Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis
Summary
The unnamed narrator, an American editor, has
come to Venice to obtain letters of his idol, the American poet Jeffrey Aspern,
which are said to be in the possession of one of his former mistresses, Miss
Juliana Bordereau. An American expatriate of his acquaintance, Mrs. Prest,
comes to his aid after he takes her into his confidence. Miss Bordereau lives
in isolation with her niece (possibly, says Mrs. Prest, her grandniece) in a
run-down palazzo along a smaller canal. Mrs. Prest says she knows nothing about
such papers. She had tried to see Miss Bordereau after hearing that she may be
in financial straits, but Miss Bordereau's niece does not allow Mrs. Prest to
see her.
The narrator and Mrs. Prest try to determine the best way to get in to see the elderly lady. The narrator’s editor colleague, John Cumnor, had written previously asking for an introduction so that they could talk about the letters. He receives a curt reply from the niece, stating that they know nothing of such letters and that he should stop bothering them. Not wanting to face the same rejection, the narrator must come up with a way to infiltrate their confidence without identifying himself with Cumnor. He is not even sure that the letters exist, but because the niece refers to the poet as “Mr. Aspern,” Mrs. Prest thinks that this indicates an intimacy or familiarity that is unknown to the general public.
Mrs. Prest suggests that the best way to make an acquaintance is to become a friend. She advises the narrator to approach Miss Bordereau about renting rooms from her in her palazzo. He decides he will have to sink to dishonesty and hypocrisy to achieve his goal, but he decides that acquiring the letters is well worth the moral price he will pay.
Mrs. Prest insists on taking the narrator past the Bordereau palazzo in a gondola, though he has passed by the place many times since he arrived in Venice. It is an edifice of about two or three hundred years, having an air “not so much of decay as of quiet discouragement, as if it had rather missed its career.” Mrs. Prest suggests that he go in immediately to inquire about rooms, but the narrator hesitates. If he is going to lie, and to live a lie for an extended period of time, he must come up with a plan. Because he is one of Jeffrey Aspern’s editors, it is probable that Miss Bordereau will recognize his name. He has already devised a false name and had calling cards printed up bearing his new name. In order to calm suspicion that he might be connected to Cumnor, he plans to “make love” (meaning "court") the niece.
Analysis
Three major themes are introduced in the first chapter and developed throughout
the novel. As is usual in James’s works, the protagonist, as well as most of
the other characters, is flawed morally in some way. No one person is a paragon
of virtue, especially in The Aspern Papers. It is those flaws that are
the driving force of the plot, and reveal in the main character James's most
common theme—that of the frustrated individual who at the end of the story (in
the phrase James uses to describe Miss Bordereau’s palazzo) is faced with a
life of “quiet discouragement, as if it had rather missed its career.”
Obsession is the driving force of the narrator. He has made Jeffrey Aspern his “god,” and he is willing to sell his soul to achieve any measure of closeness to that...
(This entire section contains 916 words.)
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god. Mirroring perhaps some experiences that James himself had, the intrusiveness of the rabid fan wipes away all morality, all civility, all respect for privacy. The narrator becomes what is now known as a “stalker.” Though Aspern is long dead, the idea that someone is alive who has actually known him, let alone been intimate with him, drives the narrator to set aside all morals to meet Juliana Bordereau and to acquire those letters.
A second theme—dishonesty and dissimulation—provides the tool by which the narrator will satisfy his obsession. Not only does he assume a false identity, but he is prepared to assume a false infatuation in order to throw off the niece, who seems to be the more aware and suspicious of the two ladies. Yet he is not the only one who will stoop to dishonesty, as the reader will see as the story unfolds. The existence of the letters themselves is not a certainty, and the Misses Bordereau will prevaricate about them in order to keep the narrator’s interest.
The third major theme is manipulation. To satisfy his obsession, the narrator uses dishonesty in order to weasel his way into the home and the heart of the Bordereau ladies. He is willing to toy with, and destroy, the niece’s affections by pretending to love her. He will submit himself to a great deal of work and effort in order to convince the women of his false identity, thus covering up his true purposes. In return, however, readers will see both Juliana Bordereau and her niece doing a fair amount of manipulation of their own. Since James’s protagonists rarely get what they want, the outcome of the plot is suggested throughout as each of the three main characters manipulates the others for his or her own purposes, with no one coming out of the situation honorably.
