The Aspern Papers and Other Stories

Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-0-19-963987-8
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 131 mm x 195 mm, Gewicht: 204 g

Reihe: Oxford World's Classics

'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.

Zielgruppe

Readers of classic fiction, short stories, Henry James;students of nineteenth- and twentieth-century British and American literature, the novel, modernist literature.

Autoren/Hrsg.

James, Henry

Poole, Adrian

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Note on the Texts
Select Bibliography
Chronology
'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 Edition
Appendix 2: extracts from James's Notebooks
Appendix 3: stage and screen versions of 'The Aspern Papers'
Appendix 4: variant readings
Explanatory Notes

Über Autor(innen)

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).