The Aspern Papers by Henry James

A summer in Venice, gondolas gliding to the Piazzetta, and the love letters of a world-famous poet. James wrote this in 1888, but his themes of privacy and the heart are as vibrant today.

Our unnamed narrator arrives in Venice determined to find the rumored correspondence between the late poet Jeffrey Aspern and the love of his youth, Miss Juliana Bordereau, to complete his new biography. Miss Bordereau is now shrunken with age and in poor health, tended by her elderly spinster niece Miss Tina. Barely surviving on a meager allowance, they have sequestered themselves in a dilapidated palace of dark, empty rooms, their social vibrancy long past. He persuedes them to rent rooms to him for good money, under the pretext he will restore their disused garden. Slowly winning the trust and friendship of Miss Tina, they enjoy conversation together and gondola rides in the sea breeze. She confirms there is a bundle of letters that Miss Bordereau will never part with, hidden in the house, and doesn't reject him when she discovers his true motive. Being a Henry James novel, there is a devastating twist to his endeavours after he has come so close to success but cannot take one final step.

This story is filled with the fading grandeur of Venice. The two women seem resigned to their fate of loneliness, waiting out the days in silence, until this young man opens the windows. James based this on the letters Percy Shelley wrote to Mary Shelley's stepsister Claire Clairmont, which she preserved until her death. Adapted for radio, opera, stage, TV, and seven film adaptations including The Lost Moment (1947) starring Susan Hayward and Robert Cummings, and The Aspern Papers (2018) starring Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson. Vanessa Redgrave won the Olivier Award for the London stage play in 1984.

1888 / Hardcover / 300 pages

My other reviews of Henry James:

Daisy Miller

The Turn of the Screw

The Lesson of the Master