el dang reviewed The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Listen to the opera instead.
2 stars
At the heart of this book, there's a good, simple ghost story in a creepy setting. It would work well as a short story, and Myfanwy Piper did a great job distilling that short story back out for the libretto of Britten's opera version. But the original text is so heavily larded with too many words--too many adjectives, just too much in general--as to ruin it for me. Some of this is the sheer wordiness, some is how slowly the story is drawn out, which was probably an artefact of having originally been published as a serial. But some is also how heavily the protagonist feels the need to imbue every step with Drama, to the point that when the ending comes it has no impact whatsoever because the piece has been blaring at fortississimo for an hour.
Seriously, the opera is a so much better telling of the …
At the heart of this book, there's a good, simple ghost story in a creepy setting. It would work well as a short story, and Myfanwy Piper did a great job distilling that short story back out for the libretto of Britten's opera version. But the original text is so heavily larded with too many words--too many adjectives, just too much in general--as to ruin it for me. Some of this is the sheer wordiness, some is how slowly the story is drawn out, which was probably an artefact of having originally been published as a serial. But some is also how heavily the protagonist feels the need to imbue every step with Drama, to the point that when the ending comes it has no impact whatsoever because the piece has been blaring at fortississimo for an hour.
Seriously, the opera is a so much better telling of the same story.