The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels

Author Henry James

Introduction by Fred Kaplan

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The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels

By turns chilling, funny, tragic, and profound, this collection of six Henry James short novels allows readers to experience the full range of his skills and vision.

The title story, “The Turn of the Screw,” is a chilling masterpiece of psychological terror that mixes the phantoms of the mind with those of the supernatural.

“Daisy Miller,” the tale of a provincial American girl in Rome that established James’s literary reputation, and “An International Episode” are superb examples of his focus on the clash between American and European values.

And in “The Aspern Papers,” “The Alter of the Dead,” and “The Beast in the Jungle,” the author’s remarkable sense of irony, his love of plot twists, and his view of male-female relationships…

Henry James was born on April 15, 1843, on Washington Place in New York to the most intellectually remarkable of American families. His father, Henry James Sr., was a brilliant and eccentric religious philosopher; his brother was one of the first great American psychologists and the author of the influential Pragmatism; his sister, Alice, though an invalid for most of her life, was a talented conversationalist, a lively letter writer, and a witty observer of the art and politics of her time. In search of the proper education for his children, Henry senior sent them to schools in America, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Returning to America, Henry junior lived in Newport, briefly attended Harvard Law School, and in 1864 began contributing…