It’s always hard to read, and therefore write about Henry James, because most of the times if you’re not familiar with James you don’t know which version of him you’re gonna get. I picked up What Maisie Knew thinking that it might be a poignant story of a child caught in the crossroads of her parents, which it is. But it is one of the most difficult books I picked up last year. And if you pick up the Penguin Classics edition of the The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers, then you’re in for a ride.
Both stories are not the most difficult books to read, admittedly. And both stories have a different tone to them which though may seem Gothic, are in each of their own ways distinct. It took me quite a fair bit off guard because I though that What Maisie Knew wasn’t an easy read, with the complex meanderings of the mind of a child. Not to say that The Aspern Papers and The Turn of the Screw are any less psychological. If anything, The Turn of the Screw is a classic in psychological horror.
Aspern Papers
Out of the two, The Aspern Papers is more reader-friendly. It is still a psychological thriller in a conventional sense, but there is something beyond it that makes the story more profound. Out of the two stories, I prefer this one more than The Turn of the Screw, maybe because I’m boring and prefer straightforward narratives than largely opaque ones. The plot is clear here — a publisher obsessed with the master poet Jeffrey Aspern located one of his old flames who may or may not have his missing manuscripts. He will cross through hell or highwater (perhaps) to get his dirty hands on these prized papers.
It is still in some ways, a psychological thriller. Nobody is getting murdered here, but the characters are playing an intriguing game of cat and mouse, the Narrator trying to find the truth about the papers and the ladies trying to find the truth of the Narrator’s reputation. False relationships are formed for the sake of this, and the consequences are severe. But I ca’t help to think that the Narrator in his state, living idly in Venice was intoxicated by the setting.
There is something mystical on the setting here — a residence with a garden in the middle of a waterbound city of Venice. This is almost like a cheat code as whatever book is set in Venice, the city becomes part of the character list and almost always steals the show — just ask Mann’s Death in Venice and Calvino’s Invisible Cities. It is a Dionysian city which allows men to act beyond the boundaries that the conventions allow, or at least in their minds. The narrator of The Aspern Papers often make decisions that he never would have perhaps because of his mind’s captive displacement in Venice. He spent atrociously exorbitant amounts of money to stay where Juliana and her niece stay, far beyond his budget.
It is not until the final pages that the weight of the book falls on the reader, that what’s at stake is greater than just the papers themselves. Without being too dramatic, it is a woman’s life at stake as well the Narrator’s. For is a man’s life worth more than the sake of lost literature, no matter how beautiful it might be?
The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw was written in a serialised format when it was first published. And for this reason, more knowledgable readers would recommend to take the book slowly instead of binging the read in a couple of days. I had limited time myself and finished the book in about 3 days. And you know what? I probably should’ve taken my time, because after I’ve finished reading the book I had a strong sense of anticlimactic disappointment, and I struggled to remember the content of the book a few days later.
A mysterious man hires a governess to take care of his children under the condition that she does not come to him to seek for help. On arriving to the mansion, in the middle of nowhere she hit it right off with the illiterate resident servant and the young girl, Flora. Shortly after, Flora’s brother Miles returned home as well after having been expelled from his school. Both these children seem to be shadowed by their own ghosts, both with opposing forces which unsettles the house dynamics.
Even now, I remember the flow of the story without really remembering anything remarkable in it. Is it the case that as a horror story, readers in the 19th century were not used to be frightened as such, and so it was more scandalous then than it is now. What haven’t we seen that’s scary these days? We’re not easily surprised by apparitions and children who might know too much for their own good anymore. And thus, this is not really on James (or the reader for that matter). The Turn of the Screw may have been one of the earliest works of horror literature but it doesn’t carry the same impact now as it had then. At least not for me anyway.
