Aspen Leaves 774047

No poet dies without leaving behind a mistress, a lover, or a woman to whom he shares his secrets, and deposits a fragment of his works, letters, and poems with her. In “The Aspern Papers,” Henry James innovates the character of the poet Geoffrey Aspern, who was full of the world and preoccupied with people in his life, but he died early. However, his death does not go unnoticed, as an American publisher is curious to reveal the secrets of papers that he learned from his friends that the glorious poet had deposited with his mistress, who at that time reached the lowest age and lived behind walls of oblivion with her niece in Venice. And the ambitious publisher finds nothing to discourage him from his determination to trace the progress of those papers, seize them, and publish them publicly. In order to do so, he resorts to hiding his true identity and renting rooms in the old mistress's mansion, which has been worn out by time. Most of the events taking place in Venice are accelerating, and we witness heated dialogues in literature, culture and social life between the publisher - who is the nameless narrator - and the old mistress of the palace. Will the publisher eventually get hold of the papers and get his hands on them? What is the role of the mistress's niece in facilitating the paths for him to achieve his goals?