The Aspern Papers

Henry James' The Aspern Papers The Aspern Papers by Henry James illustrates a classic opposition throughout the story: the underestimation of the old by the young. The narrator, Aspern’s publisher, sets himself to the task of retrieving several mysterious “papers” from a former lover of his idol, and goes in with the easy confidence of a young man who never dreams that anyone, much less an elderly lady, could be not one, but in fact several, steps ahead of him at all times in his hunt for literary

Three Venetian narratives published over a period of ninety years provide the opportunity for an interesting literary synthesis. These three texts are The Aspern Papers, Death in Venice, and Don’t Look Now. The earliest of the three texts, The Aspern Papers, written by Henry James in 1888, is about what often happens when a notable or famous person dies. It explores issues of privacy surrounding death and who has “ownership” over a deceased person’s innermost thoughts and feelings. It is a scathing

KLEMENS VON METTERNICH Statesman; born at Coblenz, 15 May, 1773; died at Vienna, 11 June, 1859; son of Count Georg, Austrian envoy of the Court of Vienna at Coblenz, and Maria Beatrix, née Countess von Kageneck. He studied philosophy at the University of Strasburg, and law and diplomacy at Mainz. A journey to England completed his education. Metternich began his public career in 1801 as Austrian ambassador to the Court of Dresden. Though he had for several years prepared himself for a diplomatic