Review: The Turn of the Screw (novel)

Sometimes elaborate prose in Victorian novels is very well done. Other times it's a meandering mess that leaves you wondering "What's that supposed to mean?" This book doesn't just fall into the latter category, it dives headlong into it.

The Turn of the Screw is an 1898 novella by Henry James. It's been adapted into an opera, two ballets, and several films and miniseries.

The story begins when our nameless heroine accepts a job as a governess. Her employer asks her to take care of his niece and nephew, and to never contact him again. That should set alarm bells ringing at once. She takes the job anyway, only to quickly realise there's something sinister lurking in the house and targeting the children.

For some reason many readers think the story is very ambiguous. I can understand their confusion, since much of the writing is as clear as mud. But the actual plot is simple enough: ghosts are haunting the children. It baffles me to see academics trying to prove it's actually about the governess going insane. Why would anyone want to find a mundane explanation for a horror story when there's a perfectly good supernatural one?

What's even more confusing is the writing itself. Henry James was either paid by the word, or believed he should always use eighty words where one would do. (I haven't read any of his other works, so I don't know if he did this regularly.) If you took away all the digressions and needlessly-complicated passages you'd shorten the story to about two chapters -- and it would be all the better for it. The novella isn't very long, but wading through yet more dull passages that have nothing to do with the plot makes reading it a chore. After a while I gave up and skipped ahead to the parts that were actually about the ghosts.

By far the weakest parts are the characters and the ending. The characters have no personalities and are practically interchangeable. As for the ending, the governess drives one of the ghosts away and then Miles dies. For no reason. It ends there and you're left to wonder what the hell you just read.

This book is slow, plodding, and more than twice as long as it should be. As horror stories go I didn't even find it particularly scary. It's just plain dull.

Is it available online?: Yes, on Gutenberg.

Rating: 2/10.

Review: Lady Susan (novel)

It's hard to believe this is a Jane Austen novel. It has incredibly little in common with her later works.

Trying to find a cover to put here was a headache. Almost all the covers also included The Watsons and Sanditon, or else they were about the film adaptation instead of the book.

Lady Susan was one of Jane Austen's earliest works, but was only published in 1871. It's the only epistolary novel she wrote. It's been adapted into a 2016 film (titled Love and Friendship -- confusingly the name of a completely different Austen book) and several stage versions, as well as being the inspiration for a few books.

From the beginning it's clear this isn't the sort of story you think of when you hear the name "Jane Austen". The title character is, to put it bluntly, a scumbag. She's a callous, conniving snake who in the course of the novel is briefly engaged to one man, ends up marrying a different one, and the whole time is having an affair with yet another man -- a married man, in this case. The plot revolves around her attempts to marry both herself and her daughter to rich men, while her intended victim's sister tries to thwart her plans.

I read the entire novel in less than an hour. (Not as impressive as it sounds; it's a very short novel. Less than fifty pages in my edition.) The whole time I wanted two things: to see Lady Susan's true nature be revealed to everyone, and to see her poor, abused daughter finally get away from her. Both of those things happen... in a way. Frederica does eventually escape her loathsome mother, but sadly Lady Susan escapes more or less unscathed. Reginald has his eyes opened in time to avoid marrying her. Sir James isn't so lucky.

Honestly, of all the characters in the book I feel sorriest for Mrs. Manwaring and Sir James. Mrs. Manwaring discovers that her husband has betrayed her with Lady Susan, and her friend's wife is Lady Susan's best friend/partner-in-crime. Sir James is undeniably an idiot, but he didn't deserve being stuck with Lady Susan as a wife.

If you read this book expecting a typical Jane Austen story, you're in for a surprise. But it's still a thoroughly entertaining story, and Lady Susan herself is one of the best villains Miss Austen ever wrote.

Is it available online?: Yes, on Gutenberg.

Rating: 7/10.

Review: A Christmas Carol (novel)

🎵We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year.🎵 What better work to review today than this one?

A Christmas Carol is an 1843 novella by Charles Dickens. It's one of his best-known works and has been endlessly adapted into every sort of media imaginable.

Everyone knows the plot: cruel, miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge meets three ghosts at Christmastime and becomes a much better person. If you're like me you probably knew it long before you heard of Charles Dickens or even realised where the story came from. No matter where you look at Christmas you'll see yet another new version of it. And that's why it's my second-least-favourite Dickens work. (My least favourite is Oliver Twist, if you're wondering. But that's a review for another time.)

In many ways this novella is nothing like the rest of Dickens' work. It's so short that there are no subplots and surprisingly few characters. Instead of a main character who's honest and decent from the start, Scrooge starts out a complete jerk. And then there are the ghosts. For some reason Dickens' short stories often have ghosts, while his longer ones never do except in stories the characters tell.

But the main reason I dislike this story is its sheer ubiquity. Maybe "dislike" isn't the right word. I'm just tired of it. It's everywhere, even in places it has no business being and where you'd never expect to see it. (The Muppet Christmas Carol, anyone?) By the time I read the book I already knew the whole plot. Most disappointing of all, there were no really surprising twists in the book. The story everyone knows is more or less the book's story. I was left feeling like I'd wasted my time and hadn't read anything new for my trouble.

There's nothing wrong with this book. I would like it more if there was a break between adaptations and references to it. Please, filmmakers, seriesmakers, etc. Stop adapting the same story again and again. Something more original would be appreciated.

Is it available online?: Yes, on Gutenberg.

Rating: 4/10.