NOTE: Today’s book review was inspired by another book entitled Letters. That book was a memoir of scientist and storyteller Dr. Oliver Sacks, told through a lifetime of his personal correspondence with friends, family, patients and many other interesting people. Over the course of his letter writing, Dr. Sacks often made reference to the written works of others. Today’s book is one such work that he referenced.
The Context in Which Dr. Sacks Made Reference to The Short Stories of Henry James
The Short Stories of Henry James is mentioned on page no. 29 of the book Letters by Dr. Sacks. He mentions this anthology in a letter to his parents, Elise and Samuel Sacks, dated October 15, 1960. This particular letter was written only four days after he had written to his friend Jonathan Miller about the joy with which he was exploring the sexual side of what San Francisco had to offer and of his search for poet Thom Gunn. Today’s letter is a study in contrast. It covers very mundane topics and makes no reference at all to Dr. Sacks’ sexual lifestyle, which was still a secret that he kept from his family in England.
“Last weekend I spent idly by myself, lying in the sun and reading in the immense Golden Gate Park all Saturday (I finished Henry James’ short stories and devoured the autobiography of Charles Darwin).”
A Brief Outline of the Plot of the Henry James Short Story entitled The Aspern Papers
***In the anthology that I read, there were seven or eight short stories in all to cover. I read them all but don’t feel it necessary to discuss each story in full. Instead, I will focus on the short story entitled The Aspern Papers, as I found the backstory to that to be interesting. I will do more of an overview of Henry James and his literary themes in the closing section of this post.
All of the stories contained in this anthology explored themes revolving around the act of writing and how creativity intersects with everyday life. The Aspern Papers is based on a true story and revolves around the question of how much privacy public figures should be allowed to maintain. The idea for this story centres on the real-life saga of some of the most famous literary figures of our time including feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, her daughter Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein), the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (with whom Mary was married) and fellow Romantic era poet Lord Byron, along with Mary Shelley’s step-sister Claire Clairmont. Long story short, Claire Clairmont lived with her step sister and her husband after they wed and had moved abroad. Because Percy Shelley and Lord Byron were friends, Claire Clairmont and Lord Byron became acquainted and eventually had an affair that resulted in the birth of an illegitimate child. Lord Byron died in his thirties, leaving Claire Clairmont to live a long life alone as a widow. In her possession until her death was a stack of correspondence that Byron had written to her during the time of her affair. Many people thought that those letters should have been made public so as to become part of the historical record of the time. Clairmont, on the other hand, fought to keep the contents of her relationship with Lord Byron private because it was all of such a highly personal nature to her. Based on this background, Henry James created his own version of events in a short story that he named The Aspern Papers.
The storyline of The Aspern Papers follows the real events of the Lord Byron/Claire Cairemont story faithfully. In it, a nameless publisher comes to Venice in search of the private letters of a famous dead poet named Aspern. He comes to learn that the letters are held by a spinster in a mansion. The publisher begins a quest to ingratiate his way into her house and her life by renting some rooms from her and pretending to be a working writer in search of inspiration. Along the way, we learn that the spinster in question is being cared for by her niece who, as a result of her responsibilities, is as equally a spinster as the older lady is. The Aspern Papers then becomes a chess match of a psychological thriller in which personal connections are established and manipulated in both directions, to the point where it appears the two women know exactly what the “writer” is after and the writer knows that they know and yet, the plot advances all the same. I won’t spoil the ending by revealing it here but, rest assured, James comes up with a resolution that is thought-provoking and appropriate under the circumstances.
My Thoughts on the Short Stories of Henry James (for what that is worth)
Henry James is a very important writer in the history of modern literature. He was an American who eventually settled for a time in Europe. Many of his novels and short stories involve some sort of storyline in which the contrast of cultures between America and older, more established Europe play out. James is also one of writers who helped make the literary transition from the traditional storywriting of the past to the more modern styles writers such as T.S. Eliot, Franz Kafka and others.
The series of short stories contained in the anthology that I read were all written in and around 1880. In the late 1880s specifically, James was consumed with thoughts involving the act of creativity in all of its various facets and ramifications. In the first short story entitled The Author of Beltraffio, Henry James explored the impact of living a fully creative life on family life and whether the pursuit of creative excellence was, at all, compatible with maintaining healthy loving familial relationships. In The Aspern Papers, as we have seen, the topic under discussion was the right to privacy of public figures who create art, literary or otherwise. In The Lesson of the Master, a younger writer is tricked by an older, more established writer into giving up a chance on love because of the distraction that sexual lovers cause on a writer’s creative thought processes. The older writer then swoops in and scoops up the young lover for himself, allowing the younger writer to ponder which holds more value to him…love or writing? The final short story I will offer a brief comment on is The Figure in the Carpet . This story may have actually been my favourite of the eight contained in this anthology. It involves a nameless narrator on a quest to discover the hidden meaning in his favourite author’s stories. The author replies cryptically that the unifying themes he employs are hidden in plain sight in his stories, the same way that individual fibres in a tapestry reveal shapes and hidden figures when viewed in combination with other fibres and colours. The quest dies when the author and a second character, to whom the author revealed his secret, both die, leaving the nameless narrator on the brink of insanity. The phrase finding the figure in the carpet has now become commonly used by those who study literature and the bodies of work produced over time by authors and poets.
Overall, I found Henry James to be a wonderful writer both, in the sense of the language he uses in his sentences and in how he builds his characters and storylines up, little by little, using the smallest of details in important ways. I will share one such excerpt to illustrate this. The excerpt I am enclosing comes from The Aspern Papers. At one point in the psychological dance that the publisher has with the spinster and her niece, the publisher decides that the best way to earn the trust of the old lady is by earning the love and trust of the niece. So he begins to engage in a slow dance of seduction with her. One of the things he does is to fix the gardens outside of the spinster’s window (which had fallen into neglect). One starry evening, while standing in the garden, the publisher looks up at the spinster’s window (where he knows the niece is, too) and is reminded of Romeo and Juliet.
“One evening in the middle of July I came home earlier than usual and instead of going up to my quarters made my way to the garden. The temperature was very high; it was such a night as one would gladly have spent in the open air and I was in no hurry to go to bed. I had floated home in my gondola, listening to the slow splash of the oar in the dark canals, and now the only thought that solicited me was the vague reflection that it would be pleasant to recline at one’s length in the fragrant darkness on a garden bench. The breath of the garden gave consistency to my purpose. It was delicious – just such an air as must have trembled with Romeo’s vows when he stood among the flowers and raised his arms to his mistress’s balcony. I looked up at the window of the palace to see if by chance the example of Verona had been followed; but everything was dim, as usual, and everything was still. Juliana (The old spinster), on summer nights in her youth, might have murmured down from open windows at Jeffrey Aspern, but Miss Tita (the niece) was not a poet’s mistress any more than I was a poet.” Henry James from The Aspern Papers.
I can look at someone like Henry James and see why someone like Oliver Sacks would be drawn to him. They both were experiencing the same contrasts between living in England and living in America. Both men viewed their world through a storyteller’s lens, as well, even if Dr. Sacks hadn’t quite realized that aspect of his destiny yet. But generally speaking, I imagine that Dr. Sacks probably just enjoyed the wordsmithery that Henry James employed with such aplomb in his stories and novels. Henry James is highly regarded as a writer for a reason. I enjoyed reading his anthology and imagine that Dr. Sacks did as well. I also imagine that his parents would have been familiar with the work of Henry James and thus, it was suitably benign conversational fodder to include in a letter back home. If you are interested in reading the work of an excellent storyteller at the height of his storytelling powers then you would be well served by reading some of his work. James is more noted for his novels but is equally respected for his short stories, too. It is one of those situations where both choices are good, choose to serve your own taste and circumstances.
The link to the official website for Henry James can be found here.
The link to the official website for Golden Gate Park in San Francisco can be found here.
The link to the official website for Venice, Italy can be found here.
The link to the official website for Dr. Oliver Sacks can be found here.
***As always, all original content contained within this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this post shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2025 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com
I must confess that I have not read any of Henry Jane’s’ work, but after reading the excerpt, I look forward to exploring his work. Having been in Venice, I could hear the splash of the oar and smell the scents of the garden as if I were there. Thank you for nudging me into a different author.
I am new to James as well. I enjoyed what I found so, hopefully, you will, too. Take care, Jan. Bye for now.