The Turn of the Screw & Washington Square

A master storyteller as well as celebrated novelist, Henry James is represented here by two of his most popular and esteemed shorter works. The Turn of the Screw (1898) remains one of the most thrilling tales of suspense and terror in world literature. The narrator, a young governess, arrives at a remote English country estate to care for Miles and Flora, her at once angelic and mischievous charges. Two apparitions --a former valet and a former governess, both dead - soon make themselves manifest to the governess. Are the ghosts nothing more than figments of an overactive imagination? Or are they something far more palpable and malevolent that has corrupted the children? Washington Square (1881) is a subtle exploration of the thoughts and feelings of its central female character. Catherine Sloper is the plain, sheltered daughter of a wealthy New York widower. Catherine's only suitor - an idle, handsome man-about-town named Morris Townsend - proposes marriage, but Catherine's farther forbids the union, convinced the young man is only interested in his daughter's future inheritance. The muted conflict between father and daughter will forever change Catherine's life.