The Aspern Papers

...had taken Mrs. Prest into my confidence; in truth without her I should have made but little advance, for the fruitful idea in the whole business dropped from her friendly lips. It was she who invented the short cut, who severed the Gordian knot.

Library Journal

Based on a true incident involving the mistress of Lord Byron, James's 1888 novella portrays the narrator's obsession with acquiring the private papers of a dead poet from the man's lover. This latest addition to Dover's wonderful "Thrift" line is currently the most affordable edition available. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Henry James was a master at tracing the social boundaries of the Gilded Age -- between Old and New World, Europe and America, desire and convention, men and women. He brought an invaluably clear-eyed, and critical, sensibility to America's evolving cultural mores.