The Aspern Papers

Excellent reading of a James masterpiece. FYI: If you're interested in more about the setting, listen to John Berendt's "City of Falling Angels." He spends time in the Venetian palazzo where James wrote the "The Aspern Papers."

Here is Henry James with a little jewel of a story set in Venice. The narrator reads as if he were of the period and the story is told perfectly, with that touch of bemused irony. I enjoyed the audio immensely. Well done.

The reader of this book has a slightly slow and drawling style that, in my opinion, perfectly fits the story. Beautifully done.

This is my first foray into James novel and I am glad I have this
audiobook to read along. As the story is told from first person narrative, it suits perfectly in audiobook form, and the accompanying music pieces are good too

Everything I have read from James has stayed with me. He is truly the master of "the fragrant character," who remains long after the book is over. Who can forget Catherine Sloper and her tyrranical father, or the lovely Charlotte Stant? The list goes on and on.

Here we meet no less memorable characters: two ladies in a crumbling palazzo and an intrepid seeker after what he believes to be truth, in addition to a literary icon who is no less present a character for being long-deceased.

Epstein's narration captures the spirit of the time and place that is Venice, and the gentle irony of the story's resolution. It is a brilliant examination of all sorts of motivations, by turns sad and comical. It's a short listen by James' standards, and well worth a quiet afternoon.

Sometimes one is drawn to a book for all the wrong reasons. Once I knew a man just like our protagonist, a man whom we suspected would stop at nothing to collect what related to his idol. When I saw Margaret Tyzack and John Carson in an episode of the old British series "Affairs of the Heart," I meant to read the book. Finally, decades later, I did. Don't you wait so long.