S0210 The Turn of the Screw Part 1

So we begin The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I have wanted to do this story for a long time but have hesitated because it's so long! Of course, we have read out The Beckoning Fair One, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, and Carmilla that ran on over several episodes, but The Turn of the Screw will be the longest so far. I reckon it'll take five weeks or so, though if I crack on well, I might get it squeezed into four. By that I mean, just making the episodes longer rather than cutting bits out of the glorious story. I read The Turn of the Screw donkeys' years ago and liked it, but I'd forgotten much of the story, so it was like reading it for the first time again. A failing memory is one of the blessings of age. Netflix is currently broadcasting their drama series doing The Haunting of Bly Manor based on The Turn of the Screw, so it's probably timely to do the original. I am enjoying rereading it. James has the annoying habit for a narrator of breaking up his sentences with parenthetical information, which makes them hard to speak out. Reading them to oneself isn't such a problem. The Turn of the Screw was published in 1898, and written in 1897-1898 when he had moved to Rye in Sussex, a quaint and picturesque small English town. It was published as an illustrated serial in Collier's Weekly Magazine. Then in 1898, it was published as a whole in an anthology called The Two Magics. Just listen to how he constructs the story. He withholds lots and lots and hints and foreshadows. The introduction, set on Christmas Eve at an English country house, is just a long foreshadowing, whetting your appetite. He sets us up so that, like the guests in the house, we are on pins waiting for the story to begin. James makes us wonder. We wonder about the gentleman owner whom she has taken a fancy to but who does not wish to be disturbed. Miles is heavily foreshadowed, and as we end this episode, we can't wait to meet him to see what he's like: bad or good. Henry JamesJames was born to a well-off New York f