Dec 30, 2009
A minor masterpiece, The Aspern Papers is perhaps not so familiar to nonaficionados of James as “The Beast in the Jungle” or The Turn of the Screw. Combining intrigue, seduction, and James's great gift for psychological subtlety, this tale deserves to be ranked among James's greatest short fictions.
A nameless editor who has devoted his life to publishing all the bits and scraps he can gather of the fictional American poet Jeffrey Aspern learns that Aspern's former lover, Juliana Bordereau, has kept Aspern's love letters to her. Realizing that procuring the...
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