The Turn of the Screw

The Turn of the Screw is a novella written by Henry James and published in 1898.

The book tells the story of a young governess hired to look after two orphaned children at a country house called Bly. Their uncle, who employs her, wants never to be troubled about them again. Things soon get complicated: the previous governess, Miss Jessel, and the master's valet, Peter Quint, had an affair and spent a great deal of time with the children, and both of them are now dead.

The new governess begins to see the two of them about the house and the grounds, and becomes convinced that they have come back for the children.

James says almost nothing outright. Whether the ghosts are there at all, or whether the governess is imagining them and endangering the children herself, is left deliberately unresolved, and readers have been arguing about it ever since.