螺丝在拧紧 

The Turn of the Screw

亨利·詹姆斯 

Henry James

The Turn of the Screw is a novella (short novel) written by Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is ostensibly a ghost story. Due to its ambiguous content, it 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. An unnamed narrator listens to a male friend reading a manuscript written by a former governess whom the friend claims to have known and who is now dead. The manuscript tells the story of how the young governess is hired by a man who has become responsible for his young nephew and niece after the death of their parents. 

He lives mainly in London and is not interested in raising the children himself. The boy, Miles, is attending a boarding school, while his younger sister, Flora, is living at a country estate in Essex. She is currently being cared for by the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose. The governess's new employer, the uncle of Miles and Flora, gives her full charge of the children and explicitly states that she is not to bother him with communications of any sort. The governess travels to her new employer's country house and begins her duties. Miles soon returns from school for the summer just after a letter arrives from the headmaster stating that he has been expelled. Miles never speaks of the matter, and the governess is hesitant to raise the issue. She fears that there is some horrid secret behind the expulsion, but is too charmed by the adorable young boy to want to press the issue. Soon thereafter, the governess begins to see around the grounds of the estate the figures of a man and woman whom she does not recognize. 

These figures come and go at will without ever being seen or challenged by other members of the household, and they seem to the governess to be supernatural. She learns from Mrs. Grose that her predecessor, Miss Jessel, and another employee, Peter Quint, had had a sexual relationship with each other and had both died. Prior to their deaths, they spent much of their time with Flora and Miles, and this fact has grim significance for the governess when she becomes convinced that the two children are secretly aware of the presence of the ghosts. Later, Flora leaves the house while Miles plays music for the governess. They notice Flora's absence and go to look for her. The governess and Mrs. Grose find her in a clearing in the wood, and the governess is convinced that she has been talking to Miss Jessel. When she finally confronts Flora, Flora denies seeing Miss Jessel, and demands never to see the governess again. Mrs. Grose takes Flora away to her uncle, leaving the governess with Miles. That night, they are finally talking of Miles' expulsion when the ghost of Quint appears to the governess at the window. The governess shields Miles, who attempts to see the ghost. The governess tells him that he is no longer controlled by the ghost, and then finds that Miles has died in her arms.

《螺丝在拧紧》是美国作家亨利·詹姆斯创作的中篇小说,讲述的是一位年轻女子应聘到大户人家中担任家庭教师。刚开始一切都很美好，可不久后女教师总是见到两个鬼魂，学生们的行为也越来越怪异。故事悬念迭起，如同螺丝拧得越来越紧，可是结果却戛然而止，不知是真闹鬼还是女教师精神不正常。

小说中的主人公是一位出生贫寒的女教师，她没有确保美好婚姻的富裕家庭，所以只好靠自己的努力才有希望来到体面的中产阶级生活中。当她走进哈利街那座大房子的时候，发现她的主人是个年富力壮的单身汉，并且得知报酬丰厚，她鼓起勇气签了合约。要达到自己的目的，或者说实现自己愿望的唯一方法就是取得孩子们的信任，因为他们是她与男主人之间的唯一桥梁。所以，她必须谨慎、理智、恰当地处理一切。她不能直接质疑孩子，直接把事情解决，因为这样做极有可能失去孩子们的信任，而且“古老的传统认为对于看管小孩的人来说，宣扬迷信和恐怖是有罪的”，所以只能通过旁敲侧击，让孩子们自己“坦白”这件事。只有这样做，她才不会成为男主人眼里神经有问题的女子，才不会失去这份待遇丰厚的工作，能让她不用担忧明天，过着受人尊重的生活。另一方面，如果她能独立地用自己的智慧保护男主人的侄子侄女免受幽灵的荼毒，不仅履行了不要让男主人操心的诺言，也可以向他展示自己的工作能力，让他为她而感到自豪。女教师也想直截了当地解决这个问题，但是她的处境让她只能踌躇不定，三思而后行。

该书在118年间，被翻译成15种语言，畅销30多个国家。

亨利·詹姆斯（Henry James，1843年4月15日－1916年2月28日），19世纪美国继霍桑、麦尔维尔之后最伟大的小说家，也是美国乃至世界文学史上的大文豪。詹姆斯的主要作品是小说，此外也写了许多文学评论、游记、传记和剧本。他的小说常写美国人和欧洲人之间交往的问题；成人的罪恶如何影响并摧残了纯洁、聪慧的儿童；物质与精神之间的矛盾；艺术家的孤独，作家和艺术家的生活等。代表作有长篇小说：《一个美国人》、《一位女士的画像》、《鸽翼》、《使节》和《金碗》等。他的创作对20世纪崛起的现代派及后现代派文学有着非常巨大的影响。

试听音频

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.”

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