To read a story by Henry James is to enter a fully realized world unlike
any other--a rich, perfectly crafted domain of vivid language and
splendid, complex characters. Devious children, sparring lovers,
capricious American girls, obtuse bachelors, sibylline spinsters, and
charming Europeans populate these five fascinating nouvelles, which
represent the author in both his early and late phases. From the
apparitions of evil that haunt the governess in "The Turn of the Screw"
to the startling self-scrutiny of an egotistical man in "The Beast in
the Jungle," the mysterious turnings of human behavior are coolly and
masterfully observed--proving Henry James to be a master of
psychological insight as well as one of the finest prose stylists of
modern English literature.