Henry James - The Turn of the Screw

Okay. Umm... I did not enjoy The Turn of the Screw. Maybe it's one of those divisive novels that show you what sort of person you are. If you're one of the academic literati you'll love it, and if you're a normal vulgar person you'll be left cold.

In the first place, it's a disappointing ghost story because it's not even scary. The protagonist is a governess sent to a big old mansion to take care of 2 "little angels", and she sees ghosts. The ghosts are identified pretty early on - they are not even really the main thing going on here. The main thing is that you can't tell if it's the governess who's going insane or if the children are evil.

I'm inclined to think it's the children, because they (especially the boy, Miles) seem to be cunning little shits.

'Look here, my dear, you know,' he charmingly said, 'when in the world, please, am I going back to school?' Transcribed here the speech sounds harmless enough, particularly as uttered in the sweet, high, casual pipe with which, at all interlocutors, but above all at his eternal governess, he threw off intonations as if he were tossing roses. There was something in there that always made one 'catch'...

Yes, typing this up, I can confirm that Miles is evil.

For at the end of a time that under his influence I had quite ceased to measure I started up with a strange sense of having literally slept at my post. It was after luncheon, and by the schoolroom fire, and yet I hadn't really in the least slept; I had only done something much worse - I had forgotten. Where all this time was Flora? When I put this question to Miles he played on a minute before answering, and then could only say: 'Why, my dear, how do I know?' - breaking, moreover, into a happy laugh which immediately after, as if it were a vocal accompaniment, he prolonged into incoherent extravagant song.

The ending of The Turn of the Screw.is completely ambiguous and leaves you with more questions, if anything. 

According to Henry James scholars, the story is about homosexuality and paedophilia, the sexually repressed Victorian woman, the power of fiction, or colonial India, depending on who you ask. For my part, and maybe it's because I'm simple, I see a tale about how sadistic and evil children can be. I guess that's the genius of the story - there are endless interpretations.