The Aspern Papers - The Europeans - Henry James - 1950, New Direction - L

€ 15,00

Note:
The Aspern Papers - The Europeans
by Henry James

Publisher: New Direction

Language: English | Pages: 362| Format: Hardcover
Date of publication: 1950 | Place: Norfolk, Connecticut

Description of the book
The Aspern Papers - In this classic 1888 novella, an anonymous narrator relates his obsessive quest to acquire some letters and other private documents that once belonged to the deceased Romantic poet Jeffrey Aspern. Attempting to gain access to the papers, the property of Aspern’s former mistress, he rents a room in a decaying Venetian villa where the woman lives with her aging niece. Led by his zeal into increasingly unscrupulous behavior, the narrator is faced in the end with relinquishing his heart’s desire or attaining it an an overwhelming price.
Inspired by an actual incident involving Claire Clairmont, once the mistress of Lord Byron, this masterfully written tale incorporates all those elements expected from James: psychological subtlety, deft plotting, the clash of cultures, and profoundly nuanced representation of scene, mood, and character. This volume also contains James’s celebrated Preface from the New York edition of his collected works.

The Europeans - Eugenia, the daughter of American expatriates, is the morganatic wife of a German prince, who is being urged to divorce her in favor of a state marriage. She and her artist brother, Felix, travel to Boston to meet distant cousins relatives, partially in hopes of making a wealthy marriage. 
Its wit, gaiety, and what Rebecca West calls its clear sunlit charm have made this masterly short novel one of the most popular of James’s novels.