The Aspern Papers (Large Print Edition)

from Frenzie

Well written and suspenseful, but it seemed like run of the mill James to me. Which is still pretty good, mind you.

from DeltaQueen50

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 ol...

from P_S_Patrick

This is a novella of 130 pages, set in 1880's Venice. Our protagonist is a writer and critic who studies among other things the works of Jeffrey Aspern, a famous deceased American poet. He is on the trail of Aspern's undiscovered papers, which he believes to be in possession of one of his more ob...

from lkernagh

I really liked this one. Having never read any Henry James before, I figured it was best to start out with a novella, just to see if I would like the writing style. Not only did I like the writing style, I really enjoyed the calm, serene manner in which the story unfolds in that wonderful Italian...

from stillatim

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 bac...