4 h 24 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 4 h 24 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How far would you go for a dead poet’s letters—and whose trust would you break along the way?
In Henry James’s The Aspern Papers, an unnamed American critic comes to Venice in pursuit of private letters by Jeffrey Aspern, the poet he worships. He takes rooms in a damp, half-empty palace, hoping to reach the papers guarded by Aspern’s former lover, Juliana Bordereau.
Juliana keeps her distance, while her shy niece, Miss Tina, begins to trust the new lodger. As the critic presses closer, admiration becomes a test of conscience. He tells the story himself, inviting you to weigh his reasons against the privacy and feelings of the women in his path.
What you’ll discover
- A palace full of secrets Enter a crumbling Venetian palace where guarded rooms and a neglected garden frame the critic’s pursuit.
- Devotion turning into obsession Watch love for a poet become a hunger that makes other people’s claims seem smaller.
- A narrator worth questioning Hear the critic make his case, then decide how much of it you trust.
- Two women with stakes Meet fiercely protective Juliana and sheltered Miss Tina, whose growing trust gives the pursuit its human cost.
- No easy moral answer Consider what readers owe the living when their deepest loyalty belongs to the dead.
Who will love it
For readers who enjoy close studies of character, atmospheric settings, and moral puzzles with no easy answer. It is also good for anyone curious about Henry James.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A critic decides to hunt the papers
- He takes rooms to get inside
- The old woman guards what she owns
- Miss Tina becomes his unlikely ally
- What obsession costs the one who feels it
- A story told by the man on trial
Who’s who
- The narratorAn unnamed American editor and critic who worships the poet Jeffrey Aspern and is determined to obtain his private papers by any means that seem reasonable.
- Juliana BordereauA very old woman in Venice who was once the poet's lover, guards his letters fiercely, and cares a great deal about money.
- Miss TinaJuliana's middle-aged niece, shy and sheltered, who has spent her life caring for her aunt and who begins to trust the new lodger.
- Jeffrey AspernThe dead American poet whose memory and papers drive the whole story, though he never appears in it.
- Mrs. PrestThe narrator's friend in Venice, who tells him where the old woman lives and watches his scheme with interest.
- John CumnorThe narrator's fellow admirer of Aspern in America, who shares his devotion and his hunger for the papers.
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- Audiobook
- 4 h 24 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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The Aspern Papers
by Henry James · 1888
In Venice, a critic deceives two women to win a dead poet's private letters, testing devotion against possession.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A critic decides to hunt the papers
The narrator is an American editor and critic who has given years of his life to the memory of Jeffrey Aspern. Aspern was a poet who died young, long before the story begins, and he is treated by his admirers almost as a national treasure. The narrator and his friend John Cumnor have gathered every fact they can find about the poet's life. They have printed what they know and argued over what they do not.
But the life has a great gap, and the gap is a woman. Juliana Bordereau was Aspern's lover, and she is believed to have kept his letters and other papers. Nobody has seen them. Their value to a biographer would be enormous, because they might finally explain the man behind the poems.
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What is The Aspern Papers about?
It is about a literary critic who goes to Venice and rents rooms from an old woman and her niece. He wants the letters of a dead poet, and he is willing to deceive them to get them.
Who is Jeffrey Aspern in The Aspern Papers?
Aspern is an invented American poet, long dead by the time of the story. His admirers revere him, and his former lover, Juliana Bordereau, is thought to hold his private letters.
Is The Aspern Papers based on a true story?
Henry James drew on a real tale of a hunt for a famous Romantic poet's papers, but the characters and events are his own invention. The novella was first published in 1888.
The author
Henry James
1843–1916 · American British novelist
Henry James was born in New York City in 1843. He settled in England in 1876 and became a British citizen in 1915. He wrote novels, stories, plays, and travel books. His works include Daisy Miller (1878), The Turn of the Screw (1898), and The Ambassadors (1903). He died in London in 1916.
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