The Aspern Papers

Originally serialised in the Atlantic Monthly during 1888 and published in book form the same year, The Aspern Papers is a celebrated novella from the middle stage of James' career. The plot concerns the efforts of the unnamed narrator to obtain letters and papers by the fictional American poet Jeffery Aspern believed to be held by his former lover Juliana Bordereau. Pretending to be courting Bordereau's niece, the narrator gains access to the household and thinks he is within touching distance of his prize. James based the characters on Percy Bysshe Shelley and the letters he wrote to Claire Clairmont, the step sister of Mary Shelley. The Aspern Papers is rightly acclaimed as one of James' best written tales. It reads more as a suspense novel and manages to hold the reader in place until the final revelations and events over the last few pages. The theme of the literary biographer in search of undiscovered letters or papers has appeared subsequently by authors including Somerset Maugham and A.S. Byatt.