The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Stories by Henry James

 

6/10

I read this one about 5 1/2 months ago. First off, The Turn of the Screw is a pretty sweet title for a story, but I didn't like the story as much as a few others which were slightly better. This is my first time getting back to Henry James after the disappointment of The Bostonians from like 7 years ago. I can't quite put my finger on Henry James. He is clearly a talented writer, but something about it just doesn't quite do it for me. Doesn't satisfy me in the way that Dickens or Thomas Hardy do, just to name two examples. That being said, I liked these short stories more than the previously mentioned novel, but that was a low bar to overcome. Here are the stories: (1) An International Episode which was a 7/10; (2) Daisy Miller, another 7/10; (3) The Aspern Papers was my favorite at 8/10; (4) The Altar of the Dead was 5/10; (5) The Turn of the Screw didn't quite do it for me and gets a generous 6/10; (6) The Beast in the Jungle with another generous 4/10. As you can see, I enjoyed the first three stories more than the last three, so I was initially fairly excited that Henry James was proving more enjoyable until the last three stories where it fizzled out and I couldn't wait to finish the book so I could move on to something else. The Aspern Papers was a great surprise as I had never heard of it and found it very interesting. It's about a biographer of a famous poet, Jeffrey Aspern, who goes incognito to an old lady's secluded mansion who had once had a fling with the poet when they were young. The biographer is trying to secure some of Aspern's papers, letters between the young couple from many years before, that no one has ever seen. Pretty fascinating how he went about trying to secure those papers on the sly without being discovered as a biographer of Aspern. It's a slow burn but was interesting and well done throughout. I'll probably need to take another lengthy break from James but hopefully not a 7-year break like last time. I own several of his highly regarded novels but just need to muster the courage to launch into it. Maybe in a few years.