An American editor obsessed with the dead poet Jeffrey Aspern learns that Aspern’s former mistress, the aged Juliana Bordereau, still lives in a crumbling Venetian palace with her spinster niece, and may hold his letters. On a friend’s advice he talks his way in as a lodger, courting the household with flowers and gondola outings while he waits for his chance.
One of James’s finest novellas, a sharp study of literary greed and the ethics of biography. Download the free EPUB.