James, Henry (1843-1916) American novelist and short-story writer who
is known as an artistic literary craftsman. His great themes were the
relationship between innocence and experience and the attainment of
self-knowledge. Brother of William James.
The Aspern Papers (1888)
Henry James got the idea for this novella from the account of a mistress
of Lord Byron who supposedly had in her possession several unpublished
letters by the poet and also some correspondence between Lord Byron and
Shelley. Using this as background, James creates a romantic poet named
Jeffrey Aspern whose mistress in Venice also has a series of letters from
her lover which she refuses to allow to be published. James' story follows
the narrator's efforts to secure these papers.
