The central characters in this 1888 novelette are American expatriates, like James himself. With a decaying Venetian villa for a backdrop, the anonymous narrator relates his obsessive quest for the personal documents of a deceased Romantic poet, one Jeffrey Aspern. The narrator's zeal to possess the poet's papers leads him into increasingly unscrupulous behavior, from assuming a false identity to outright theft, and he is ultimately faced with a choice between relinquishing his heart's desire and achieving it at an overwhelming price. Inspired by an actual incident involving Claire Clairmont, once the mistress of Lord Byron, this masterly tale features all those elements we expect from James: psychological subtlety; deft plotting; the clash of cultures; and the nuances of scene, mood, and character that signify deeper meanings beneath.

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