Review: Much Ado About Nothing

I'm not quite sure how it's already February, but here we are. I've been thinking that this month is perfect for some love stories. There's quite a bit to choose from in that arena, and I went with one of my favorites.

I'm a big Shakespeare fan. Always have been, probably always will be. There are two of his comedies that I enjoy above all the others. For this review, I'll be looking at one of them.

Much Ado About Nothing gives us the story of Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero.

We watch Benedick and Beatrice as they engage in a battle of wits and attempt to convince everyone that they are not interested in love, and certainly are not interested in each other. It's clear from the very beginning that their true feelings are the opposite of what they proclaim.

In contrast to their refusals of love, we also watch the development of love between Claudio and Hero. This sweet young couple are the exact opposite of Benedick and Beatrice and can't seem to get enough of love. Much of the plot centers around their courtship and the effects of gossip that lead Claudio to believe Hero has been unfaithful. He publicly denounces her at the altar, and the rest of the play is spent righting the wrongs that have caused the misunderstanding. In the end, we see Hero and Claudio happily wed, while Benedick and Beatrice finally reveal their true feelings.

I always like the scheming, the mistaken identities and the revelations that Shakespeare works into his plays. That's part of why I think so many people still read what he wrote, and why people are still so enamored with his plays and their film counterparts. I've got the 1993 movie version of this play starring Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson as Benedick and Beatrice. I love it. I watch it all the time when the Big Guy is travelling for work. Their portrayal of these two characters has become so entwined with the story for me, that I can't picture the characters any other way.

Click here to read the book details on Goodreads.
Click here to find the book on Amazon.

Lolita: Forbidden Fruit

I admit, I went just a little cheesy with the name for this one. It seemed fitting for both books read this week, Reading Lolita in Tehran and Lolita. In very different ways, each book is about doing something that is forbidden, something that remains off limits.

Ingredients
Hypnotiq
Apple Pucker
Lemon Water

Directions
I combined equal parts of the Hypnotiq and the Apple Pucker in a rocks glass over ice. The flavor was great, but I felt like the result was a little too sugary. I added a little bit of water and lemon juice to cut through the sugar and was very happy with the result.

Lolita

To follow up to Reading Lolita in Tehran, I read Lolita. I don't know that I would have picked it up otherwise, but I wanted to see for myself what could make this story a classic and a frequent topic of study.

This story is unsettling. There are so many things that turn the reader off from the main character,almost from the beginning. For many current readers, I think this actually starts before reading anything. Many of us know that the story is about the seduction/abduction of a twelve year old girl. A lot of people can't get past that, and to be honest I can't blame them. It's difficult to read, knowing that the reality is far away from what Humbert sees from his perspective.

From that standpoint, the story is about his obsession and his delusion. It's about completely losing control by trying to take the ultimate control of another person. That's what I think draws people back to this book. Nabokov provides so much depth and so many layers to the depravity that makes up Humbert. It's possible to be taken in by his delusions and see the seduction he imagines is taking place. 

I wonder if there's a part of all of us that has the capacity for living under delusion. Not that I think most people would make it to the level Humbert does, but we all have a tendency to think of ourselves as right in all circumstances. Self-awareness is scary, and sometimes it's easier just to blame other people for the bad decisions we make.  

Please do not take anything in this review as condoning sexual abuse, or abuse of any kind. It's not OK. If you or someone you know are being abused, please don't be afraid to seek help.
 

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.- Vladimir Nabokov

I am frequently reminded how lucky I am to live where I do. This is not to say that any place can be absolutely perfect, but there are so many opportunities and advantages available to me as a female in America that simply wouldn't exist if I were somewhere else. That thought struck me many times while I was going through Reading Lolita in Tehran.

I can't imagine what it would be like to wake up one morning and find that the leadership of my government has determined that I must dress, behave, and think a specific way. Do I agree with everything my government does? No, but I have the opportunity to disagree and vote for those who share my opinion.

That's a fairly idealized version of what we have, but when one stops to consider the alternatives there are many reasons to be happy with the potential inherent in our government. I find myself to be far too independent to accept being told what to do. That's not to imply that I have a terribly rebellious nature, please believe me when I say that I don't.

I am struck by the bravery and encouraged by the rebellious spirit of the women who join this literature professor in her home to continue reading and discussing and learning. I can't imagine an existence without books, so the premise of the memoir draws me in right away. Throughout the book, Azar Nafisi weaves a complex and compelling narrative of what she and her students had to endure both inside and outside her makeshift classroom.

There's a comment Nafisi makes in the opening pages of the text where she describes the women who made up the group and she talks about those who were not there at the end. Her comment is that  the absences had become more real than the presences. That's something I think we can all relate to. Whether it's a place or a person or a particular time in our lives there is something that defines us as much if not more by no longer being there.

There's also something that we internalize about each of our experiences making them uniquely our own, even when they've been shared with other people. I often feel like every choice I've made, every experience I've had combined in an almost impossible way to bring to where I am at this very moment. Even though I didn't enjoy or appreciate all of them at the time, I believe that there was a reason for all of them. I don't have to understand it right away, but I do trust that it's there. I have faith in the notion that everything happens for a reason.

Another aspect of the story that resonates with me is the power these books have to bring these women together. It doesn't always have to be books, but I think we all need those things that provide reasons for creating and sustaining connections. We all need something, especially in difficult times, that gives some kind of affirmation that life can not only continue against all backdrops and all kinds of trials, but that there can be improvement. It's the power to find hope in the darkest of experiences that really characterizes the women in this story for me.

It's the idea that things can get better, that we can get better.

Orlando: Timeless Modern

To go with Orlando, I wanted something that would have both a masculine and feminine aspect to it, along with something to create some interested.

I flipped through some options on my Food & Wine cocktails app and came across the Timeless Modern. I was definitely intrigued by the name, and the ingredients looked different from anything else that I've tried on here.

Ingredients
2 thin lemon wheels
2 thin lime wheels
3 thin orange wheels
1 1/2 teaspoons maraschino liqueur
1/2 teaspoon grenadine
Dash of Angostura bitters
1 maraschino cherry
2 1/2 ounces bourbon
Ice

Directions
Set aside 1 wheel of each citrus fruit. In a cocktail shaker, muddle all of the ingredients except the bourbon and ice. Add the bourbon and ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with the reserved citrus wheels.

I chose to change the recipe a bit and muddled all the ingredients and served the cocktail over ice in a rocks glass. Definitely a unique combination, but one that seemed to fit the book for me. The bourbon being the stronger masculine edge of things and the surprising lightness of the citrus fruits being the softer feminine side.

Enjoy!

Orlando

I just finished reading Orlando by Virginia Woolf. I thought this was an appropriate book to follow up yesterday's post about judging a book by it's cover.

One of the aspects of Orlando's story that I enjoyed most was the way that Woolf tackles the perceived notions of right and wrong for the sexes.

For those of you that haven't read Orlando, one of the central events in the story is that midway through the life described by the writer the main character changes gender. Orlando begins life, and this story as a male and becomes female around the time of her thirtieth birthday. The story is a fanciful twist on a traditional biography for this reason as well as many others. For example, during the years we watch Orlando while she ages from childhood to the age of 36, close to 400 years pass.

So not only do we see the differences between the sexes highlighted, but also the differences of the ages. Among all this change and transition, we also see the ways in which many things remain the same. This introduction also goes into the relationship, ie the affair, between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. The character Orlando is based off Vita in temperament, travels, and Orlando's home is even modeled off Vita's. The book is in many ways a love letter to Vita.

We see Orlando win the favor of Queen Elizabeth and develop a love for writing through an early interaction with Shakespeare. We watch as Orlando chases a beautiful Russian princess and has his heart broken when he finds her to be unfaithful. We lose ourselves in his writing of the Oak Tree poem as he does. We feel his frustration with the Archduchess as he does not return her affections. We follow Orlando as he leaves England behind to become the King's Ambassador to Constantinople. We wake up with her when she finds herself suddenly, but not surprisingly a woman. We travel through the hills with her and the gypsies. We join her on her voyage home to England and watch as she begins life in a new era. We watch her run away from love and finally embrace it.

It's interesting to see the way even as her physical gender shifts, her psychology stays the same. The Lady Orlando frequently goes about in men's clothing and finds herself engaging in affairs with women. There's nothing that the Lord Orlando would want to do or experience that the Lady Orlando does not embrace with equal fervor and abandon.

I enjoyed the way the book tackled the behaviors that are expected for men and women and the way our attitudes can be shaped towards another person based solely on their gender. Even though the book was written close to a century ago, many of those notions remain with us, and are things some of us will struggle with even today.

Whether it's being teased for being an effeminate man or rebuked for being too strong willed as a woman, society still tries to put us each in a little box and tries to define us. What's appealing about Orlando's character then is her refusal to be defined and her acceptance only of her own definition of self.

Judging A Book By Its Cover

In theory I know that this is bad, but I do it all the time. If a book has a pretty or interesting cover I'm going to pick it up and look it over. If it's especially pretty, I just might bring it home regardless of the story. Occasionally I'll get lucky and find a set of books that are just gorgeous.

One set that I've been working on collecting is the Clothbound Classics set by Penguin. They're simple and beautiful, and I think they make a statement grouped together. I have to admit, I stalk Amazon to see when there are more books being released in the set. I think I have two or three pre-ordered as I type this.

I actually have them all over the house. Most of them, as pictured below, are in our main living room mixed in with the Big guy's collection of decanters and some other fun mementos from trips we've taken.

 

I also keep some on our mantle. I rotate these depending on the time of year. Right now, it's all the blue ones since I'm going for a wintry feel. I've done black/gray/scary books at Halloween, brown/beige at Thanksgiving, and usually keep ones with magenta accents up all year round.

I also have a few sets that I keep in our guest room. The first is the series of 5 Virginia Woolf books that I love for the dust covers. Normally I don't keep dust covers, but I made an exception for these.

 

There's another set that I've picked up for the dust cover designs, and those are the F. Scott Fitzgerald books. I love the art-deco flair on these designs. Not surprising, they heavily influenced the vibe I have overall on our guest room.

 

What about you? Are there any books that you've picked up, or maybe even hunted down, because of their design or because they were part of a series?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! 

I hope you're all enjoying a wonderful day filled with relaxation and fun, and if you need it recovering from whatever celebrations you had last night. I will be doing all of those things. I'm also going through and ampping out some new post ideas and the books I'll be talking about throughout 2014. 

It's hard to believe it's a new year already. I feel like we were all just talking about 2013 starting and our resolutions for the new year that has far too quickly become last year. I'm excited though. I love the potential that comes with the beginning of a new year. It's a great time for making a fresh start, getting rid of clutter, and doing things differntly. It's a good feeling. 

I'll be finishing up some plans, reading a bit more, and coming back next week to start off the posts for the year. I'll see you all then!

A Christmas Carol- Stage and Screen

The Big Guy and I have a few holiday traditions that we've adopted over the past few years. Two of those traditions involve A Christmas Carol.

The weekend after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas decorations. Once that's done and the house is all festive, we sit down with some hot chocolate or spiced cider and we watch the Muppet version of the movie. This tradition is actually one that my husband has been doing for a very long time. I love the innocence of the movie and the changes that were made so that the story would be better for children. It's become how we kick off the holiday season.

Our second tradition is going to see a live production at the Indiana Repertory Theatre. I've mentioned the IRT before, and this is one of the performances that makes me excited to have season tickets. There are always slight differences from year to year, but we always love it. If you're in Indianapolis this season, take a look at their website (www.irtlive.com) for tickets.

A Christmas Cocktail Oops

Every now and again when I sit down to make a cocktail, I have something specific in mind. Then when I go to make that cocktail, what I want is not exactly what I get. For example, to go with A Christmas Carol, I wanted something that would combine some of the flavors and aromas that I associate with the holidays.

I mixed some apple cider with orange/cranberry infused vodka. I was expecting something with a little holiday spice and a general cozy feeling. That's not what I got. The flavor was good, really good, but not at all what I expected. There's a hint of vanilla, which plays nicely off of everything else in the glass, but it's not that cozy spicy cider flavor I had in mind.

I tried this same combination later with warmed cider and it was much, much better. Not ever recipe starts off as a gem. Just keepin' it real.

A Christmas Carol

I love Christmas. This time of year is my favorite for a variety of reasons. So I decided to celebrate by reading some books that I associate with the holidays. Next up, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.

The story has been told many times, and with many variations, but it always seems to resonate. I think we all like a story about second chances and redemption. I think we especially like it at Christmas time- the time of year that seems to be devoted to forgiveness and seeing the best in those around you.

This isn't the easiest book to read. That's not because of the subject matter, simply the fact that it's Dickens. Anyone who's read one of his other works knows how the language can get a bit cumbersome. However, it's worth the added work to read the original.

I think it's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle and the commercial side of the holidays. Especially when stores open on Thanksgiving. Seriously, I hope no one reading this supported that by actually going. It was a pretty disgusting display of the drive to have the best at any cost and only think about the money side of things. I decided not to go to any of those stores for anything this holiday season. I might even go so far as to stop shopping there completely.

Even though I hated the idea, I'm sure Scrooge would have been completely supportive of it. He probably would have been one of the first on board to open early. But, we see that change. He's lost sight of the human aspects of not only the holidays, but of life in general. It's those relationships, those connections that really make us human and let us live the full range of experiences that it has to offer. Sure those are the same things that make life occasionally frustrating or hurtful, but the good parts are worth it.

That's the biggest thing that I take away from this story- not to forget about the good things that life has to offer. Getting caught up in the negative makes it so that you're only able to focus on those things. After a while that becomes all you see and all you look for, and so many wonderful things go unnoticed. Taking a step back and adjusting your focus makes it possible to see the good again. That's what Scrooge discovers, or rediscovers depending upon how you want to look at it.

It's possible to find the good in the bad, and it's possible to share that good with other people. That's the other thing that I think the story highlights. Having things is only a benefit when you can share them with those who don't have them. There are a lot of ways to do that. You can donate your money or your time, and there are so many great organizations that need the help. It's especially easy to do this time of year, but they need help all the time. We've decided to give to the humane society where we adopted our dogs. It's a charity that I feel very close to, so it was an easy choice for us. My hope is that this story somehow inspires you to do more and to give more this year and next.

The Nutcracker: Toasted Almond Martini

There were a lot of options for the drink to go along with this book. Something for the holiday would fit. Something with candy or lots of sugar would also work. After thinking it over I decided to go with something a little nutty. Specifically, almonds. 

 

It's a very simple recipe: equal parts Irish cream, coffee liqueur, and amaretto. Combine ingredients over ice in a shaker. Shake well. Strain into a martini glass. Enjoy!

The Nutcracker

The refrigerator is full of turkey and other leftovers. The decorations on the mantle have been changed up again. Lights are popping up all over the neighborhood. It feels like everything has shifted and the new focus is on Christmas. Like a lot of people, this is my favorite time of year.

One of my favorite Christmas memories is being little and getting all dressed up to go into Chicago. My mom and I took the train in from Geneva and met my dad at his office. He took the afternoon off and the four of us went around the city. The first stop on the list, and my favorite, was Marshall Fields. Their holiday window displays were pure magic. One of the best displays they did was the holiday classic The Nutcracker.

I think most of us are familiar with the story, but just in case here's my quick synopsis of this version. (Like so many classic stories, there area lot of small variations among them.) It's Christmas Eve and a little girl named Marie is given a nutcracker by her godfather. Her godfather is an eccentric man who makes all sorts of marvelous toys and clockwork things. During the night, the nutcracker comes to life and defeats the King of the Mice with Marie's help. After the King of the mice is defeated, the Nutcracker is transformed into a handsome prince. He takes Marie to his kingdom in the land of sweets and she and her nutcracker live happily ever after.

I love the magic in the story. I love the strange world that Marie and her prince visit, and the things that they see there. It's easy for me to get lost in the imagery and pulled into the beautiful world that is created by Marie's imagination, or perhaps in some fashion by her godfather.

Wuthering Heights: Hot Toddy

The characters are cold, the location is cold, and there's something about Wuthering Heights as a whole that reminds me of one of those gray November days where the chill seems to actually get inside you. I was drawn to this drink for its comforting and warming qualities. It was exactly what I needed while reading this book.

Ingredients
1-2 ounces of whiskey or bourbon
2 teaspoons honey
1 tea bag

Directions
Boil water to use in the tea. Add honey and whiskey/bourbon to a mug. Add the tea bag and boiling water to fill the mug and allow to steep.

I used a caramel herbal tea for my hot toddy and it was a really nice combination with the bourbon I used and the honey. I was pleasantly surprised with how the flavors played together. I really wanted to stay curled up under my blanket with this book and this drink.

Wuthering Heights

This book is not everyone's cup of tea, but I like it. There's also something about it that makes me want to curl up under a soft, cozy blanket with an actual steaming cup of tea. It's the description of the moors- it's like I can feel the winds. I have to admit I also feel a little cold because of the relationships in this book.

I know that a lot of people consider this to be a romance, and while I do see some aspects of a romance, it strikes me more as a power struggle. Heathcliff and Cathy are more interested in getting their way without compromising than actually finding a way to be together. They spend so much time and energy trying to win and then punish the other that they miss out on so much. They're mutual obsession becomes the source of so much unnecessary pain and torment not to only to themselves but to everyone around them. No one in this world is allowed to experience happiness.

Everyone is inextricably linked, and as much as they might want to break away from each other and from this place, they can't. Or they won't. I think that distinction is different for each character and is something that changes throughout the story.

Healthcliff goes from being welcomed into the Earnshaw household by Cathy's father, eventually being preferred by the older man to his own son, Hindley. It takes some time, but he wins Cathy over as well and sets himself up as the target for Hindley's rage when her returns home with a wife and son of his own. He remains close with Cathy, though their friendship is challenged from many directions. I think there's a time when they do truly love each other, but it doesn't last, or maybe it can't.

While she is staying at Thruscross Grange, the house closest to Wuthering Heights, recovering from a dog bite, some readers will say that she becomes infatuated with Edgar Linton. I think it's more likely that she becomes infatuated with the Linton's lifestyle. Cathy is materialistic. She wants to be surrounded by luxury and pretty things. Edgar is a means to an end; a very different end than one she could ever hope to have with Healthcliff.

Heathcliff can't take being second best to Cathy after spending so much of his life being so far below second best in everyone else's. He runs away, and stays away for three years. He returns after Cathy and Edgar are married, and embarks upon a series of actions that are motivated by revenge and a desire to prove that he's become the gentleman no one thought he could be.

He lends money to Hindley to cover the other man's debts and becomes the owner of Wuthering Heights, stealing it out from under the other man, who is far too drunk to realize what's actually going on. He marries Isabella, Edgar's sister, and treats her so horribly she takes their son, Linton, and leaves Heathcliff, spending her remaining days as far away from Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights as she dared to go. Upon her death, Linton returns to his father where he is unloved and forced into marriage with Cathy and Edgar's daughter, Catherine. Edgar dies without his daughter, as she's basically being held prisoner at Wuthering Heights, and shortly after Linton dies as well. Catherine stays at Wuthering Heights and slowly finds herself in love with Hindley's son Hareton, who has in many ways been brought up exactly as Heathcliff was.

It's interesting to consider how hard Heathcliff fights to gain control over Wuthering Heights, and in the process over Cathy and perhaps most importantly himself. While he ultimately achieves that control, it's fleeting. He won't be able to keep Wuthering Heights forever, memories of Cathy haunt his days, and he slowly reverts to the animal he tried so hard to prove that he no longer was.

All of this is driven from his need for revenge and his need to control everything and everyone around him. In the end all of that control was just an illusion. He fought for the legal right to both Wuthering Heights and Thruscross Grange, and both fall to Cathy's daughter and Hindley's son upon Heathcliff's death and their marriage.

In the end there is a small sense of hope that Catherine and Hareton will find some true happiness in their lives. There's so much loss and hurt in the story, it's hard to imagine anyone finding something that makes them happy, but there has to be some hope. The two of them are almost a second chance, they can see what might have been for Cathy and Heathcliff if they'd only given their love a chance.

Spooky Books

One of the things I love about decorating for Halloween is getting our mantle all gussied up. Halloween is the first in a series of holidays that I decorate for over the next few months. I tend to keep things pretty simple with lots of black and a little sparkle.

We usually have some books on our mantle, but I find that those titles aren't quite the right fit for the spooky season. So I went back to the bookshelf and pulled some of the darker titles to add them to the mix. They're darker in story line, and some are very appropriate to the season like Dracula, but they're also darker in color which definitely works with the rest of the items up there.

 

 

 

 

Do you find yourself making any book-related changes to match your holiday décor?

Frankenstein- Marshmallow Brain Hemmorhage

It seemed only appropriate that the drink associated with Frankenstein would have something brain related in it. For this one I did a slight variation on the traditional brain hemorrhage shot. Usually the drink calls for peach Schnapps, but since we didn't have any on hand, I used marshmallow flavored vodka instead. Very tasty substitution.

Ingredients
Bailey's Irish Cream
Marshmallow flavored vodka

Directions
Pour one part vodka into a shot glass. Add the one part Bailey's by pouring slowly to prevent the Bailey's from mixing in with the vodka. This is what makes the Bailey's look like a little bit of brain matter in the glass. This part sounds easy, but I found it to be a bit harder than I expected. The picture you see here is my third attempt. Not that the first two were wasted, no worries there, but it's good that the third one worked out ok. I have to work in the morning.

Frankenstein

I read this book while we were on the plane. It's short, so very doable even on a flight that lasts less than nine hours. I'd never read it before, but was pretty familiar with the story through the many Hollywood adaptations. Even with some familiarity there were a few things that surprised me.

I didn't find Victor Frankenstein to be a very sympathetic character. He spent more time than I would have expected hiding from or whining about his creation rather than dealing with the problems he created head on. I had more sympathy for the monster, though even there not as much as I thought I would. That makes it sound as though I didn't enjoy the book when I did.

I was pleasantly surprised by the intelligence of the monster. I expected a slow, lumbering giant, but instead the monster is incredibly agile, fast, and smarter than I think even Frankenstein could have imagined while he was working in his lab.

There are a variety of things that I think are smartly addressed, though not with completely answered questions, that make this a good read. The first is the most obvious- bioethics. At what point should Frankenstein have stopped himself? At what point should he have stopped trying to figure out if he could complete the experiment and asked whether it should be attempted at all? What responsibility did he have to the monster after it's creation? Surely there had to be a better reaction to the monster than hiding from it and leaving it to find its own way through the world.

That brings me to the next topic addressed, and one that's been covered many times before. There are so many things that we see in the way the monster is treated and repeatedly rejected that tell us about the negative effects of isolation. It's human nature to want acceptance, to want to have a. Place in society. I'm not sure that you can call the monster human, but I think the same basic desires apply to his nature.

One of the things that strikes me in the story is how cowardly Frankenstein really. Is. He never tells anyone about his connection to and his role in so much senseless violence. I think the argument can be made that in some way he is the cause for everything that happens, but I don't think you can remove all the blame from the monster. Making Frankenstein the cause implies that the monster couldn't be accountable for his own actions, and I think he's too smart for that. It would be like absolving all of us for what we do and instead punishing our parents for our actions. It's unfair to them and offensive to us.

There are a lot of things not to like about the characters in this book, and a lot of questions that may or may not be answered to every readers satisfaction. With that in mind, I think it's worth the read, especially if there's an opportunity to discuss the ideas presented and the implications that something written nearly 200 years ago still has today.

The Turn of the Screw: Screwdriver

I'm sure no one is shocked that the drink I chose for The Turn of the Screw is a screwdriver. I wanted to stick with a classic drink to go with this classic novel. Since there's a twist in the story, I added a subtle twist to the recipe.

Ingredients
Orange Juice
Cranberry-Orange Vodka

Directions
Add ice to a tall glass. Pour in 1 to 2 ounces of the vodka. Fill with orange juice.

 

It's not terribly strong, but the flavor was great. A bit richer than the normal screwdriver, it was almost a blood-orange flavor. Very appropriate for a scary story leading up to Halloween. Our cranberry-orange vodka was made by some friends. I'd make a variation of this with regular vodka, orange juice and cranberry juice. You'd get the same flavor with that blend.

The Turn of the Screw

There's something about October that makes me want to read scary stories. I love Halloween and I find that I get in a spooky sort of mood pretty early on in the month. Since I was also in the middle of prepping for a trip to the UK, it made sense that I'd be drawn to a story that took place in England.

A man has been given charge of his niece and nephew, Flora and Miles, after their parents die. He hires a governess to look after them at an estate in Essex. He leaves them completely in her care and makes it very clear that he doesn't want to be disturbed with the details of their care. She meets the children and is quickly charmed by both of them. The boy has returned from boarding school along with notice that he's actually been expelled. This is the first of several situations that has no full explanation. The governess develops a theory that it must be a horrible circumstance leading up to the expulsion, and she begins to look at the children differently.

The governess begins to see and hear things that don't make sense. Figures appear at windows and in hallways, even on the balconies of the house. they seem  to have some sinister connection to the children. What makes them sinister is their ordinariness. It's the every day nature of the ghosts that makes them frightening. The ghosts are the previous governess and one of the male employees who had a relationship with each other, and both passed away. Again, nothing is spelled out entirely, but there are many implications made about these two people, their relationship with each other, and their conduct towards the children and the other members of the household.

The governess convinces herself that these ghosts are after the children and mean to take them away. She confronts Flora about seeing her with the ghost of the former governess and Flora denies any sort of contact with or existence of a ghost. She turns against the governess and says she never wants to see her again. The governess and the housekeeper agree that the girl should go be with her uncle for a time. The governess and Miles are alone later that night and the other ghost appears. The governess tries to persuade the boy that he's not under the ghost's control only to find that he has died in her arms.

The thing I enjoyed most about The turn of the Screw by Henry James is the same thing that many readers don't like. You just never know if what the governess sees is real. There's no explanation at the end, there's no nice tying up of the loose ends, there's no tidy closure. You as the reader are left guessing whether everything the governess thinks she saw actually happened or if she had some sort of breakdown and put the children in danger herself.

I have to be honest when I say that I'm not sure which answer I think is real. I like the idea of the governess going insane or even just starting off that way. The more I think about it, the more I like that it isn't completely answered. I think what makes the work stand out from so many other stories and still interesting over 100 years after it was written is that the mystery is left unsolved. Solving it would take away something essential to the story.