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Daisy Miller and The Turn of the Screw
Daisy Miller and The Turn of the Screw
Nov 10, 2025 9:56 AM

Author:Henry James

Daisy Miller and The Turn of the Screw

The Penguin English Library Edition of Daisy Miller and The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

"I'm a fearful, frightful flirt! Did you ever hear of a nice girl that was not?"

This edition contains two of Henry James's most popular short works.

Travelling in Europe with her family, Daisy Miller, an exquisitely beautiful young American woman, presents her fellow-countryman Winterbourne with a dilemma he cannot resolve. Is she deliberately flouting social convention in the outspoken way she talks and acts, or is she simply ignorant of those conventions? In Daisy Miller Henry James created his first great portrait of the enigmatic and dangerously independent American woman, a figure who would come to dominate his later masterpieces.

Oscar Wilde called James's chilling The Turn of the Screw 'a most wonderful, lurid poisonous little tale'. It tells of a young governess sent to a country house to take charge of two orphans, Miles and Flora. Unsettled by a sense of intense evil within the houses, she soon becomes obsessed with the belief that malevolent forces are stalking the children in her care.

The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

Reviews

Think Da Vinci mystery; add handsome men and butterfly-inducing courage. Brilliant

—— Dolly Jones, vogue.com

A gripping read by a man who really knows what it is like in the mountains - dangerous!

—— Bear Grylls

Utterly compelling ... a real adventurer's tale packed full of mystery, intrigue and plenty of derring-do. Alex Garland's The Beach injected with far Eastern mysticism and high altitude adventure

—— Ben Fogle

History and culture as well as high altitude action - you'll be hooked

—— Adventure Travel

A razor-edged thriller

—— Peterborough Evening Telegraph

A mixture of high-octane adventure and Eastern mysticism that results in a riveting read.If you like Indiana Jones then you'll love this - Indiana for the modern age

—— No 1 Magazine

Marvellously told and wonderfully done

—— Maeve Kennedy

Such intensity ... a big book about history and violence, you can feel the blood running off the page. It is also a very personal and human book

—— Dreda Say Mitchell

First piece I've read that puts you completely into the Jewish history. A fascinating new look

—— Cahal Dallat

Gripping and visceral

—— Arifa Akbar , The Independent

'The descriptions of violence are visceral. Parts could be describing contemporary Afghanistan with only a change of names... indisputably elegant.

—— Stuart Kelly , Scotland on Sunday

Close’s sardonic, well-crafted female characters and the all-too-familiar feeling of wedding fatigue will capture a large audience

—— Metro News (New York)

This debut will ring bells... An uncanny portrait emerges of a time in life marked by too many hangovers, bad dates and bridal showers - as well as an abundance of solid friendships

—— People

It’s a pleasure to get to know the characters

—— The Columbus Dispatch

Funny and often poignant...The vignettes of White Dresses are intricate and often absurd, yet instantly relatable

—— Winnipeg Free Press

So many books...say they perfectly capture the angst and soaring joys of post-college life, but Girls in White Dresses truly does

—— Metro News (Toronto)

With a light touch and utterly believable characters, Close’s...appealing debut manages to capture the humor, heartache and cautious optimism of her protagonists

—— Kirkus Reviews

Feels like catching up with an old friend... Although the majority of the stories are humorous, they are never mean-spirited, and the friendships Close portrays feel incredibly realistic

—— National Post

Close straddles the line between melancholy and breeziness as she chronicles the exploits of recent college grads trying to make it in New York City . . . Hints at something deeper and truer: not just the adventure of being young, but the unmooring of it, too

—— Entertainment Weekly

You’ll relate, but mostly you’ll laugh as Close turns her sweet-tart wit on the dating and mating shenanigans of this tight-knit group of friends

—— Redbook

Close’s wry wit and deadpan delivery...make this debut novel a treat to read. . . . An original confection with echoes of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing and a dollop of Sex and the City

—— Shelf Awareness

Jennifer Close’s debut, Girls in White Dresses, follows a group of young women doing all the things they know they shouldn’t—falling for one’s boss, dating gay men—all while drinking far too many mimosas at other people’s weddings

—— Vogue.com

Funny... These stories will resonate with readers in the throes of the quarter-life churn

—— Publishers Weekly

What a delight! The young women in this hugely appealing book are charming, funny, rueful, poignant - just like their creator, in other words, one of the freshest and most appealing new voices in fiction. I can't wait for more work from Jennifer Close

—— Ann Packer, bestselling author of The Dive from Clausen’s Pier and Swim Back to Me

The only way to express my love for Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close is to tell you that this is the one book that I will be recommending over and over again to all of my friends. I laughed, I cried, I nodded knowingly as the characters waded their way through the hits and misses of their twenties and thirties. I can't remember the last time I loved a book as much as this one

—— Allison Winn Scotch, New York Times bestselling author of 'The One That I Want' and 'Time of My Life'

Girls In White Dresses is a dark, funny, intimate romp through boyfriends, first apartments, and great friendships - but beneath the surface lurks the jealousy, disappointment, and love that didn't quite end up the way you thought it would. Jennifer Close's brilliant, deadpan humor made me laugh so hard my own roommate thought I was nuts

—— Margot Berwin, author of Hothouse Flower

Girls in White Dresses is about a group of smart, funny, unapologetically grouchy, always-hungover female friends who kvetch their way through one another's weddings and showers, stare blearily at one another's offspring, sometimes barely tolerate one another's men, but nonetheless have one another's backs through thick and thin. Jennifer Close has written an unsentimental, frank novel about female friendship - its lifelong loyalties and unconditional love

—— Kate Christensen, PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of 'The Great Man' and 'The Astral'

I recently read a book which explores the same post-university landscape that Girls handles; Jennifer Close's Girls In White Dresses. Like Girls, it is often funny, moving and true to (my and other straight women of a certain age living in a big city) life

—— Bim Adewunmi , Guardian

Delightful… Sharply and sparely written … a great debut

—— Wendy Holden , Daily Mail, Books of the Year
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