Ever since The Turn of the Screw first appeared in early 1898 in 12 installments of Collier’s Weekly magazine, readers have been uncertain about the exact nature of the evil and horror they have experienced. The tale is told on Christmas Eve by an unnamed narrator who listens to a friend’s story about a governess he once knew who is now dead. She had been hired by the absentee owner of Bly, a country house, to look after his recently orphaned niece and nephew. She begins to see the figures of a man and woman lurking about that no one else seems to see. The housekeeper tells her that two recently deceased employees of the estate, Miss Jessel and Peter Quint, had been sexually intimate and had spent many hours with the children. She comes to believe that they are haunting the grounds, make themselves visible selectively, and are in touch with her young charges.  Is it true? If so, why? Or is she crazy? The situation intensifies and unfortunate things happen, but the question is not resolved. Henry James returned to ghost story often, but tried to avoid stereotypes, preferring “the strange and sinister embroidered on the very type of the normal and easy”. The book is classified as both a ghost story and gothic tale; critics have been attempting to “solve it” since it was published.  One described it as a “modest monument to ambiguity”.  Quite so.  It has been adapted frequently for the stage, films and television, often with new titles. 

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