[Venice in February Reading Challenge 2012] The Aspern Papers by Henry James

I fell in love with Venice after I saw a scenic painting of it in an art book when I took painting lessons at 13. Since then, each time I think of the historic Venice, images of graceful gondolas, shimmering river canals, romantic bridges, quaint stores, and gothic architecture come into mind. American-born Henry James captured these beautiful images well and more in his novella called The Aspern Papers (1888). Hence, I joined the Venice in February Reading Challenge 2012 hosted by Snow Feathers and Dolce Belleza, which asks participants to read books about or set in Venice.

In this novella, The Aspern Papers, James displayed his keen sense of observation, proving that he did not take lightly his travels from America to Europe and back again in a period of 20 years or so. He describes Venice so well (city of exhibition, he says!) that the characters almost seem useless without the setting. Here is an example:

“I don't know why it happened that on this occasion I was more than ever struck with that queer air of sociability, of cousinship and family life, which makes up half the expression of Venice. Without streets and vehicles, the uproar of wheels, the brutality of horses, and with its little winding ways where people crowd together, where voices sound as in the corridors of a house, where the human step circulates as if it skirted the angles of furniture and shoes never wear out, the place has the character of an immense collective apartment, in which Piazza San Marco is the most ornamented corner and palaces and churches, for the rest, play the part of great divans of repose, tables of entertainment, expanses of decoration. And somehow the splendid common domicile, familiar, domestic, and resonant, also resembles a theater, with actors clicking over bridges and, in straggling processions, tripping along fondamentas.”

Now, about the story, the Aspern Papers refer to the papers that are in the possession of the the Misses Bordereau and are being haunted by the nameless narrator, obviously a biographer intent, with his partner John Cumnor, on making an accurate life story on poet Jeffrey Aspern.

“The world, as I say, had recognized Jeffrey Aspern, but Cumnor and I had recognized him most. The multitude, today, flocked to his temple, but of that temple he and I regarded ourselves as the ministers. We held, justly, as I think, that we had done more for his memory than anyone else, and we had done it by opening lights into his life. He had nothing to fear from us because he had nothing to fear from the truth...”

The narrator is prepared to do anything to get his hands on the Aspern Papers, including courting and making love to the younger Miss Tita Bordereau (eventually renamed Tina in later editions), believing that these documents shed valuable light on Aspern’s life, particularly his early death. However, his plans become awry when he was caught trespassing into the elder Juliana Bordereau’s room. 

Shortly after this incident, Juliana died. When the narrator comes back to visit, Tita hinted marriage and subtly presented the Aspern papers as a sort of bribery. But the narrator is shocked and so he flees. After much reflection, he goes back, ready to accept the proposal of marriage. However, Miss Tita bids him farewell and informs that she had burned all the Aspern letters they have the night before.

The ending revealed and somehow reinforced Juliana’s apt description of the narrator: publishing scoundrel (but not so much anymore at the conclusion of the story for the character manages to develop and outgrow his selfish thoughts). He may deny it, but his plans at the start of the story revealed part of his character:

I can arrive at the papers only by putting her off her guard, and I can put her off her guard only by ingratiating diplomatic practices. Hypocrisy, duplicity are my only chance. I am sorry for it, but for Jeffrey Aspern's sake I would do worse still. First I must take tea with her; then tackle the main job.

I immensely enjoyed reading The Aspern Papers whose, according to several sources, is  based on how someone, most likely a fanatic, tried to obtain valuable letter written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. That fanaticism, that devotion is obviously demonstrated by the unnamed narrator. The story as a whole is suspenseful, tight, and realistic.

I admire how Henry James, also author of Daiy Miller and The Turn of the Screw, effectively placed an American narrator in a European setting. He presented two worlds--that of Miss Tita where it is mysterious, beautiful, and alluring, and that of the narrator where people are assertive, if not aggressive. 

This is the second story I read by Henry James, the first one was Daisy Miller. I still have to read The Turn of the Screw and The Ambassadors.

Have you read The Aspern Papers? What are your thoughts? What other books by Henry James have you read?