“I went to confer a favour and you will go to ask one. If they are proud you will be on the right side.”
—Henry James as Mrs. Prest, “The Aspern Papers”
Henry James was a writer of the first order, with an understanding of character astonishing in its depth, a beauty of language and atmosphere haunting in its resonance, a sense of tension that reaches out of the page to lock around the reader’s throat, and a grasp of grammar like a half-nelson. But where he really excelled was in plotting.
Today let’s dissect the plot of his extraordinary story “The Aspern Papers”. . .
Read the full essay on Pulp Rag.