The Two Magics

Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original hardcover edition for enjoyable reading. (Worth every penny spent!)

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A review from a turn of the century edition of "Harvard Monthly":

"The Turn of the Screw" — first of the two magics in both position and power — one finds himself start at a

disadvantage. The story," as the story won't tell; not in any literal, vulgar way.

When one has taken for granted the usual complexities of Mr. James's story-matter, has entered this novelist's world

of wire-drawn ingenuities, the substance of the present story won't be commented on easily. It is hard, at least, to

keep any comments from seeming commonplace and gratuitous. No one will be thankful for being shown the beauty, the

passion, and the dreadfulness of the tale ; for no one can contrive to miss these qualities in the reading. Nor does

it in any way need an interpreter, this story of a woman's devotion interposing between half-tangible malignities, two

"coward horrors" of corrupting evil, and the children whom they seek utterly to destroy. It may be worth while,

however, merely to say that those art mistaken who think the story so entirely a psychological allegory ; on the

contrary, the treatment of the two supernatural presences, Peter Quint and Miss Jesse], shows that in their creator

the psychologist was for once subordinated. For the author, some will say, a magic indeed ! At all events, the

allegory ranks, in dramatic, tragic qualities, almost with what is best in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The details of

that momentous struggle at Bly, the encounter with Quint on the stairs, the great final conflict for the liberation of

Miles, are the details, not of a treatise, but of an intense human tragedy.

Unwilling to let his audience go from the theatre in a mood of intensity, Mr. James has "Covering End" immediately

follow as relaxation. Here again the magic is that of woman's love bringing a wonder to pass ; but the wonder is less,

and the woman of a different type. Before, we saw a great-souled creature at a noble work of rescue ; here the rescuer

is Mrs. Gracedew of Missoura Top, whose work is that of playing a sprightly part in a pleasant comedy, who helps to

establish a young man in the house of his fathers,— and who incidentally finds herself established there. She is a

droll and altogether charming person (though one would not care to call her a real being) who carries the episode

through humorously. Relaxation, quiet amusement, are cleverly effected for the reader; and so the story succeeds in

its purpose of lessening the ugly distress of the other and greater magic.

As to the question of Mr. James's manner,— but that grain has been threshed pretty thoroughly. In the words of "My

Double," "There has been so much said, and so well said, that we shall not occupy the time " ; enough to add that in

"The Two Magics" the style is not so markedly willful as in some other recent works of Mr. James. Further criticism

one does not venture — in any literal and vulgar way.

The Two Magics