The Aspern Papers, and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics)
by Henry James
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Description
An unscrupulous critic, determined to get his hands on the private papers of a great poet, finds himself duelling with the grim old lady who was once the poet's mistress and muse. Aspern's lost world of beauty and romance still seems to hand in the glamorous air of Venice, but the price ofadmission turns out to involve another party, the old woman's unmagical niece. What exactly is Aspern's admirer prepared to pay?In the other stories collected here - 'The Private Life', 'The Middle Years', show more and 'The Death of the Lion' - the elusive figure of the writer again arouses passions of pursuit and dispute among rival admirers and patrons. James never wrote more pointedly about the pleasures and pains of the writer,or more wittily about the public that seeks to profit from him. show lessTags
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KayCliff The story "Precipice-encurled" refers to "The Aspern Papers"
Member Reviews
It's perhaps easy to underestimate both how modern 'The Aspern Papers' is and what it took for James to write it. What most surprised me was the clarity of the picture it evokes of obsession and how perfectly he captures it. The last third of the book is electric with tension, not an adjective I have had cause to ever use in the other James I have read. Possibly because the potential destinations of the story are revealed so early on, I also did not feel that I was having to push against Jamesian prose to progress. The moral I take from this (yet again) - be more open minded to authors one has previously be reluctant to read.
Read during Fall 2004
I will freely admit to not really being smart enough to read Henry James and get every last bit of it but I did make my way through these four stories and mostly got something out of them. 'The Private Life' was completely baffling but I found 'The Aspern Papers' and 'The Death of the Lion' highly enjoyable.
I will freely admit to not really being smart enough to read Henry James and get every last bit of it but I did make my way through these four stories and mostly got something out of them. 'The Private Life' was completely baffling but I found 'The Aspern Papers' and 'The Death of the Lion' highly enjoyable.
Oh, I am a new fan of Henry James.
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Aspern Papers, and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics) (Oxford World's Classics)
- Original publication date
- 1983 (collection) (collection)
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Statistics
- Members
- 215
- Popularity
- 151,537
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.66)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 5
