The Turn of the Screw (附MP3)

亨利．詹姆士（Henry James, 1843– 1916），美國作家。父親老亨利．詹姆斯是著名學者，兄長威廉．詹姆斯（William James）是知名的哲學家和心理學家。亨利．詹姆士一生未娶，但社交生活活躍，長期旅居歐洲，對十九世紀末的歐美上層生活有入微的觀察。他一生創作小說二十餘部，也寫了許多短篇故事、中篇小說、劇本、雜誌文章和旅遊書籍。《碧廬冤孽》（The Turn of the Screw ），是一則知名的鬼故事。在十九世紀末，鬼故事盛行，人們很著迷於超自然力量。故事的主人翁是一位年輕的女家庭教師，講述自己的親身遭遇。女家庭教師受雇於一位年輕英俊的男子，負責照顧年幼的姪子和姪女。他們住在碧廬（Bly）鄉間的一座大房子裡，女家庭教師在這裡看到了（或是自以為看到了）兩位過世的鬼魂。她確信兩個鬼魂可以跟孩子溝通，而且鬼魂還打算傷害孩子，於是她決定要把自己的學生救出來。但是，是孩子們真的身陷危險之中，還是女家庭教師精神錯亂了？作者將結局留給讀者去思考。Published in 1898, The Turn of the Screw is Henry James’s best-known ghost story. Ghost stories were very popular at the end of the 19th century, when there was also much interest in the supernatural.James begins his novella with a prologue, an introduction to the main story. A group of friends is spending Christmas together in an old country house. One evening they decide to tell each other ghost stories. One of the guests says that he once read a very frightening one. Of course everyone wants to hear it, so he has the pages of the story sent from his house in London. A couple of nights later he reads it to his friends. The story forms the main part of the novella. It is written by a young governess about her first job.She is employed by a young, handsome man to look after his young nephew and niece—Miles aged 10 and Flora aged 8. They live in a large house in the country called Bly and they are both very beautiful and good. Soon after her arrival the governess sees—or imagines she sees—the evil ghosts of two dead servants, a man called Quint and a woman called Miss Jessel. She is convinced that the ghosts are communicating with the children and that they are going to hurt them. She decides that she must save her pupils before it is too late.Are the children really in danger? Or is the governess mad? Henry James leaves it to the reader to decide.【Helbling文學讀本（Helbling Readers）簡介】● Helbling Classics（經典英文文學改寫）● Helbling Fiction（當代原創英文小說）全系列皆隨書附贈全文朗讀MP3。內文編排精美，採用彩色印刷，全文穿插精美插圖，單元設計豐富。除了精彩的小說之外，另編寫有：1. About the Author（作者簡介）：介紹作者，幫助認識創作背景。2. About the Book（本書簡介）：介紹故事內容概要，幫助了解故事的背景與旨意。3. Before Reading（閱前活動）：設計各種問題和活動，幫助暖身，啟發各種探討與學習。4. After Reading（閱後練習）：設計各種深入的問題和題目練習，幫助復習內容，加深英語的學習印象。5. Test（測驗）：有些讀本在閱畢之後，設計有各種測驗題目，包括文意測驗和英語練習等。6. 隨文討論：在故事行文中，另設計有針對內文情節的問題探討，幫助做啟發性的思考。【本書錄音採用英式發音】