The Aspern Papers

by Henry James

Book Overview

In his quest for the personal papers of a deceased Romantic poet, an anonymous narrator finds himself faced with relinquishing his heart's desire or attaining it at an overwhelming price.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486419223
• ISBN13: 9780486419220
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.2" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

Assault on past memories

This is one of the best short novels by James, luxuriantly set in Venice. The young and unnamed narrator is an American who has developed sort of a monomania on the life and work of the deceased poet Jeffrey Aspern. He one day learns that Aspern's old mistress, Juliana, is living in Venice, in an old castle, with a niece of hers. There is word that this Juliana keeps important and revealing papers, possibly including some lost poems by Aspern and about his life. Other attempts by letter having failed, the man decides to travel to Venice in order to retrieve those treasured papers, whatever the cost. The two spinsters live in total solitude and utter poverty, so he tempts them by presenting an offer to rent a room, at a high price. Reluctantly, the women accept, and he starts then a shrewd strategy to win them into his favor, by doing things like remodelling the abandoned garden and sending them flowers every day. Little by little, he concentrates on the younger, shy, and insecure woman, until he gets her out to Saint Mark's piazza. No more will be revealed about the plot, but suffice it to say that his strategy is based on emotional assault, on the merciless and continuous smothering of every barrier the women have been building to protect their intimacy, their memories, and their secrets. Other reviewers have correctly pointed out the immorality of these moves, and it should also be said that they are depicted with a cruel sense of humor. James shows here his great skills as a narrator, his ability to transform an apparently frivolous incident into a game of chess, deceit, pure and cold manipulation, in the magnificent scenario of old Venice. Both women are perfect characters: the decrepit, wicked and also manipulative Juliana, and the niece, devoid of will, without knowledge of the world, with nothing to hold on to. In the end, the question is who is manipulating who. The main character acts with total amorality, but great intelligence. As said before, the lush depictions of Venice give the final touch to this story by one of the masters of literature.

One of the Master's Very Best

"The Aspern Papers" is one of Henry James's very best works, which makes it one of the best works in all of American literature. A lovely, slightly Gothic, highly evocative novella, it floats along on James's prose like a gondola upon one of Venice's less trafficked canals. It should be as well-known as "Daisy Miller" or "The Portrait of a Lady." Back in the day (that means the 1990's, to all you tragically unhip), this would've made a great Merchant-Ivory movie.

an excellent introduction to Henry James and his style

"The Aspern papers" is a surprisingly short, sexy and suspenseful novel. It will completely change your opinion of Henry James; he shows himself to be an master of suspense and well played out drama instead of the ambiguous pussyfooting plodder that most people think him to be. There is a definite touch of evil in this novella. It takes place in a stuffy interior world dominated by an old sinister woman in a green shade. The narrator's intentions are quite amoral and evil. The narration is deftly created through sure touches of insecurity and self pity. The trick of the unreliable narrator is used to great effect. And at no point does it seem anything other than a seamless and effective method of narration.

Brilliant and also heartbreaking

The title novella here is one of the finest examples of the entire genre. The questions underlying the narrator's intended crime (such as the problems of literary propriety, the "hauntedness" scholars feel from their literary subjects) are exquisitely handled... yet even so this story wouldn't be nearly so memorable if its expert treatment of Miss Tina's anguish weren't rendered so vividly. Her confession scene ("I can't go on... I'm too ashamed!") is one of the most moving things James ever wrote, equalled only by her strange surmounting of that anguish later in the book and by the narrator's rueful closing words.

James at His Most Modern

"The Aspern Papers" asks the question: to what extent should private information be made public and for what reason? James' book concerns the triple manipulations of people who have or want access to the private love letters written by a famous 19th century poet, Jeffrey Aspern. The sperned lover, an antique American named Juliana, has her reasons for keeping and for selling the letters (if they exist at all). A greedy and unnamed young journalist wishes to build his career on the exposure of Juliana's love affair to the Jeffrey Aspern. A spinster, Juliana's niece who shares Juliana's villa in Venice, is the "price" for the sale of the letters. Add to this the "ghost" of Jeffrey Aspern, who seems to be present around every corner, and what James has produced is a suspenseful tale of warped values, shady dealings, and the corruption of "the innocents". James' language and style may at first be daunting, but "The Aspern Papers" is a wonderful introduction to a great American writer who knew first-hand the power of psychology.