To read a story by Henry James is to enter a fully realized world unlike any other--a rich, perfectly crafted domain of vivid language and splendid, complex characters. Devious children, sparring lovers, capricious American girls, obtuse bachelors, sibylline spinsters, and charming Europeans populate these five fascinating "nouvelles, " which represent the author in both his early and late phases. From the apparitions of evil that haunt the governess in "The Turn of the Screw" to the startling self-scrutiny of an egotistical man in "The Beast in the Jungle, " the mysterious turnings of human behavior are coolly and masterfully observed--proving Henry James to be a master of psychological insight as well as one of the finest prose stylists of modern English literature.