The Aspern Papers By Henry James - Illustrated

How is this book unique? Font adjustments & biography included Unabridged (100% Original content) Illustrated About The Aspern Papers by Henry James The Aspern Papers by Henry James is a classic novella, an anonymous narrator relates his obsessive quest to acquire some letters and other private documents that once belonged to the deceased Romantic 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 involving Claire Clairmont, once the mistress of Lord Byron, 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. 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. Reflecting many of James' own reservations about publicity and biographical exploitation, The Aspern Papers remains a powerful defense of the dignity and privacy that should be afforded all authors in life and in death.