THE TURN OF THE SCREW

THE TURN OF THE SCREW - Henry James                                            (by Eric) 

              

A young baby-sitter called Miss Giddens goes to work in a rich man’s house in London. She has to take care of the man’s grandchildren. They are a boy, Miles, who’s 11 years old, and Flora, an 8 year old girl. Their parents are dead and so they are living with their uncle. Before her, there was Bly, another baby-sitter…. Strangely she died for unknown circumstances. However, Miss Giddens accepts the job.

When she arrives at the house, she immediately meets Flora, and some days later also her brother Miles, who came back from school because of an expulsion. Miles and Flora are very smart and educated.

One day, out of the kitchen window, Miss Giddens sees a man with red hair and mustaches, and a woman, with a white face and dressed up for a funeral.

She asks for an opinion from her only friend, Miss Grose, she discovers that those people are Miss Jessel and Peter Quint… She is  the last baby-sitter of Miles and Flora and he is her secret lover, the gardener. Both died mysteriously.

Initially she ignores these people, and she tries to protect the kids, but later she realizes that they are not the target of these ghosts… They are accomplices of them!

They have always denied it, but one day Flora says something that Miss Giddens understands as a confession about the complicity.

I liked it because it is not a bad yellow-book. The story is intriguing. It is also quite easy to read so I would recommend it to all the yellow-books lovers.