The Turn of the Screw, the Aspern Papers and Two Stories (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

Henry James is one of the most celebrated, and infamous, authors in the whole of literature -- worshipped by critics and literary scholars, but often befuddling to the general reader. This wonderful omnibus collects four of his works: the short novels The Aspern Papers and The Turn of the Screw, which are often bundled together, and two short stories: The Beast In the Jungle and The Jolly Corner. The two short novels are quintessential James -- ambiguous yet somehow suspenseful narratives, wordy and fascinating psychologically-descriptive prose, and open to interpretation. Each are simple stories on the surface; but the dedicated reader, if he or she delves deeply into the texts, will be rewarded with some of the most subtly-satisfying short works ever pinned. The Turn of the Screw is, perhaps, the greatest ghost story ever written, a superb psychological drama which yields many treasures to the Freudian literary sleuth (as, indeed, do all four stories.) For more detailed analyses of these two stories, one may refer to my reviews of them in separate editions. Suffice it to say here that, if one is interested in reading these two stories, this volume is the place to do so, because it also contains...The two short stories. As short as these two works are, they both yield a myriad treasures to the dedicated reader. They are two superb psychological dramas, finely crafted. The Beast In the Jungle, in particular, is, in many ways, epitomizes James. He takes a very simple, almost clichéd premise and transforms it into something uniquely his own. His prose is very wordy, but not flowery: it functions to convey the depth of emotion felt by the protagonist and also manages to plumb the depths of his mind. These two short works are great reads for the James fan, and the introduction to the book manages to tie them in to the longer works in this volume.Anyone who has decided to take the plunge into the James canon would do well to start here. In addition to this volume's containing the four aforementioned works, it must also be stated that the Barnes & Noble Classics editions are extremely nice. In addition to usually containing multiple works, which mostly cannot be found together anywhere else, they also boast a variety of supplementary materials which simply cannot be found anywhere else: a nice, substantial introduction addressing all of the works contained within, adequate but not overbearing notes, a sampling of critical and popular opinion on the works, and even a list of questions for discussion and a page with quotes from the book. On top of all this, they are extremely affordable. Very highly recommended.