The Aspern Papers (THE GREAT CLASSICS LIBRARY)

The Aspern Papers is a novella written by Henry James, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1888, with its first book publication later in the same year. One of James' best-known and most acclaimed longer tales, The Aspern Papers, which tells the tale of a publisher's subterfuge in trying to obtain a dead poet's personal papers, is based on the letters Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to Mary Shelley's step sister, Claire Clairemont, who saved them until she died. Set in Venice, The Aspern Papers demonstrates James' ability to generate suspense while never neglecting the development of his characters.