Hay novelas que al gozo de la lectura se une la felicidad de descubrir una estructura narrativa que nos hace sospechar, casi instintivamente, que sin ella otro escritor no habría podido ni siquiera atraer nuestra atención. "Los tesoros de Poynton", escrita por el gran Henry James en 1896, es una obra que nos reconcilia con la buena literatura. Tras su aparente simplicidad se oculta el virtuosismo de un maestro de la narración y esto se traslada al entusiasmo que crece en el lector conforme se adentra en la historia. En definitiva, "Los tesoros de Poynton" es de esas novelas que no terminamos de entender por qué es tan buena, por qué nos deja un recuerdo tan imborrable a pesar de los años que puedan transcurrir desde que la leímos por última vez."Los tesoros de Poynton" es una de las novelas más acabadas y características de la etapa de madurez de Henry James. Según es habitual en el autor, la obra nace por agrandamiento y expansión en múltiples matices de una anécdota inicialmente mínima y trivial.En "Los tesoros de Poynton", una madre viuda y angustiada ante el imperativo legal de entregar sus bienes más apreciados a una nuera indeseada, hace todo cuanto está en sus manos por  dilatar la boda de su hijo Owen, único heredero de tal riqueza. Sin embargo, todos sus esfuerzos y despliegues de imaginación serán infructuosos, a pesar de haber estado a punto de ganar la batalla. Mrs. Gereth ansía para su hijo una mujer que ame y admire el mismo mundo amado por ella: la gran mansión de Poynton llena de reliquias y la cual deberá abandonar por falta de feeling con la nuera...

J’avais mis Mrs Prest dans ma confidence : à la vérité, sans elle, j’aurais bien peu avancé mes affaires, car l’idée féconde qui conduisit toute l’entreprise me vint par ses lèvres amies.Ce fut elle qui découvrit le raccourci et trancha le nœud gordien.En général, on ne croit pas qu’il soit facile aux femmes de s’élever à une vue large et libre des choses — des choses à faire — mais elles lancent parfois telle conception hardie (devant laquelle un homme aurait reculé) avec une sérénité singulière : « Faites-vous tout simplement prendre chez elles en qualité de pensionnaire. » Je crois que, livré à moi-même, j’aurais reculé devant cela. Je battais les buissons, m’essayant à être ingénieux, rêvant aux combinaisons qui me permettraient de faire leur connaissance, quand elle suggéra si heureusement que le moyen de faire leur connaissance était de pénétrer dans leur intimité. Elle n’en savait guère plus long que moi sur les demoiselles Bordereau ; je puis même dire que j’avais acquis en Angleterre plusieurs renseignements précis qu’elle ignorait. Leur nom avait été associé, bien des années auparavant, à l’un des plus grands noms du siècle — et maintenant elles vivaient obscurément à Venise, avec de très modestes ressources, sans relations, volontairement séquestrées dans un vieux palais croulant et solitaire : telle était, en résumé, l’impression que mon amie avait d’elles.

Publiée en 1898, "Le tour d'écrou" ("The Turn of the Screw") est une longue nouvelle écrite par Henry James, un auteur américain du XIXe siècle.  "Le tour d'écrou" est considèré comme un chef-d'oeuvre de la literature universelle.Un soir de Noël, un groupe d'amis se racontent des histoires de fantômes. L'un d'eux décide de ressortir un manuscrit inédit qui lui a été confiée par une gouvernante maintenant décédée, dans laquelle elle raconte une expérience terrifiante vécue alors qu'elle était jeune. Elle s'était vue confier l'éducation de deux jeunes orphelins par leur oncle qui refuse de s'en occuper. La gouvernante est entièrement sous le charme de ces deux enfants si parfaitement adorables. Cependant, à plusieurs occasions, elle remarque la présence d'un homme et d'une femme inconnus à proximité ou dans la maison, qu'elle identifie par la suite comme une précédente gouvernante et un homme travaillant à la résidence, tous deux proches des enfants et tous deux décédés récemment. De plus, la narratrice est persuadée que les enfants sont également témoins de ces apparitions, sans jamais en parler. A partir de là, il s'installe entre la gouvernante et ses pupilles une atmosphère de suspiction, entre amour irraisonné et non-dits insupportables...

«Non fidarti di ciò che vedi.»Una giovane donna al suo primo lavoro.Due piccoli orfani dall’aspetto angelico e dall’indole stranamente silenziosa di cui prendersi cura.Una dimora isolata all’interno della quale si aggirano, minacciose, due presenze, forse i fantasmi di due vecchi servitori morti in circostanze misteriose che sembrano determinati ad attirare i bambini in un’oscura trappola, possedendo le loro menti e corrompendo le loro giovani anime innocenti.Ma nella scrittura avvolgente e perturbante di Henry James nulla e ciò che sembra e il lettore, lentamente, sprofonda in un’oscura nube di dubbio e inquietudine.

"Otra vuelta de tuerca", publicada en 1898 y escrita por el genio Henry James, es una novela que es ideal para los lectores que buscan escrudiñar dentro de las historias para llegar al descubrimiento de la situación presentada. Es una novela con un estilo de suspense gótico acorde a mediados del siglo XIX y que ha servido de inspiración para la producción de otras tantas películas de terror-ficción que se centran en resolver un misterio. Fue ambientada en la época medieval, por lo que los escenarios son amplios y sombríos, encerrando en ella un misterio denso pero interesante.Todo gira en torno a una institutriz que es contratada por un enigmático hombre a quien no conoce para que se haga cargo de dos niños huérfanos, es de decir, cuidarlos y educarlos. La ambigüedad de la obra  permite que se maneje el misterio muy bien porque la institutriz se siente amenazada por presencias que solo ella ve.Forma parte de un relato donde los juegos psicológicos se hacen eco de puntos de partida del autor en sus trabajos, James buscaba siempre trabajar los personajes desde su interior para crear misterio, no terror en si, un suspense trabajado hasta llegar a una verdad que todos conocen y de la que nadie quiere hablar.

"Las bostonianas", publicada en 1886, se considera una de las mejores obras de Henry James, lo cual no es baladí teniendo en cuenta la enorme producción del escritor estadounidense. Para los amantes de la literatura que disfrutamos con los distintos niveles de lectura que ofrece toda obra maestra, "Las bostonianas" es puro deleite; para los que, además, nos gusta descubrir las complicaciones técnicas y las complejidades argumentales a los que se ha tenido que enfrentar el autor y las diversas soluciones que ha encontrado, esta novela es un festín. Esta novela se centra en las peripecias de dos mujeres, habitantes de la ciudad a la que hace referencia el título, que se dedican en cuerpo y alma a la causa naciente del feminismo político. La mayor, Olive Chancellor, es una estricta luchadora que no tiene otro objetivo que reivindicar su causa hasta las últimas consecuencias; su pupila, Verena Tarrant, es una joven inocente con un vehemente don para la oratoria. En sus vidas se cruza Basil Ransom, primo lejano de la primera que, procedente del recién derrotado Sur, arriba a la próspera Boston para tratar de abrirse camino como hombre de leyes. Como es obvio, la concepción tradicional del rol de la mujer que tiene el joven chocará muy pronto de forma brutal con las ideas de su prima; sin embargo, la opinión de Verena sobre el sureño no será tan crítica…A través de esta historia el autor deja un minucioso testimonio de un tiempo en donde aparecían las primeras mujeres sufragistas, en la sociedad de Boston, a finales del siglo XIX. Su enorme poder para captar todos los vericuetos de la psicología de sus personajes y su tratamiento de los sentimientos entre mujeres son algunas de las grandes cualidades de esta novela. James consigue mostrar con su sutileza habitual la relación íntima de las dos mujeres, jugando con la posibilidad de un amor que se insinúa de manera muy velada.

The Ambassadors by Henry James is a 1903 novel by Henry James, originally published as a serial in the North American Review (NAR). The novel is a dark comedy which follows the trip of protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether to Europe to bring the son of his widowed fiancée back to the family business. The novel is written in the third-person narrative from Strether's point of view.Lewis Lambert Strether, the protagonist of the novel, is a cultured man in his fifties from the fictional town of Woollett, Massachusetts, who is dispatched to Paris to find Chad, the wayward son of his fiancée Mrs Newsome. The book is entirely told from Strether's point of view and chronicles his change from an American to a European view of things.Strether, a middle-aged American of insignificant means, is sent to Paris by Mrs. Newsome, his wealthy fiancée. The mission he has been given is to talk her son, Chad, into returning to the family business in Woollett, Massachusetts.The Newsome family believes that Chad might be overstaying his European tour because of an inappropriate romantic liaison, perhaps with a vulgar adventuress. The reader is given to understand, in indirect ways, that if Strether fails, his engagement to Mrs. Newsome is at risk.

Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw", published in 1898, has inspired a divided critical debate, the likes of which the literary world has rarely seen. Either the story is an excellent example of the type of ghost story that was popular at the end of the nineteenth century or it is a psychoanalytic study of the hallucinations of a madwoman. Nevertheless, "The Turn of the Screw" is unanimously considered a masterpiece, one of the most famous, intriguing, and ambiguous mystery stories of the century"The Turn of the Screw" is told from the perspective of a narrator recalling a ghost story he once heard read out loud. The ghost story itself is written from the perspective of the governess to whom the story happened.Hired by a bachelor to take care of his niece and nephew, the governess barely arrives at their country home before she starts seeing ghosts. When she confides in the maid, Mrs. Grose, she learns that the ghosts are former employees of the estate: Peter Quint and Miss Jessel.The governess begins to suspect that her wards, Flora and Miles, can see the ghosts, but the children refuse to acknowledge the sightings. She is afraid for them, especially when the ghosts appear inside the house, but she does not write to their uncle because he asked not to be contacted.More sightings cause the governess to change her mind, but before her letter can be delivered, it is stolen. When Flora falls ill, Mrs. Grose takes her away for her health, leaving the governess alone with Miles. He admits that he stole her letter. Then the governess sees Peter Quint out the window. Miles says Peter Quint's name, which the governess takes as indication that he knows about the ghosts. The novella ends when Miles looks out the window to see Peter Quint and ...

To cover the gambling debts of his daughter Kitty Imber, the widowed Lord Theign is planning to sell his beautiful painting Duchess of Waterbridge by Sir Joshua Reynolds to American billionaire Breckenridge Bender. Hugh Crimble, a young art critic, argues against the sale, saying that Britain's art treasures should stay in the country. He is supported by Theign's perceptive daughter, Lady Grace. When the newspapers get wind of the potential sale of the Reynolds, they raise a patriotic outcry, which delights Bender.Meanwhile, Crimble has found another painting in Theign's collection that he suspects is a rarity by Mantovano. (James thought this artist was a fiction, but it later turned out that there really was an obscure painter of that name.) Eventually, Crimble's hunch about the Mantovano turns out to be correct. Theign decides to donate the Mantovano to the National Gallery and not to sell the Reynolds to Bender. His friend Lady Sandgate also donates her family's Sir Thomas Lawrence painting to the Gallery, which unites her and Theign.

First published in 1902, "The Wings of the Dove" is part of Henry James’s later body of work and reveals a more intensely psychological aspect than his earlier novels do.  "The Wings of the Dove" tells the story of Milly Theale, an American heiress stricken with a serious disease, and her effect on the people around her. Some of these people befriend Milly with honourable motives, while others are more self-interested.James once again focuses on the relationships between Americans and Europeans. He shows the Americans—Milly Theale and Susan Shepherd Stringham—to be honest and open, though not as sophisticated as their British counterparts: Merton Densher, Kate Croy, and Maud Lowder, who are portrayed as manipulative and deceitful. The central conflict is thus one of moral character rather than of cultural background.In "The Wings of the Dove", Henry James provides a rather unique approach to the timeless issues of selfishness, greed, conspiracy, love, and betrayal - universal themes in literature since early Greek theater.

Listen to an unnamed narrator read a manuscript by a former governess and learn how she may have been haunted by ghosts while she being tasked to care for two children.One of the greatest and most analyzed gothic horror novellas ever written, Henry James' The Turn of the Screw is a must read ghost story. The Turn of the Screw has been recreated dozens of times and continues to scare the world as James' would had wanted. The perfect tale to read on Halloween or Christmas Eve.

I had simply, I suppose, a change of heart, and it must have begun when I received my manuscript back from Mr. Pinhorn. Mr. Pinhorn was my “chief,” as he was called in the office; he had accepted the high mission of bringing the paper up. This was a weekly periodical, and had been supposed to be almost past redemption when he took hold of it. It was Mr. Deedy who had let it down so dreadfully; he was never mentioned in the office now save in connection with that misdemeanor. Young as I was I had been in a manner taken over from Mr. Deedy, who had been owner as well as editor; forming part of a promiscuous lot, mainly plant and office furniture, which poor Mrs. Deedy, in her bereavement and depression, parted with at a rough valuation. I could account for my continuity only on the supposition that I had been cheap.

Henry James OM (15 April 1843 – 28 February 1916) was an American-British author regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language.  In this book, we have collected James 11 best novels : The turn of the screw (a movie adaptation this year) The American The Portrait of a lady The Golden bowl The Aspern papers What Maisie knew Daisy Miller The Bostonians The Ambassadors Wings of the dove Washington Square A well-formatted, easy-to-read book, suitable for any e-reader, tablet or computer. The reader will go from one novel to another one, one section to another one as quick as possible. James detailed biography is also included in this edition.

Widely recognized as one of literature"s most gripping ghost stories, this classic tale of moral degradation concerns the sinister transformation of two innocent children into flagrant liars and hypocrites. The story begins when a governess arrives at an English country estate to look after Miles, aged ten, and Flora, eight. At first, everything appears normal but then events gradually begin to weave a spell of psychological terror. One night a ghost appears before the governess. It is the dead lover of Miss Jessel, the former governess. Later, the ghost of Miss Jessel herself appears before the governess and the little girl. Moreover, both the governess and the housekeeper suspect that the two spirits have appeared to the boy in private. The children, however, adamantly refuse to acknowledge the presence of the two spirits, in spite of indications that there is some sort of evil communication going on between the children and the ghosts.

In this classic 1888 novella by Henry James, an anonymous narrator relates his obsessive quest to acquire some letters and other private documents that once belonged to the deceased Romantic poet Jeffrey Aspern. Attempting to gain access to the papers, the property of Aspern"s former mistress, he rents a room in a decaying Venetian villa where the woman lives with her aging niece. Led by his zeal into increasingly unscrupulous behavior, the narrator is faced in the end with relinquishing his heart"s desire or attaining it an an overwhelming price. One of James"s best-known and most acclaimed longer tales, The Aspern Papers is based on the letters Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to Mary Shelley"s stepsister, Claire Clairmont, who saved them until she died.

"The American" is a novel by Henry James. Henry James, (15 April 1843 – 28 February 1916) was an American writer who spent most of his writing career in Britain. He is regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism.

The Turn of the Screw is a short novel or a novella written by American writer Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is ostensibly a ghost story that has lent itself well to operatic and film adaptation. Due to its ambiguous content and narrative skill, The Turn of the Screw became a favorite text of New Criticism. The account has lent itself to dozens of different interpretations, often mutually exclusive, including those of a Freudian nature. Many critics have tried to determine what exactly is the nature of evil within the story.

Le Tour d’écrou (The Turn of the Screw1) est une nouvelle fantastique (histoires de fantômes) de l’écrivain américano-britannique Henry James, parue pour la première fois en 1898. Le Tour d’écrou est popularisée dans le monde après son adaptation en opéra par Benjamin Britten en 1954. Considérée comme un remarquable exemple du genre, l’œuvre fait osciller le lecteur entre une interprétation rationnelle et une interprétation surnaturelle des faits en instaurant une tension au sein du réel. Résumé |…Le narrateur assiste à la lecture du journal d’une gouvernante. La jeune femme a été engagée par un riche célibataire pour veiller sur ses neveu et nièce, Flora et Miles. Orphelins, ceux-ci vivent dans une vaste propriété isolée à la campagne. Le comportement des enfants semble de plus en plus étrange à la jeune gouvernante. Elle se rend compte, peu à peu, d’effrayantes apparitions, dont celle d’un homme, un ancien serviteur, Peter Quint, qui entretenait une liaison avec la précédente gouvernante, miss Jessel. Les deux sont morts peu avant l’arrivée de la nouvelle gouvernante, mais ils semblent toujours exercer sur les enfants une attirance maléfique. La nouvelle gouvernante essaye de les en détourner…| |Wikipédia|

Set in England, this complex, intense study of marriage and adultery completes what some critics have called the "major phase" of James' career. The Golden Bowl explores the tangle of interrelationships between a father and daughter and their respective spouses. The novel focuses deeply and almost exclusively on the consciousness of the central characters, with sometimes obsessive detail but also with powerful insight.

The novel opens as a group of friends sit around the fireplace of an old house in 1890s England, telling ghost stories. A man named Griffin tells a ghost story featuring a little boy, and a man named Douglas proposes to tell a true story about two children.

During a portion of the first half of the present century, and more particularly during the latter part of it, there flourished and practised in the city of New York a physician who enjoyed perhaps an exceptional share of the consideration which, in the United States, has always been bestowed upon distinguished members of the medical profession.  This profession in America has constantly been held in honour, and more successfully than elsewhere has put forward a claim to the epithet of “liberal.”  In a country in which, to play a social part, you must either earn your income or make believe that you earn it, the healing art has appeared in a high degree to combine two recognised sources of credit.  It belongs to the realm of the practical, which in the United States is a great recommendation; and it is touched by the light of science—a merit appreciated in a community in which the love of knowledge has not always been accompanied by leisure and opportunity.  It was an element in Dr. Sloper’s reputation that his learning and his skill were very evenly balanced; he was what you might call a scholarly doctor, and yet there was nothing abstract in his remedies—he always ordered you to take something.  

Italian Hours is a book of travel writing by Henry James published in 1909. The book collected essays that James had written over nearly forty years about a country he knew and loved well. James extensively revised and sometimes expanded the essays to create a more consistent whole. He also added two new essays and an introduction. Table of contents Venice The Grand Canal Venice: An Early Impression Two Old Houses and Three Young Women Casa Alvisi From Chambéry to Milan The Old Saint-Gothard Italy Revisited A Roman Holiday Roman Rides Roman Neighbourhoods The After-Season in Rome From a Roman Note-Book A Few Other Roman Neighbourhoods A Chain of Cities Siena Early and Late The Autumn in Florence Florentine Notes Tuscan Cities Other Tuscan Cities Ravenna The Saint"s Afternoon and Others Henry James (15 April 1843 – 28 February 1916) was an American-British author regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of renowned philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.

First published in the U.S. in the anthology collection The Two Magics in 1898, Henry James"s classic ghost story The Turn of the Screw has been enthralling readers for over a century and shows no sign of losing popularity as new generations continue to discover this chilling masterpiece. The novella"s anonymous narrator is a young woman, a parson’s daughter, who is engaged as governess to two seemingly innocent children at a remote English country house. What initially seems a idyllic soon turns nightmarish, as she becomes convinced that the children are consorting with a pair of malevolent spirits. These are the ghosts of former employees at Bly: a valet and a previous governess. In life, scandalously, the two of them had been discharged as illicit lovers, and their spectral visitations with the children hint at Satanism and possible sexual abuse. The book amply fulfills its pledge, laid down in the first few pages, that nothing can touch it in terms of sheer “dreadful—dreadfulness.”

The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to say that it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child. The case, I may mention, was that of an apparition in just such an old house as had gathered us for the occasion—an appearance, of a dreadful kind, to a little boy sleeping in the room with his mother and waking her up in the terror of it; waking her not to dissipate his dread and soothe him to sleep again, but to encounter also, herself, before she had succeeded in doing so, the same sight that had shaken him. It was this observation that drew from Douglas—not immediately, but later in the evening—a reply that had the interesting consequence to which I call attention. Someone else told a story not particularly effective, which I saw he was not following. This I took for a sign that he had himself something to produce and that we should only have to wait. We waited in fact till two nights later; but that same evening, before we scattered, he brought out what was in his mind. “I quite agree—in regard to Griffin’s ghost, or whatever it was—that its appearing first to the little boy, at so tender an age, adds a particular touch. But it’s not the first occurrence of its charming kind that I know to have involved a child. If the child gives the effect another turn of the screw, what do you say to two children—?” “We say, of course,” somebody exclaimed, “that they give two turns! Also that we want to hear about them.” I can see Douglas there before the fire, to which he had got up to present his back, looking down at his interlocutor with his hands in his pockets. “Nobody but me, till now, has ever heard. It’s quite too horrible.” This, naturally, was declared by several voices to give the thing the utmost price, and our friend, with quiet art, prepared his triumph by turning his eyes over the rest of us and going on: “It’s beyond everything. Nothing at all that I know touches it.”

THE TURN OF THE SCREW, originally published in 1898, is a gothic ghost story novella written by Henry James. Due to its original content, the novella became a favorite text of academics who subscribe to New Criticism. The novella has had differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive. Many critics have tried to determine the exact nature of the evil hinted at by the story. However, others have argued that the true brilliance of the novella comes with its ability to create an intimate confusion and suspense for the reader.