the mark of a good writer

is the ability to hold your attention after you've turned the last page ( or heard the end of the audio book as in the case).

I was never very interested in Henry James, but "The Turn of the Screw" on Craftlit has fascinated me. Was it a ghost story or was it a study of psychological breakdown? Was the governess the villain? Or were the children corrupted by Quint & Miss Jessel?

The novella has gripped astounded critics for decades and perhaps no-one will really resolve the mystery but it is a mark of James as a writer that he can hold your attention in such ambiguity. We have other books by him on our shelves at home, and I had tried to read them before now but given up, but I shall go back to them with renewed interest, and also track down the audio versions.

Perhaps part of the appeal of "Screw" was the reader Nikolle Doolin who read so beautifully and managed to convey the flow of the conversations between the governess , Mrs Grose and the children. A good reader can add so much. Heather Ordover does a good job with her literary analysis, making us think, but not directing our thoughts. She must have been a great High School teacher!

It seems that James got the original idea from Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, and it seems that his intent was a ghost story and the governess only manages to save one child. But as I listened I felt that she was the one who was unhinged, who at turns bullied and then capitulated to the children, and then possibly suffocates Miles at the end. Probably unintentionally, but in a fit of fevered excitement.

I hear echoes of someone with mental health problems here. At one point she likens herself listening to Miles as Saul being soothed by David, Saul of course was paranoid and jealous of David, and tried to kill him, and David was innocent and never tried to take advantage of any chances to kill Saul. She describes the nervousness between them as being like that of a young couple on the honeymoon journey, feeling shy in front of the waiter. Her feelings towards the boy are very odd, and I think he fears her.

It is never resolved as to why Miles was expelled from school: Mrs Grose thinks perhaps he stole things, but he says he said some things to his friends who then passed them on. If he knew of the relationship between Quint & Jessel he may have told his friends about sex, without necessarily having being abused himself.

Critics have supported James by saying she describes Quint exactly to Mrs Grose, but is that not how fake fortune-tellers work by saying things and waiting for a response on the listeners face?

Interestingly, another listener, spiderknit hears echoes of abused corrupted children in the work because of her family's experience of helping kids like that.

Maybe there was a ghost. Or even two ghosts.

So, high praise for Henry James from this blogger.

And I wonder, what on earth would he make of this ( the internet) as a medium?