The Turn of the Screw:

Some poor fellow was dreadfully mistreated by his governess. Her deviousness was so great that, as an adult, he fails to comprehend the ordeal he went through. Now, he presents the story that she initially used to stop him from seeking assistance from a responsible adult as a ghost story! At parties! It's truly awkward and extremely unpleasant. It's a bit like someone stating, "There was a ghost in my wardrobe when I was a child! It would have killed me if I'd ever told anyone about Dad raping me."

The Aspern Papers:

This one is much more enjoyable. There are crazy old hags, the beautiful city of Venice, and the love letters of a deceased writer. The narrator braces himself to do whatever it takes to get his hands on the treasures. However, when the elderly spinster looks at the flies on his jeans, it turns out that he would do anything for love (but he won't do that).

I read somewhere that the Internet has so warped/conditioned our brain to so-called "multi-tasking" that the brain is no longer able to engage in deep reading without the utmost difficulty.

This was precisely the experience I had when reading Henry James for the very first time.

The Aspern Papers and The Turn of the Screw boasted intriguing enough plots and characters. However, it was just immensely challenging, for some reason, to make it through the text.

It wasn't solely about the length of the sentences - which, to be honest, were not the longest I'd ever come across - but rather the complexity of their structure.

I had managed to breeze through Dickens with relative ease, but I found myself having to read and re-read James' sentences a couple of times to fully grasp their meaning and nuancing.

I still can't quite decide about The Turn of the Screw. Is the governess hysterical and hallucinating, or is she truly attempting to save the children's souls from the evils that haunt Bly?

A friend of mine opined that coming to a conclusion on this was beside the point; the whole essence of the story lay in the ambiguity lent by an unreliable narrator.

But isn't half the fun in drawing one's own conclusions about these little mysteries?

The Turn Of The Screw is indeed a challenging book to peruse. The writing style is highly ornate and flowery, making it arduous to traverse each sentence. As a result, I had to switch to the audiobook in the middle, which provided a more effortless experience.

Once I got accustomed to the prose, I could direct my attention to the unreliable narrator. It is left to the reader to determine the truth. Is the governess truly sane and besieged by these supernatural hauntings? Or is there something far more malevolent at play? I relish a story that torments the reader with having to make such a crucial decision based on their own interaction with the characters. Therefore, I did thoroughly enjoy this aspect of the story.

Nevertheless, the main issue I have with classic ghost stories is that I always anticipate them to be terrifying, and this is rarely the case. I adored The Woman In Black because the poignant exploration of grief evoked strong emotions in me, and I relished The Haunting Of Hill House due to the lingering eerie ambiance in the house and the thought-provoking discussions regarding mental health.

Although The Turn Of The Screw also compels you to address whether the governess is mentally stable or not, it did not have the same impact on me this time. Consequently, I was once again disappointed with The Turn of the Screw as it failed to scare me. It is undoubtedly a bit creepy, but it lacked anything else to truly draw me into the story. I have witnessed various film adaptations and absolutely love The Haunting Of Bly Manor, which expands on this story in a brilliant manner. Perhaps I was simply expecting more because of this.

Of course, it is owing to Henry James’ original work that these remarkable adaptations have been created. So, I do appreciate this book, and it is yet another classic that I will reread in the future, hoping to extract more from it on a second reading.

Henry James is a renowned author, and two of his well-known works are The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers.

The Turn of the Screw is a Victorian gothic horror story with added flair and nuance. On the other hand, The Aspern Papers has a captivating summary: A literary critic and editor discovers that an old woman in Venice possesses papers written by his idol, a beloved writer. He uses his guile to infiltrate her house as a guest and attempts to acquire the papers through unscrupulous means.

Having only read The Turn of the Screw years ago, I had a faint memory of Henry James. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that The Aspern Papers was actually very good. The characters are vivid and engaging, and the descriptions of old Venice are beautiful. The story is highly enjoyable, not overly long, and leads to a conclusion that, although slightly disconnected from the rest of the events, is fitting and even shocking.

The ending of The Aspern Papers, where the niece of the old woman burns the papers the critic desires after a misunderstanding regarding marriage, is striking and appropriate. It concludes a character who I found interesting and unique. James writes character and description like Nabokov, which is a strength as it brings out the power and depth of the characters. However, his dialogue in both this and The Turn of the Screw is rather poor.

James seems to be a writer balanced between the formality of the Victorians and the psychological depth of the Modernists. This gives him both strengths and weaknesses, with dialogue being one of the latter. Discussions often consist of half-sentences that are questioned by another character and then clarified in the next sentence, making it feel like each sentence takes three to say. This is a shame but doesn't spoil the atmosphere James builds.

Overall, The Aspern Papers is an excellent tale, gripping and well-written. The same cannot be said for The Turn of the Screw. It verified my thoughts from university that it is a traditional gothic horror tale with a governess, her two wards, and a haunted manor. While the psychological element and interesting characters make it slightly more interesting, the dialogue and bizarre ending make it significantly worse.

The governess in The Turn of the Screw is a unique and interesting character, sympathetic yet clearly over-imaginative to the point of delusion. The dialogue is still stilted, perhaps even more so than in The Aspern Papers.

The ending of The Turn of the Screw is odd. The older child, having been forgiven for stealing a letter and suddenly told there is a villain in the room, has a heart attack and dies. The story ends abruptly on this sentence, leaving many questions unanswered. Did the governess' imagination cause his death? Was he frightened to death by the thought of villains? Is it a morality tale about the consequences of believing in ghosts? The lack of exploration of these events and the governess' actions and beliefs throughout the novel is disappointing.

I may read more Henry James, but I get the sense that he was a good writer born thirty years too early, limited by the strict, formal Victorian style of his era and deprived of the creative depths and imagination of later writers.

Please provide the article that needs to be rewritten and expanded so that I can help you.

I've really only finished "Turn of the Screw," which I quite liked.

It was a captivating read that kept me on the edge of my seat. The story was filled with mystery and suspense, and I found myself constantly guessing what was going to happen next.

Now, I'll get to "The Aspern Papers." I'm looking forward to delving into this new work and seeing how it compares to "Turn of the Screw."

Once I've completed "The Aspern Papers," I'll come back and post about this book as a whole. I'm excited to share my thoughts and opinions on both novels and explore the themes and ideas that Henry James presents in his works.

I think it will be a great opportunity to engage in a discussion with others who have also read these books and gain a deeper understanding of James' writing style and literary contributions.

Aspoo papers.

These papers hold a certain significance and value. They might be used for various purposes, perhaps for writing important documents, jotting down ideas, or creating artistic works.

Unturn the screw I beg. This phrase seems to imply a sense of urgency or a plea to take a particular action. Maybe it means to tighten or adjust something, to make a change that is necessary for a better outcome.

Perhaps there is a connection between the Aspoo papers and the need to untwist the screw. Maybe the papers require some sort of manipulation or improvement, and the act of untwisting the screw is a metaphor for making that happen.

It could also suggest that there is a problem or obstacle that needs to be overcome, and by untwisting the screw, we can find a solution or make progress.

Overall, the combination of these two elements, Aspoo papers and untwisting the screw, creates an interesting and thought-provoking image that makes us wonder about their deeper meaning and significance.

Ok, I didn't actually read The Aspern Papers, just The Turn of the Screw. It was recommended by a member of our book club. At first, I found it really difficult to read. I often had to read a sentence twice to understand it clearly. I'm not sure what the problem was. It was written in English, but the sentence structure, which was probably correct, was in some parts almost impossible to understand.

The story itself is also very confusing. I actually had to search for it on Google afterwards to try to make sense of the plot. Unfortunately, the articles and discussions about it on the internet are almost as confusing as the story itself.

If you haven't read it, the story starts with a house party where the guests are telling ghost stories. One of the guests tells a tale, but he has to send for the documents. A few days later, the documents arrive and he begins to read. At this point, we are taken into a first-person narrative of events that happened in the past. The narrator is a governess who had written about these events before her death.

What follows is that the governess gets a job looking after the orphaned niece and nephew of her employer, who live in the countryside. She is given strict instructions not to contact her employer for any reason. Then, ghosts start to appear. For some reason, the governess only talks about them to the housekeeper, who hasn't seen them. She becomes more and more convinced that the children are communicating with the ghosts in secret and that the ghosts are there to take the children to some unpleasant afterlife.

At the end of the story, the governess finally confronts the girl, Flora, who has a breakdown and is sent away to London. Then, she tries to confront the boy, Miles, but his heart stops and we assume he dies. And then the story just ends. There's no more explanation or conclusion.

After googling it, I found out that there are two schools of thought. One is that there are no ghosts and the governess is mentally unbalanced. The other is that there are really ghosts. I'm not sure which one I believe. Personally, I think that the girl, Flora, may have had something to do with it. Her character seemed a bit strange and maybe she was the one who was causing all the trouble. But I don't know how that could have affected Miles.

Anyway, overall, I didn't like this story very much. I didn't feel that it was well-written or well-explained. The ending was too abrupt and I was left with a lot of questions. It's not the kind of story that I would recommend to others.

**Title: A Look at [Original Article Topic]**

The original article presented an interesting perspective on [original topic]. It briefly touched upon several key points, but there was room for further expansion and exploration.

For instance, the concept of [specific aspect from the original] could be delved into more deeply. We could discuss its implications in different contexts and how it has evolved over time.

Furthermore, additional examples could be provided to illustrate the ideas presented. This would help the reader to better understand the concepts and see their practical applications.

In conclusion, while the original article had its merits, expanding it as suggested would make it a more comprehensive and engaging read, worthy of a 2.5 ⭐ rating.

Henry James is a bad writer.

I feel I can say that now that I have read these two novellas. I first tried this volume thirty years ago, and was quickly bounced out by the impenetrability of his prose. At that time I blamed myself, not him. On returning, I proceeded slowly, occasionally reading aloud the sentences that failed to make sense the first time. This is a good technique, though not one that is based on the premise that James's prose has a speech-like quality.

The problems are (in reverse order of difficulty); lengthy mid-sentence digressions, unhappily placed adverbials, and lexical mistakes. I decided early on in The Turn of the Screw that these might not be problems, but features of a first person narrative showing us the hysterical, perhaps psychotic nature of the young governess. However, the narrator of The Aspern Papers is a cynical man of letters, so one might expect some decent writing. Unfortunately, the 'features' persisted.

Both stories had their merits. In Turn, I enjoyed the pacing, and the perhaps unintentional comedy of young Miles's diction (I think it was inspired by Stalky & Co. but didn't quite come off). In The Aspern Papers, I enjoyed the depth and subtlety of the characters' motivation - you don't often get that in English fiction, look to Eastern Europe instead. I probably won't be reading any more Henry James, but I might give Lawrence Durrell another chance, as I was bounced out by him too, thirty years ago.

DNF. I don't think Henry James is for me.

His writing style is just too convoluted and difficult to understand. The sentences are long and filled with complex words and phrases that seem to go on forever.

I find myself getting lost in the details and losing track of the overall story. It's like trying to untangle a huge ball of yarn.

Maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough to appreciate his work, but I much prefer more straightforward and accessible writing. Something that doesn't require me to constantly look up words in the dictionary or reread passages multiple times to understand.

I'm sure there are many people who love Henry James and find his writing brilliant, but for me, it's just not my cup of tea.

The Turn of the Screw: I rate it 2 stars. It is SO weird. There are possibly sexual undertones which add to its strangeness. The sentences are long, making it a bit of a struggle to read. In fact, I almost completely gave up on Henry James. However, I did find the unreliable narrator to be fascinating. It's interesting to see how this concept now pops up in other books.

Aspern Papers: I give this one 3 stars. I enjoyed the writing and storyline of this SO much better. I was truly engaged in the story. The descriptions were realistic, making it easy to picture the scenes in my mind. The characters were relatable, which added to the overall appeal. If only the protagonist had not thrown away a lovely future, just because he was so linearly focused. It's a pity, really.

Overall, while The Turn of the Screw had its moments, Aspern Papers was a more enjoyable read for me.