The unnamed narrator of Henry James' novella is an editor and literary critic obsessed with the life and work of Jeffrey Aspern, a long-deceased American poet, who died at an appropriately Romantic and tragic young age. No one is going to prevent him from bringing the secrets hidden in the paper to light for a curious public, least of all an old world spinster living out her last days in Venice, and her mousy young niece, Miss Tina. This cat-and-mouse game continues, detailed in James' inimitable manner, until it culminates in a single withering glance.
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“The Aspern Papers is haunted by the specter of past and future consummations, both achieved and desired, sexual and literary.”
— Guardian (London)
“The story moves with the rhythmic pace and tension of a mystery story; and the double climax…gives this tale…high drama.”
— Leon Edel, Pulitzer Prize-winning literary criticBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Henry James (1843–1916), American novelist, short-story writer, and man of letters, was born in Washington Place, New York, to a family of distinguished philosophers and theologians. He attended schools in New York, Boston, and throughout Europe, where he later settled. A major figure in the history of the novel, he is celebrated as a master craftsman who brought his great art and impeccable technique to bear in the development of abiding moral themes.