Les papiers d'Aspern (urspr publ 1888; utgåvan 1999)

I love late James, but there's also a lot to be said for this sweet spot in the middle period. The sentences unfurl in a slightly less complicated way, the ideas are more evident, the characters less opaque, their thoughts less interminable. The Aspern Papers is my ideal beach read: I can lie back and enjoy the plot and paragraphs, I don't have to parse the language, and at the end I still feel like I've done my brain some good and become a better person. Also a very Venetian book; I hope to read it in Venice one day.

Unfortunately, it's hard to take seriously the idea that a literary critic would get this excited about the personal papers of a nineteenth century American poet. Why bother, really? What could you possibly learn? I just pretended it was actually about Gerard Manley Hopkins. ( )

Un uomo con pochi scrupoli e un'ossessione che non lo abbandona mai; un'anziana signora che custodisce gelosamente un tesoro letterario perduto le lettere del grande poeta americano Jeffrey Aspern, suo antico amore; un'ingenua zitella che ancora sogna in rosa: questi gli ingredienti di un racconto perfetto, misurato e insieme appassionante, sullo sfondo di una Venezia torrida e remota. Composto in un periodo di ricca creatività dell'autore, il libro esplora, in modo sensibile e talora ironico, il difficile rapporto tra pubblico e privato, doveri e diritti, curiosità ed intimità, analizzando i limiti e le discrezionalità del desiderio di conoscenza.

Well written and suspenseful, but it seemed like run of the mill James to me. Which is still pretty good, mind you. ( )

In the section of his Moral Discourses entitled How a person can preserve their proper character in any situation the Stoic philosopher Epictetus says “You are the one who knows yourself – which is to say, you know how much you are worth in your own estimation, and therefore at what price you will sell yourself; because people sell themselves at different rates. Taking account of the value of externals, you see, comes at some cost to the value of one’s own character.”

I cite this quote since, in my reading of this Henry James novella, we are asked to ponder just this question as we follow the narrator’s quest for papers and letters penned by the late, great poet Jeffrey Aspern.

The first few chapters are like a work of fiction written in slow motion. But then through a series of revelations the story picks up serious momentum having the pace and timing of a detective novel, all the while suffused in the signature elegance of the author’s language, as in this scene where the narrator takes middle age Miss Tina for a ride on a warm summer evening, “We floated long and far, and though my friend gave no high-pitched voice to her glee I was sure of her full surrender. She was more than pleased, she was transported; the whole thing was an immense liberation. The gondola moved with slow strokes, to give her time to enjoy it, and she listened to the splash of the oars, which grew louder and more musically liquid as we passed into the narrow canals, as if it were a revelation of Venice.”

For me, the real philosophic and psychological juice of this fine tale comes in the closing chapter. I wouldn’t want to disclose any of the luscious details so as to spoil a reader’s fresh experience. Highly recommended.

( )

Italien, Venedig, ca 1920
Fortælleren er litterat og specielt interesseret i en Jeremy Aspern. ??? ( )