The Aspern Papers and Other Stories

by Henry James, Adrian Poole (Editor)

Overview

'There's no baseness I wouldn't commit for Jeffrey Aspern's sake.' The poet Aspern, long since dead, has left behind some private papers. They are jealously guarded by an old lady, once his mistress and muse, a recluse in an old palazzo in Venice, tended by her ingenuous niece. A predatory critic is determined to seize them. What can he make of the younger woman? What are his motives? What are the papers worth and what is he prepared to pay? In all four stories collected here, including 'The Death of the Lion', 'The Figure in the Carpet', and 'The Birthplace', the figure of the artist is central. Extraordinarily prophetic, James explores the emergent new cult of the writer as celebrity, and asks, who cares about the work for itself? Can the man behind the artist ever truly be known, and does our knowledge explain the act of creativity? This new edition includes extracts from James's Prefaces and Notebooks which shed light on the genesis of the stories. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191637926
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	02/14/2013
Series:	Oxford World's Classics Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Adrian Poole has written extensively on Henry James and has edited What Maisie Knew, The American, and Washington Square for Oxford World's Classics. He is the editor of the Cambridge Companion to English Novelists (2009), The Oxford Book of Classical Verse with Jeremy Maule (1995; reissued 2000), and the author of Tragedy: a Very Short Introduction (2005).

Date of Birth:

April 15, 1843

Date of Death:

February 28, 1916

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

Attended school in France and Switzerland; Harvard Law School, 1862-63

Table of Contents

IntroductionNote on the TextsSelect BibliographyChronology'The Aspern Papers''The Death of the Lion''The Figure in the Carpet''The Birthplace'Appendix 1: extracts from James's Prefaces for the New York EditionAppendix 2: extracts from James's NotebooksAppendix 3: stage and screen versions of 'The Aspern Papers'Appendix 4: variant readingsExplanatory Notes