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Title: The Aspern Papers and the Turn of the Screw (Penguin Classics) by Henry James, Anthony Curtis ISBN: 0-14-143990-4 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Two for one
Comment: This omnibus collects two of James's best and most well-known shorter works, The Aspern Papers and The Turn of the Screw. Both allow the work of James to live up to its reputation of being very dense and operating on multiple levels at once. He had the ability, as did Hawthorne, to make very short works seem extremely long -- although, at least in this reviewer's humble opinion, James did it much better and more successfully. The Turn of the Screw, in particular, though very short for a novel, is almost startlingly complex -- practically begging for multiple close readings and a thorough overview of the subsequent literary criticism. I won't go into a detailed analysis or overview of that story itself here; for that, please refer to my review of the stand-alone book containing The Turn of the Screw.
Specifics aside, both of these stories are also masterful exercises in suspense. The Aspern Papers manages to work up a general feeling of expectancy and apprehension, while The Turn of the Screw conjures up dark and sinister vision of intrigue. They manage to keep the reader reading -- and reading -- and re-reading. Both of them are filtered, of course, through James's characteristically ambiguous narrative. It has been well-said that James surrounds a narrative and illuminates parts of it with a flickering light, rather than pinning it down. The endings of both of these stories, at least one of which is positively shocking, leaves many elements unresolved. James forces the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. This aspect of his writing style, along with his generally unique style, makes for great reading material for the dedicated reader. Here are two of his best stories here for our enjoyment.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Suspensful Read
Comment: This is an early examination of a deterioration of the human psyche. It's a dark psychological thriller told by a woman who finds herself scattered by fleeting emotions and unseen torments. From the start, the protagonist's mind seems to flow in several different directions, showing the portrait of a very insecure woman. I think that the purpose of the lengthy language is to serve as her very personal outlook on the situation, on herself. Henry has put himself fully in her position to achieve the purpose of forcing the reader to do so as well.
I tend to dislike films or books that depict mental illness as an organized or curable disorder. Something that can be easily fixed by medical advances or hope alone. The truth of the matter is much more dark. Insanity is not something to romanticize about, although there is certainly speculation of mental illness furthering artistic insight. (an example would be Virginia Wolff, or Vincent van Gogh) But Henry James does not view the woman's hallucinations with hope for her recovery.
The author has always shown particular interest in insanity, not from the vantage point of an onlooker or professional...but from the direct and unaltered view of the person suffering the hallucinations.
There actually are ghosts in this book, but the kind that are much more sinister and real in that they only exist to this one woman. She's alone in her hallucinations, completely unable to share the nightmare that has taken over her mind, left to bare it by herself. I think that's truly more frightening than the thin plot of any other 'ghost' story.
I recommend this book for several reasons; it has an intriguing plot, is an exploration of psychological aspects, and ends with a suspenseful finale.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Art of Fiction
Comment: Well these are my two favorite works by Henry James. In both James displays his very neatly honed talents for creating fine fictional universes and architecturally perfect stories where all seems to be just right but of course it isn't. James is writing in the still young American tradition of letters but he has cleared away much of the romanticism that was so evident in Hawthorne and Melville. The romanticism still exists but it is not in the writers brain, it exists in the characters alone. James was the first to really write at a remove from his characters. He tells each tale with no authorial comment to sway your opinion of his characters one way or another, he lets the reader make his own observations and draw his own conclusions based on the characters behaviour and thoughts. That authorial distance allows him to simply relate the story, not explain it, and James stories are each as intricate as the psychologies that occupy them. In these two stories he creates very intriguing and complex situations. Both are mysteries and both perhaps have no easy solution or resolution because James lets the complex minds and psychologies of his characters subjectively grapple with a web that they have themselves woven and any resolution would mean an unraveling of their entire character. These are story long webs which can be baffling(Aspern Papers) or terrifying(Turn of the Screw), the psychological webs these characters weave can lead them to frightening extremes(Turn of the Screw) or can serve as a necessary support for the fragile psyche that created them(Aspern Papers). The real thrill of reading James is in how controlled a manner all is told. There are no obvious clues just psychological gradations and patterns which begin adding up to an overall impression. It can seem after finishing one of his stories that nothing much has happened at all, and yet a psychology has all the while been examined and quite thoroughly. Through his stories much is revealed about what lies just beneath the facade of life and what motivates our most basic perceptions, our identity, and our societal or world view. It has been said that James brought the insight of a psycholgist to his stories. But his insights are much more profound than a mere clinicians notes. In James we get a highly discerned character in a highly discerned context and the discerning reader will be entertained and enlightened and inspired to contemplate the workings of ones own intricate structure.
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Title: Little Dorrit (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens, Stephen Wall, Helen Small ISBN: 0141439963 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 27 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: Billy Budd and Other Stories (Penguin Classics) by Herman Melville ISBN: 0140390537 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: The Bostonians: A Novel (PENGUIN CLASSICS) by Henry James, Richard Lansdown ISBN: 0140437665 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 27 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: The Spoils of Poynton (Penguin Classic) by Henry James ISBN: 0140432884 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1993 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway ISBN: 0684822768 Publisher: Scribner Book Company Pub. Date: 31 January, 1996 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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