The Aspern Papers and Other Tales, 1884-1888

The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. The nine tales in this volume, published between 1884 and 1888, include ‘The Aspern Papers’, set in Venice and featuring a devious scholar attempting to steal the letters of an American poet from his former lover, and ‘The Liar,’ on the world of painters and their models. These tales exemplify James’s continuing interest in the art of short fiction during a period which saw him responding to the stimulations of French naturalism and successfully reworking the international theme that had made him famous at the end of the 1870s. Extensive explanatory notes enable modern readers to understand the tales’ historical, cultural and literary references.