What sets mankind (and womankind) apart from any other living creature? Why are we in control? It's because we have one thing especially different, we have the ability to reason. We have the ability and the innate desire to understand things. It's for this reason that Henry James's The Turn of the Screw is both a compelling story and a physiological teaser. James's use of ambiguity is the momentum behind the novel and the motivation that urges the reader to devour this great work.

James knew what he was doing and he knew his audience even better. This book has become a classic because the probing minds that read this book find something more than an entertaining ghost story. James use of ambiguity and his constant hints at something more can be seen right down to his sentence structure, in the very first sentence of his book, "The...