Neat questions, but my reading of Hartley, though extensive at the time, is so long ago that I'm not sure my opinion is worth much. Yes, I think he was a yea-sayer. Have I read anything by Metcalfe other than "The Bad Lands"? I agree about Henry James. Incidentally, though The Turn of the Screw ends with Miles's death, the oft-unmentioned framework set up at the story's beginning establishes that, after her term at Bly was over, the governess secured further employment and was remembered with affection. This counts strongly against the interpretation of the story that wants to have her as a woman profoundly messed up on account of sexual frustration.