Four of the best-known and best-loved works of short fiction by a recognized master of the genre. Henry James was a master of psychology, subtlety, and suspense. He created fear by using shadows rather than by conjuring up monsters. He created terror by showing the eyes of the terrorized, not by revealing what horrifying vision they had seen. While The Turn of the Screw induces fear through general impressions and subjuective visions, the other stories in this volume probe different uncomfortable feelings: desire, longing, deep dissatisfaction. The four novellas in this collection—The Turn of the Screw, Daisy Miller, The Aspern Papers, The Beast in the Jungle—each offers its own surprise twist, an unexpected event or understanding that alters how the story is understood. And with each surprise, James reminds us that terror and tragedy can spring up even in the most banal settings, and that one need look no further than one's own heart to find fear.

A concise, authoritative but very readable guide to The Turn of the Screw, offering students a guide to contexts, language, criticism and reading the text.

In 1898, Henry James wrote a novella that would become one of the most famous and critically discussed ghost stories ever written, The Turn of the Screw. Three other examples of James’s tales of the supernatural, “The Altar of the Dead,” “The Beast in the Jungle,” and “The Jolly Corner,” are included in this edition. These texts reveal on both the thematic and narrative levels James’s deepest concerns as a writer. The texts in this edition are all drawn from the New York Edition of James’s works. The introduction traces the extensive critical debate around The Turn of the Screw, and situates the texts in contemporary discussions of the supernatural. Appendices include material on the tales’ reception, James’s writings on the supernatural, and the study of the supernatural in the nineteenth century.

The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. The nine tales in this volume, published between 1884 and 1888, include 'The Aspern Papers', set in Venice and featuring a devious scholar attempting to steal the letters of an American poet from his former lover, and 'The Liar,' on the world of painters and their models. These tales exemplify James's continuing interest in the art of short fiction during a period which saw him responding to the stimulations of French naturalism and successfully reworking the international theme that had made him famous at the end of the 1870s. Extensive explanatory notes enable modern readers to understand the tales' historical, cultural and literary references.

A collection of Henry James's most famous works.