Shabbat Reading: Henry James's The Turn of the Screw

#whatireadovershabbat Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, edited by David Bromwich (1898; ed. 2011)

In the modern era, every good supernatural horror story hinges on whether the main character is crazy, or if what’s happening is all too real. This scenario may not be solely James’s invention, but in 1898 he laid it out as well as anyone since. The Turn of the Screw is a ghost story. It’s also a character study in compulsion, and perhaps deception. However you read it, the implications, bleak and unsettling, will linger with you.