The Ambiguity Of Henry James

A young woman starts working as a governess at the isolated estate of Bly outside London. There, she is greeted by the two orphaned children she is to take care of, an ambiguous housekeeper, and an icy, supernatural atmosphere. Soon, a couple of peculiar figures begin to appear unannounced, and a creeping horror tightens its grip on both the governess and the reader. The Turn of the Screw is one of the most classic ghost stories of all time, written by the master of the psychological novel, Henry James. Perhaps more than anyone from his time, James came to inspire our modern horror mythologies, from the image of innocence as evil to schizoid labyrinths a la Roman Polanski. HENRY JAMES [1843-1916] was born in New York but emigrated early to Europe. He is one of the most important names in Anglo-Saxon literature, renowned as a great stylist and as a link between the Victorian era and modernism. Among his most famous novels are The American [1877], Portrait of a Lady [1881], and especially The Turn of the Screw [1898].

Do the surfaces matter? In this provocative book, A Superficial Reading of Henry James: Preoccupations with the Material World, Thomas J. Otten demonstrates that surfaces matter profoundly. Taking seriously the accessories of Henry James's fiction-the china and bric-a-brac, the antique cabinets and tapestries, the ribbons and hats-this book argues that James's famous ambiguity is a material state, an indeterminate zone where the difference between essence and ornament disappears. Ranging between fictions as well-known as The Portrait of a Lady (whose heroine is celebrated for her psychological complexity) and ones as understudied as "Rose-Agathe" (whose heroine is a hairdresser's manikin), Otten suggests that the distinction between what counts as thematic depth and what counts as physical surface is, for James, impossible to maintain. Achieving a superficial reading of Henry James means demonstrating the persistence of the material within the novelist's most conceptual formations of meaning-an argument with important consequences for literary theory, as Otten shows in his concluding chapters. Eloquently written and guided by a perverse love for the superfluous detail, this book makes an important contribution to a fast-growing area of the humanities, one newly committed to the serious study of material culture, the concrete experiences of everyday life, and the history of the physical senses. Book jacket.

The Turn of the Screw is an 1898Horrornovella by Henry James that first appeared in serial format in Collier's Weekly magazine (January 27 - April 16, 1898). In October 1898 it appeared in The Two Magics, a book published by Macmillan in New York City and Heinemann in London. Classified as both gothic fiction and a ghost story, the novella focuses on a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted.

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Passau, language: English, abstract: Beginning with a summary of Henry James’s novella ‘Daisy Miller: A Study’, written in 1887 when the movement of literary Realism was just about to emerge as a counterforce to the exuberance of Romanticism, I will continue to explain the several layers of ambiguity that can be found in this text. After briefly outlining what are the different layers of ambiguity that can be found here, I will connect his extensive use of polarities to the name symbolism, which not only includes hints as to what will be the characters’ fate or, in the case of Mrs. Costello or Eugenio, might even include an ironic component. I will then pose the question that “torments Winterbourne” (Lode, 19) all throughout the story: Is Daisy’s behavior particularly American, or is it caused by her personal inability to adapt to European standards or simply by her unwillingness? Thus asking if her death was pre-determined because of her typical behavior, of if she died as a martyr of her own belief in personal freedom? As an example of the Realistic components of the text, I will explain James’s use of types before contrasting this with several romantic elements that can be found and explaining why Daisy could have been originally composed as a Romantic character. The last proof of Romantic elements will be the alignment of ‘Daisy Miller’ and the Aristotelian drama, making Daisy the tragic hero of the story and explaining why James so explicitly emphasized her virtuousness in the end by repeating three times that she was “the most innocent” (James, 63). My discussion about the meaning of the subtitle however, again brings up the question to what extent this novella can be unambiguously assigned to either literary period, for “precisely because [of] what is forward- looking in James has been so widely and adequately recognized, the provenance of his work in Romantic literary tradition has been [...] overlooked” (Foger, 1).

"The Ghostly Rental" is a brilliantly written ghost story with a twist and many allusions. A 22-year-old takes up his studies in Cambridge. One day, he takes a shortcut home, sees a mysterious, gloomy mansion, and thinks this house must be haunted. He meets an older man, Captain Diamond, and discovers his tragic secret. When the older man falls ill, the boy is to visit the haunted house on his behalf of him. Will he meet the ghost there?