The Collier's Weekly Version of The Turn of the Screw

"She was the most beautiful child I had ever seen, and I afterward wondered that my employer had not told me more of her." For the first time since 1898, readers can experience Henry James's eerie The Turn of the Screw the way his original readers did, as a twelve-part weekly serial. The Coffeetown Press edition showcases the novel as it first appeared, complete with provocative illustrations by John La Farge and Eric Pape, in Collier's Weekly. This unique edition, with an analytical introduction by Peter G. Beidler, will of course be valuable to scholars. It will be particularly useful, however, for undergraduate classroom use. It allows readers to experience first-hand the suspense generated by the week-by-week grouping of chapters. It also lets them read the young governess's story of her dangerous encounter with prowling spirits as it first appeared, before James made the 500-odd changes in wording he introduced later. After reading Beidler's detailed appendix analyzing all of James's revisions, readers will see that in many ways this earliest version of The Turn of the Screw was James's best.

Henry James was an Anglo-American novelist regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James and the diarist Alice James. James spent the last 40 years of his life in England, becoming a British subject in 1915, one year before his death. He is primarily known for a series of novels in which he portrays the encounter of Americans with Europe and Europeans. His method of writing from the point of view of a character within a tale allows him to explore issues related to consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting. Dubbed “The Master” by critics, James contributed significantly to the criticism of fiction, particularly in his insistence that writers be allowed the greatest possible freedom in presenting their view of the world. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue and possibly unreliable narrators in his own novels and tales brought a new depth and interest to narrative fiction. The Turn of the Screw is one of the most widely read and often taught novels of the Victorian canon. It has been discussed and theorized by critics of every orientation and is surely one of the most thoroughly dissected literary works of all time.