The Turn of the Screw & In the Cage by Henry James

There’s nothing quite like a good ghost story on a foggy afternoon in the cove. And this one? It’s a classic for a reason.

This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition pairs two remarkable works from Henry James, one famous, one gloriously overlooked.

In The Turn of the Screw, a young governess grows convinced that the two children in her care are haunted by ghosts from their past. Or is she? That’s the trick of it. This is a masterpiece of psychological ambiguity, where nothing is ever quite certain and the real chill comes from within.

Virginia Woolf said it best: “We are afraid of something unnamed, of something, perhaps, in ourselves… Henry James… can still make us afraid of the dark.”

Tucked alongside it is In the Cage, a rarely anthologized novella that shows off a different side of James entirely. Here he turns his sharp, observant eye toward a clever, rebellious young woman of Britain’s lower middle class. In her Introduction, Hortense Calisher calls it “a delicious story, the more so because it confounds what we expect from James.”

Two stories. Two moods. One elegant edition worth lingering over.

Whether you’re a longtime James reader or just discovering him, this is a lovely place to start. Perfect for the reader who likes a little shiver with their sophistication.

Curl up somewhere cozy. Let the salt air do its thing. And let Henry James make you a little afraid of the dark.

We’d love to see this one find its way onto your shelf.

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