Me too; I’ve been put off by H James for no reason except burnout from reading in school. Thank you for your soothing voice and beautiful pronunciations. ❤
Turn of the screw remains the most excellent ghostly tale. The original is awesome. There have been attempts to put it on the screen but they have all sadly fallen short when the story has been meddled with instead of just leaving it be. This is a brilliant narration. I was so pleased it popped up! Thank you.
I saw an adaptation of this with Deborah Kerr (the innocent) when I was a teen. ...it ....was... TERRIFYING... now - decades later- it's still a very scary story... The kind of scary stories should be. The kind that creeps under the skin rather than blood guts screaming teenagers and nauseating gore - which by the way is only disgusting and tragic.
I have read this story three times. I fall asleep each time I read it, wake up to 10 pages beyond where I remember, and forget everything in between. Not when you narrate it! You, my friend, kept me awake the entire time. Great narration, Tony! I finally made it through without falling asleep and picked up on the details! Your recordings are fantastic! Many thanks! I finally made it through this classic!
Did the Governess suffocate the boy as she held him so very tightly? Now I'm worried about the storyteller claiming to be in love with the same governess..
There are perfectly horrifying passages among the dross of run of the mill tropes. In Mr Humphrey's and His Inheritance, by the other James, the ugly ink blot that becomes a infinitely deep access from the nether regions into our world is a masterpiece of subtle horror that has changed me forever. In Turn of the Screw, in the Deborah Kerr film, the appearance of Miss Jessel across the peaceful summer lake is another one due to Miss Flora's feigned ignorance of her presence after calling her hither, then pretening ignorance as she asks if Rupert can swim. That visual will stay with me forever, I fear. (I knew children were monsters when I was a child.) The genius of this story lies within the reader's mind only. I get the heavy overlay of surpressed sexuality throughout, another type of horror, for women at any rate, and James allows the reader to decide for herself what is real and what isn't. The seemingly bettayal by Mrs Gross at the end leaves the whole creepy mess either true or the hallucination of the good govenerness. For me it's true and possible, but y'all decide for yourselves. Your narration is superb, as usual. I think I prefer it to the film. Kudos! And thanks again! 😘😍
Not sure how long the argument has been going on about ghosts vs sexually repressed governess. I think the very excellent 1962 film deliberately played up the ambiguity-but I read that James himself, when asked about this story, said that he intended to write a ghost story, and that is good enough for me! Best ghost story ever.
Ah, chapter 9, with Quint on the stairs. I’ve always wondered why this scene never made it into any of the films, or at least none that I’ve seen. I doubt it would have had the horror or the impact of the novel, but I’d have liked to have seen someone try.
🕯📖 ☕️ I've been waiting for you to read this novella for ages!!! It's in my top five favorite pieces of literature ever, I read it once every year in the wintertime. I'm so grateful, Tony! Thank you 💕
The narration is magical lovely esr caughting.thank you very much indeed.please continue narrating more snd more famous well known creepy and horror fictions👌👌👌👌🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏💙💙💙💛💜💜💛💚💚💚💚😍😍😍🧡🧡🧡🤩🤩🤩
This was my best friends favorite book many moons ago☺ This and the TV series "Dark Shadows". I will listen to this tonight. I'm looking forward to it.
I just found your channel and even though this is only the 4th story I've listened to it is by far the best! Honestly didn't really like the protagonist but now that the story is finished I'm wondering if that was "possibly" somewhat intentional. SPOILER WARNING ⚠️ Do you believe the 2 previous adults were somehow into some type of witch craft? And they were intentionally trying to corrupt the pure souls of the children? Then after death the actually became demons instead of simply ghost? Did they come back to finish the job? Also that ending was so unexpectedly perfect! She's definitely going to be hanged for murder. A sequel would be great having her now hunt the little girl as a ghost but, not to hurt her but to somehow save her from the other 2 demons
Great to have you here.. the great thing about the turn of the screw is that people have been debating what it really means for over 100 years. I think the fact that Henry James can provoke that really speaks for the strength of the story.
The governess does not hang. Chapter 1 explains that she took another job years later and told her story to Douglas, the older brother of her charge. Douglas wrote down her story and decades later he's reading it to friends.
Tony I'm currently listening to this on Spotify. While I'm familiar with James' genius storyline, this is the first time I've actually taken in the complete story in any form. The closet I've previously came was watching the 1971 movie The Nightcomers, starring Marlon Brando and a young and gorgeous Stephanie Beacham. I now see that The Nightcomers is a prequel to The Turn Of The Screw. If you haven't seen the movie it is definitely worth checking out! It was unfairly savaged by the critics, but now, listening to the novel, I can see that it captures the essence of Quint and his sordid domination of poor Miss Jessell to a tee.
I was never able to get into this book but I can listen to Tony read anything. Scary too. Subtle but that can be the most bothersome species of the creeps.
Caveat - I did have to pause it though because I see he’s done A Christmas Carol too and I’ve never felt more humbuggy than I do this year so I’m going to listen to that first for health reasons.
