![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Written one year after “The Turn of the Screw,” the story which many consider Machen’s masterpiece shared several elements with Henry James’ chef d’oeuvre: both concern found manuscripts retelling the exploits of an unreliable female narrator who is now dead both are spurred forward by the idea of a child’s sexual violation and the imperilment of a young girl monitored by an exploitive servant both explore a naïve female’s erotic awakening both are fascinated by the motif of children wandering off to do “bad” things (which are never entirely described) and both reap a harvest of terror from the way that their youthful characters’ lack of worldliness prevents them from fully understanding (or articulating) the experiences they undergo – experiences which may either be entirely harmless, or utterly depraved. ![]()
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