Zusammenfassung von Die zwei Zauber

Für wen es gedacht ist

Readers who love unsettling ghost stories, unreliable narrators and old English houses will enjoy this volume, as will admirers of witty comedy about money, class and love.

Worum es in diesem Buch geht

What would you do if a stranger kept appearing on the tower of a house where you alone must protect two children, and no one else could see him? That is the problem of the young governess in The Turn of the Screw, the first of two works in this book. It begins on Christmas Eve, when guests by a fire trade ghost stories and Douglas promises something worse than all the rest.

Henry James tells it through layers of voices. A friend repeats what Douglas says, Douglas reads from an old manuscript, and the manuscript speaks in the governess's own words. The second work, Covering End, is a comedy set in one afternoon in an old English hall, where a mortgage, a marriage plan and a bold American visitor collide. One story builds fear from what is never said. The other builds laughter from what everyone says at once.

Questions about Die zwei Zauber

What is The Turn of the Screw about?

A young governess is hired to care for two orphaned children at a country house called Bly. She begins to see two strange figures and becomes convinced they are dead servants who wish to harm the children. The story follows her growing alarm.

Who are Peter Quint and Miss Jessel?

Quint was the master's valet, and Miss Jessel was the earlier governess. Both are dead before the story begins. Mrs. Grose names them from the governess's descriptions and says the two were close, and that Quint had great influence over the children.

What does the turn of the screw mean in the title?

It comes from the fireside exchange: Douglas asks about two children, and another guest answers that they give two turns. It means tightening the pressure by degrees, and it also describes how the tale builds.

Are the ghosts in The Turn of the Screw real?

The story is written so that readers can take the ghosts as real or as the product of the governess's mind. Only she sees them, yet her descriptions match people she never met. Readers have argued over this question for generations.

What happens in Covering End?

In this prose comedy, a rich mortgage holder tries to marry his daughter to the heir of an old house, and an American visitor who adores the house steps in. It is set in one afternoon in the great hall and is full of quick talk.