The Turn of the Screw Tintner include "The Secret Garden" (1911), by Frances Hodgson Burnett; "Poor Girl" (1951), by Elizabeth Taylor; "The Peacock Spring" (1975), by Rumer Godden; "Ghost Story" (1975) by Peter Straub; "The Accursed Inhabitants of House Bly" (1994) by Joyce Carol Oates; and "Miles and Flora" (1997)—a sequel—by Hilary Bailey. Further literary adaptations identified by other authors include "Affinity" (1999), by Sarah Waters; "A Jealous Ghost" (2005), by A. N. Wilson; and "Florence & Giles" (2010), by John Harding. Young adult novels inspired by "The Turn of the Screw" include "The Turning" (2012) by Francine Prose and "Tighter" (2011) by Adele Griffin.
Frances Hodgson Burnett stressed the age difference—Townsend was ten years younger than she—and she referred to him as her secretary. Biographer Ann Thwaite doubts he loved her. She claims at that time the 50-year-old Burnett was "stout, rouged and unhealthy". Thwaite believes Townsend needed her to help with his acting career and support him financially. Within months, in a letter to her sister, she admitted the marriage was in trouble. She described Townsend as scarcely sane and hysterical. Thwaite argues Townsend blackmailed her into the marriage: he wanted money from her and he wanted to control her as a husband. Unable to bear