and easier to read.
MY RATING
I award this book with 2 out of 5 stars.
MY THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK
At first I found it very easy to both get into and read the story. The beginning of it was quite understandable and quickly to go through. The book created anticipation for what was to come next during its first pages because the storyteller emphasised the greatness and shockingness of the story that he was about to tell. He made the reader want to read this story.
The beginning reminded me a lot of "The Time Traveller" because it was similarily structured: some people meet with each other and tell each other stories and then the book proceeds to be that story that is told in that surrounding. And as in "The Time Traveller" I also found it a bit sad that the lightness of the dialogues from the beginning did not continue throughout the rest of the book but made way for the retelling, which was much more difficult to read and understand.
When the retelling started, it read itself much more complex for me and I often caught myself drifting away to other thoughts. It was very hard for me to concentrate on many parts of the books, wherefore I had to reread many passages a couple of times until I fully got the meaning of them.
The book consists of many very very very long and fragmented sentences that make it too easy to lose and drown oneself within them and never reach the end of them. This structure made it quite hard to focus on the book and because I had to concentrate so hard on it, I often got a headache from reading this story.
I found it quite interesting that the main story of the book had a female protagonist and a female side character as its two main characters. Foremost the protagonist, the governess, seemed very likeable to me.
I really enjoyed the dialogue scenes between the governess and the minor character Mrs Grose because that was always when I found the governess to be the most charming and likeable. She laughed quite a lot, which I liked, and she also seemed smart, especially in comparison to Mrs Grose. Mrs Grose seemed to function as a contrast to the governess in those dialogue scenes.
Unfortunately, there were far too few conversations in this story, wherefore it was really hard to follow the story most of the time and I had to force myself through most of it.
I didn't like the vagueness of the book. No questions were really answered, all was left up for interpretation. And as the reader I couldn't really make sense of anything because even when I tried to see some logic in the long sentences, there wasn't any and the story didn't actually intend for there to be any sense, which was quite frustrating. Even the characters themselves couldn't make any sense of anything and also seemed to not really want or try to.
It was too bad that the characters from the beginning never showed up again because I would have loved to know what they had thought of the story and what effect it had had on them. It felt wrong not to mention them again in the end.
CONCLUSION
It was incredibly hard to follow this story because of the very long and complex and extremely fragmented sentences. Everything was so confusing that it made my head hurt when I tried to make sense out of anything. The characters themselves seemed to have been kept in the dark because they always only spoke in riddles or repeated what they or someone else had just said. Therefore there was no moving action in this story but everything and everyone seemed to rotate on the exact same point all the time. This was also why I felt like the story was far too long although it was already a short story with only about 100 pages. The author could have happily left out quite a lot of unnecessary and confusing sentences. The confusing writing style also frustrated me because I always had to reread everything again and again and still didn't fully understand it. As a non-native English speaker this always made me question my English skills which I hated.
I am very relieved to have finished this book now and to be able to put it behind me.
What I found positive in this story were the likeability of the main character, the governess, and some of the dialogue scenes that were quite interesting and easier to read.
MY RATING
I award this book with 2 out of 5 stars.
rosepoldark's review against another edition
3.5
I did really like it, the ending confused and dissapointed me a little...
frankensteinscreature's review against another edition
dark
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
pearlperson's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
Glad I read these stories even though I didn’t enjoy reading them.