Henry James

The Aspern Papers (1888), novella by Henry James

The Aspern Papers is a novella written by Henry James, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1888, with its first book publication later in the same year. One of James' best-known and most acclaimed longer tales, The Aspern Papers is based on the letters Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to Mary Shelley's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, who saved them until she died. Set in Venice, The Aspern Papers demonstrates James' ability to generate suspense while never neglecting the development of his characters. The Turn of the Screw, originally published in 1898, is a gothic ghost story novel written by Henry James. Due to its original content, the novel became a favourite text of academics who subscribe to New Criticism. The novel has had differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive. Many critics have tried to determine the exact nature of the evil hinted at by the story. However, others have argued that the true brilliance of the novel comes with its ability to create an intimate confusion and suspense for the reader. The Liar is a short story by Henry James which first appeared in The Century Magazine in May-June 1888, and in book form the following year (Macmillan and Co., London). It is the story of a young man's dilemma when he meets a woman he used to love, and finds her married to a man of a vile, dishonest nature. Concerned that her own purity has been spoilt, he tests her to see whether she is only shielding her husband out of love, and is shocked to find that she will go even to the lengths of sacrificing an innocent victim rather than admitting her husband's true character. Oliver Lyon, a successful artist, is lodging at the house of an elderly baronet, Sir David, whose portrait he has been engaged to paint. At diner on the night of his arrival he recognises among the company a woman with whom he used to be in love. He has not seen her for twelve years, and knows her to be married. Her husband, Colonel Clement Capadose, is a brilliant and handsome gentleman with whom she appeared to be very much in love, and Lyon, having accepted her as something unattainable to him, feels no real jealousy towards him, being satisfied with her apparent happiness. He at first admires the Colonel, but over the course of the diner, when he narrates a good many improbable stories that Lyon cannot believe, his opinion of him is rather altered, although he imputes it to a romantic tendency on the Colonel's part. However, he is rather startled by what appears a plain lie when the colonel tells him of a recent occurrence in the house, which his host Arthur Ashmore, the son of Sir David, states to be completely false.