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），著名小说家、文艺评论家，心理分析小说的开创者。詹姆斯偏爱“国际小说”的题材，尤其擅长描写清白、丰富、民主的美国与古老、腐朽、堕落的欧洲之间的矛盾。他对人物的内心世界的刻画使他成为20世纪意识流运动的先驱。亨利•詹姆斯的创作生涯无疑是美国文学史上最长、最多产、最有影响的，他是19世纪至20世纪最伟大的散文作家与文体家之一，也被公认为运用小说艺术最巧妙的大师。