One of James best-selling longer novellas, The Aspern Papers was based on the love letters from Percy Bysshe Shelley to his wife Mary Shelley's stepsister, Claire Clairmont. The novel was heralded for demonstrating James' uncanny ability to build suspense while simultaneously developing the complexity of his characters.

The Aspern Papers is a novella by Henry James that was originally published in 1888. This work is based on the true story about a famous poet’s private papers being held by his muse. In this piece the nameless narrator, an American literary scholar, goes to Venice to find Juliana Bordereau, an old lover of Jeffrey Aspern, a famous but deceased American poet. Pretending to have an interest in Miss Bordereau’s spinster niece, Tita, he suggests that he should lodge with them at their villa in the hopes of getting his hands on the personal letters and papers left by Jeffrey Aspern.

James has created a very interesting story from this situation since it is such a short story, I don’t want to give too many plot details away. But as the obsessed narrator works his deception and manipulates the lonely and sensitive Tita, we are wondering exactly what he will do in order to get the documents. At the same time, one does have to consider the narrator’s opinion – that Juliana has a moral responsibility to share this celebrated poet’s work with his admirers.

I really enjoyed The Aspern Papers and in particular was very satisfied by how the author ended this story. I have now read three of Henry James’ novellas and have liked all of them, so it is probably time that I tackled one of his full length novels. ( )

A novella by [a:Henry James|159|Henry James|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1468309415p2/159.jpg] that studies obsession and the lengths to which a person will go to satisfy his curiosity about the life of another, [b:The Aspern Papers|214528|The Aspern Papers|Henry James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388368881l/214528._SY75_.jpg|207680], is grounded in a tidbit of history. The story takes place in Venice in the 19th Century, where a publisher/critic attempts to wrestle private letters from a very elderly lady who was once involved with a famous poet, Jeffrey Aspern. To this end, he finagles lodgings in the lady’s villa and attempts to enlist the aid of her niece in procuring the “papers”.

The tidbit of history would be that of Claire Clairmont, half-sister to Mary Shelley and perhaps Percy Bysshe Shelley’s lover. She was absolutely the lover of Lord Byron, and bore him a daughter who only survived to the age of five. It is easy to imagine what her letters and memorabilia would have meant to those interested in these men, but she was close and shared very little with anyone who might take it public.

Knowing [b:The Aspern Papers|214528|The Aspern Papers|Henry James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388368881l/214528._SY75_.jpg|207680]’ crotchety old grand dame is based on a real person made it somewhat sadder to me. I wondered if James felt empathy with Clairmont, since he would, himself, have known what it was to have others wish to pry too deeply into your personal life and memories. That he allows her to keep her secrets in the end would suggest to me that he at least felt she was right in guarding them. On the other hand, he hardly made her an admirable or sympathetic character. In fact, you would find the interloper quite despicable were it not for the unpleasant character of his intended victim.

[b:The Turn of the Screw|12948|The Turn of the Screw|Henry James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567172392l/12948._SY75_.jpg|990886] has long been my favorite novella. There are depths to it that cause me to revisit it over and over again. The Aspern Papers is of the same quality, if less complex, and I can see that James is a master at tapping the internal struggles of human beings. To fully understand and appreciate this work, you must study each of the three main characters, what motivates them and what they are willing to do to have the thing they want.

[a:Edith Wharton|16|Edith Wharton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1484512230p2/16.jpg], a master of the human condition herself, considered Henry James to be the finest writer she had ever met. Who am I to argue with such an informed opinion?

I am planning a read of [b:The Wings of the Dove|124272|The Wings of the Dove|Henry James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320514843l/124272._SY75_.jpg|121908] in September, and looking forward to more Henry James, an author I have obviously neglected for far too long.


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"Se supone que las mujeres dificílmente son capaces de elevarse a una visión amplia y libre de cosa alguna, de algo que haya que hacer; pero a veces conciben una idea audaz- que un hhombre sería incapaz de imaginar- con singular serenidad".; "Uno no defiende a su dios; el dios constituye en sí mismo una defensa". ( )

I love late James, but there's also a lot to be said for this sweet spot in the middle period. The sentences unfurl in a slightly less complicated way, the ideas are more evident, the characters less opaque, their thoughts less interminable. The Aspern Papers is my ideal beach read: I can lie back and enjoy the plot and paragraphs, I don't have to parse the language, and at the end I still feel like I've done my brain some good and become a better person. Also a very Venetian book; I hope to read it in Venice one day.

Unfortunately, it's hard to take seriously the idea that a literary critic would get this excited about the personal papers of a nineteenth century American poet. Why bother, really? What could you possibly learn? I just pretended it was actually about Gerard Manley Hopkins. ( )