The Aspern Papers

Summary

Arguably the most popular and critically successful of James’ longer works, The Aspern Papers tells the story of a poetry enthusiast and aspiring biographer driven to desperate lengths to procure the last letters of a recently passed American poet, Jeffrey Aspern.

Attempting to gain access to the papers, the property of Aspern’s former mistress, he rents a room in a decaying Venetian villa where the woman lives with her aging niece. Led by his zeal into increasingly unscrupulous behavior, the narrator is faced in the end with relinquishing his heart’s desire or attaining it an an overwhelming price.

Inspired by an actual incident in James’ life and reflecting many of his own reservations about publicity and biographical exploitation, this masterfully written tale incorporates all those elements expected from James: psychological subtlety, deft plotting, the clash of cultures, and profoundly nuanced representation of scene, mood, and character.