The Aspern Papers by Henry James



The Aspern Papers by Henry James, first published in 1888 in the Atlantic Monthly.

This is an unsettling novella. There are no murders or supernatural events, but the reader is left with the feeling that there could be. 
There are three main characters, or four if you count Venice, where the story is set. The city, with its winding canals, palatial houses, gondolas and squares, adds a brooding presence, despite the sunshine and gaiety.  Windows looking out over canals seem to be watching. The narrator is an unnamed American who has come to Venice to search for private papers and letters written by the now dead American poet Jeffrey Aspern. The narrator holds Aspern almost as a god, comparing his poetry to that of Shakespeare, and is obsessed with obtaining the hitherto unseen papers. These papers belong to Juliana Bordereau, a lover of Aspern in her youth. She is now a very old lady, seemingly over a hundred years old. She lives in a dilapidated, palatial mansion in Venice with her niece (or grand-niece?) Miss Tina, or Miss Tita in early versions. The ladies rarely leave the house. The mansion is far too large for two elderly ladies and their maid and they do not have the resources to make repairs. The garden is overgrown. 
It is this garden that the narrator uses to wheedle his way into the house, to be near the papers. He insists he needs a residence with a garden and rents rooms in the mansion. Juliana is at first reluctant and demands an exorbitant sum, which the narrator agrees to.  He is willing to stoop to devious means to get the letters, including intruding into Juliana's bedchamber, and is prepared to woo Miss Tina to gain her assistance.
The tension builds, as the narrator's well-thought out plan requires circumspect actions and a great deal of patience. 
The story deals with the dangerous human trait of obsession and also with the surprisingly contemporary issue of how much privacy a celebrity should be afforded. Should private letters be brought into the public domain? The novella is based on the private letters Shelley sent to Mary Shelley's step-sister, Claire Clairmont, which she kept until her death in Florence.
In the novella, Juliana is greedy, domineering and cold. She adds to the mystery surrounding her by keeping her eyes covered. Although the reader may feel some sympathy with the narrator as he attempts to claim the letters, he is a cad of dubious morals. It is left to Miss Tina to be the heroine, although doomed in love, she rises to her fate to give a satisfying ending.

      
          Gothic rating

        isolated setting:                          ðŸ•±

        brooding atmosphere:                ðŸ•±

        mental illness/obsession:            ðŸ•±

        religious reference:

       supernatural elements:

       murder:

       family secret:                               🕱

      genius/madness:                            🕱

      doomed love:                               🕱


    The Aspern Papers has a Gothic rating of     ðŸ•±ðŸ•±ðŸ•±ðŸ•±ðŸ•±ðŸ•±










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