8 h 52 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the person guarding two children cannot tell you whether the danger is real?
Henry James brings together The Turn of the Screw and Covering End in The Two Magics. The longer tale opens beside a fire on Christmas Eve, where friends share uncanny stories. It leads into a young governess’s account of caring for two orphaned children at a lonely country house.
A stranger appears on a tower, and Mrs. Grose recognises Peter Quint from the governess’s description. But what can you trust? The governess fears ghosts; the children may know more than they say. Alongside this slow gathering of dread, Covering End offers a lighter story about an old English house and the people who care about it.
What you’ll discover
- A fireside beginning Join friends on Christmas Eve as their tales open a door to the uncanny.
- A watcher on the tower Feel a quiet evening change when the governess sees a stranger above the grounds.
- Children who keep you guessing Watch two orphaned children whose silence leaves the governess, and you, searching for meaning.
- Doubt at every turn Follow an account that keeps the question of real ghosts or imagined danger unsettled.
- A lighter companion tale Turn to Covering End for an old English house and the people drawn to it.
Who will love it
For readers who love creeping dread, hints in place of shocks, and a ghostly puzzle with no tidy answer, alongside country-house drama and hidden desire.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A ghost story told by a fire
- A young woman takes a lonely post
- A stranger appears on the tower
- The dead have names
- Are the ghosts real or in her mind?
- How James builds dread, and Covering End
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- Large print hardcover
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The Two Magics
by Henry James · 1898
A young governess sees strange figures at a lonely country house and fears for the two children in her care.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A ghost story told by a fire
The Turn of the Screw opens inside a frame. A group of friends sit round a fire in an old house on Christmas Eve, swapping tales of the uncanny. One of them, a man named Douglas, says he knows a story more dreadful than any they have heard, and it involves children.
He explains that the account was written long ago by a woman who is now dead. She was his sister's governess, and she gave him the manuscript before she died. It is locked away in a drawer at his home in town, and he must send for it. The company has to wait for days, and the waiting makes them hungry for it.
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What is The Turn of the Screw about?
It is about a young governess who takes charge of two orphaned children at a remote country house called Bly. She begins to see figures she believes are dead people threatening the children, and her fear grows.
What is Covering End?
Covering End is the second, shorter piece in The Two Magics. It centres on an old English house and began as a work for the stage. Its tone is lighter than that of The Turn of the Screw.
Are the ghosts in The Turn of the Screw real?
James leaves the question open on purpose. Some readers take the ghosts as real, while others think they come from the governess's anxious mind. The text gives support to both views.
The author
Henry James
1843–1916 · American British novelist
Henry James was born in New York City in 1843. He settled in England in 1876 and became a British citizen in 1915. He wrote novels, stories, plays, and travel books. His works include Daisy Miller (1878), The Turn of the Screw (1898), and The Ambassadors (1903). He died in London in 1916.
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