New Essays on 'Daisy Miller' and 'The Turn of the Screw'

This 1993 collection demonstrates the continuing appeal of Henry James' fiction through an analysis of two of his most widely read tales.

Vivian R. Pollak (Edited by)

9780521426817, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 November 1993

166 pages
21.3 x 13.9 x 1.2 cm, 0.22 kg

Daisy Miller and The Turn of the Screw may be Henry James's most widely read tales. Certainly, these swiftly moving accounts of failed connections are among the best examples of his shorter fiction. One represents the international theme that made him famous; the other exemplifies the multiple meanings that make him modern. The introduction to this 1993 volume locates his fiction in the context of the family that conditioned his concern with the sexual politics of intimate experience. In the four essays that follow, Kenneth Graham offers a close reading of Daisy with an emphasis on Daisy; Robert Weisbuch examines Winterbourne as a specimen of James's formidable bachelor type; Millicent Bell places the ghost story governess in the traditions of English fiction and society; David McWhirter then provides a critique of female authority. Deftly summarising earlier criticism, these essays demonstrate the continuing appeal of Henry James in our time.

Series editor's preface
A note on the text
1. Introduction Vivian R. Pollak
2. Daisy Miller: dynamics of an enigma Kenneth Graham
3. Winterbourne and the doom of manhood in Daisy Miller Robert Weisbuch
4. Class, sex, and the Victorian governess: James's The Turn of the Screw Millicent Bell
5. The 'other house' of fiction: writing, authority, and femininity in The Turn of the Screw David McWhirter
Notes on contributors
Selected bibliography.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK]