Classic Gothic fiction

The Turn of the Screw

by Henry James

A young governess accepts charge of two orphaned children at a remote English estate after their uncle insists that she handle every problem without contacting him. She soon sees figures she believes are the ghosts of former servants Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, whose influence may still reach the outwardly angelic Miles and Flora. Because the governess alone narrates the central events, supernatural danger and psychological instability remain impossible to separate with certainty. Short, elegant, and profoundly unsettling, this Gothic classic belongs on a stormy night for readers who enjoy isolated houses, ambiguous haunting, unreliable testimony, and endings that become less comfortable the longer they are considered.