For lucidity and compactness of style, James's short novels, or novelles, are shining examples of his genius. Few other writings of the century have so captured the American imagination. When "Daisy Miller," the tale of the girl from Schenectady, first appeared in 1878, it was an extraordinary success. James had discovered nothing less than "the American girl"--free spirited, flirtatious, an innocent abroad determined to defy European convention even if it meant scandal . . . or tragedy. But the subtle danger lurking beneath the surface in "Daisy Miller" evolves into a classic tale of terror and obsession in "The Turn Of The Screw." "The imagination, " Henry James said to Bernard Shaw, "has a life if its own." In this blood-curdling story, that imagination weaves the lives of two children, a governess in love with her employer, and a sprawling country house into a flawless story, still unsurpassed as the prototype of modern horror fiction. " "The Turn Of The Screw" seems to have proved more fascinating to the general reading public than anything else of James's except "Daisy Miller.""--Edmund Wilson

亨利•詹姆斯（Henry James,1843-1916），著名小說傢、文藝評論傢，心理分析小說的開創者。詹姆斯偏愛“國際小說”的題材，尤其擅長描寫清白、豐富、民主的美國與古老、腐朽、墮落的歐洲之間的矛盾。他對人物的內心世界的刻畫使他成為20世紀意識流運動的先驅。亨利•詹姆斯的創作生涯無疑是美國文學史上最長、最多産、最有影響的，他是19世紀至20世紀最偉大的散文作傢與文體傢之一，也被公認為運用小說藝術最巧妙的大師。