Henry James - Sir Edmund Orme

Henry James wrote a number of ghost stories — The Turn of the Screw being the most famous. Did he believe in ghosts himself, as did many of his contemporaries? It's generally possible to find earthly interpretations, Freudian and other, for his ghosts. Sir Edmund Orme, though, is unquestionably a real ghost — except of course that James's unnamed narrator tells the story in the voice of yet a third man, and the narrator himself passes no judgments on the factual nature of what he is reporting (there's a resemblance here to The Turn of the Screw). The story has to do with two love affairs in two generations, and Sir Edmund, real or imagined, plays a role in each. In the end, then, it's still up to the reader to decide on the nature of the ghost, whether he's real or imagined. James gives you no clear answer.
(Introduction by Nicholas Clifford))