The Two Magics: The Turn of the Screw, Covering End
The most terrifying ghost story ever written, and the one that refuses to let you sleep. A young governess arrives at an isolated estate called Bly to care for two children, only to see malignant ghosts lurking in the shadows. But here is the genius of James: we never know if the ghosts are real or if she is losing her mind. The children may be in danger from evil spirits, or they may be corrupt beyond her understanding, or she may be the danger. A frame narrative finds a group of friends gathered at a country house as one of them, Douglas, prepares to read aloud the manuscript of a dead governess. What unfolds is a nightmare that has no bottom. More than a century later, The Turn of the Screw still refuses to resolve its ambiguities, leaving readers to wonder whether they have witnessed genuine supernatural evil or a brilliant portrait of a crumbling mind.
