The only novel by Henry James I have ever enjoyed was The Aspern Papers. The novel is quite short, and incredibly odd. It is the story of a critic trying to write an autobiography of his dead hero, Jeffery Aspern. Aspern's ex-lover Miss Borderau holds his letters and papers and will not share them with the critical community. Making sense of why any of these people-the narrator and the Misses Borderau-would act quite so strangely is a deeply satisfying process. Here I am sharing with you what I found. Let me know if you come up with something entirely different!

The narrator of Henry James's The Aspern Papers is led much to far by his desire for the remaining documents of his hero, held by the ancient Juliana Borderau. Yet he does not go so far as to be termed "insane." Although his actions are crazed, they are motivated by religious fervor rather than sheer lunacy. To both Juliana and the narrator, Jeffrey Aspern is God. Their methods of worship are in opposition with each other, causing the excessive behavior displayed by the narrator. He does not attempt to protect himself from the reactions of his readers-in fact, he welcomes their displeasure. He admits his wrongdoings and explains them as a result of his belief that other disciples of the great man should study the remains of Jeffrey Aspern. Extreme religious passions can lead a person to act outside of the constructs of "normal" behavior, but that does not necessarily label them insane. Throughout the novel, the narrator attempts to show himself acting rationally while the Misses Borderau operate outside of societal norms. From a critical standpoint, the abnormal behavior of both parties is caused by their zeal to uphold their belief in Jeffrey Aspern.

The narrator believes that any products of the deity are common property-to be consumed by his followers. In this he sees himself as a disciple, releasing the words of the God to the masses. His role of critic and historian is to reveal truths from the mouth of God. In this case, the god is Jeffrey Aspern. At the very beginning of the novel, the narrator claims that "[o]ne doesn't defend one's god: one's god is in himself a defense" (15). The narrator does not want to merely share his conjectures about the life of this man. He wants to get to fact, fact written in the hand of the god himself. He thinks that "[m]y eccentric private errand became a part of the general romance and the general glory-I felt even a mystic companionship, a moral fraternity with all those who in the past had been in the service of art. They had worked for beauty, for a devotion; and what else was I doing? That element was in everything that Jeffrey Aspern had written, and I was only bringing it to light" (44). This thought reveals that the narrator sees his publication as a duty to the common good. In a conversation with Juliana he goes on to question "[w]hat becomes of the work . . . of the great philosophers and poets? It's all vain words if there's nothing to measure it by" (80). The words that Jeffrey Aspern himself saw fit to publish are not enough in the narrator's view-they need to be tempered with the truths shared in private writings. The book that Cumnor and the narrator are compiling is to be Jeffrey Aspern's Bible, and the papers held by Juliana are the missing link with the life of the man they revere.

In this construct, Juliana herself becomes more than human for she has been touched by the god. The narrator mentions that her mere "presence seemed somehow to contain and express his own" (28). The idea that the note of her voice had been in Aspern's ear (30), or his desire to shake the hand that Aspern had held (34), gives her a higher status than mere mortals that had never been in Aspern's presence. The narrator realizes: "That was what the old woman represented-esoteric knowledge; and this was the idea with which my critical heart used to thrill" (44). Here he is attempting to appear a devout historian, but his statement that Juliana was representative of more than herself shows the narrator a devout Aspernian. If Aspern is the God, then "the divine Juliana" (65) is his only living representative. The narrator states that he thinks her "rather inhuman". While she replies that this is "what the poets used to call the women a hundred years ago" (66), it again shows his larger-than-life perception of her.

At the same time, Juliana's reply is representative of her own devotion to Jeffrey Aspern. While she, too, thinks of him as a god, she also knew him as a man and reveres his privacy. Aspern had probably used those same words in his portrayal of her, and now they are being corrupted by the Satanic critic. Miss Tina relates that Juliana "said he was a god" (60) in reference to Aspern, and that she said that Cumnor "was a devil" (74) in response to his letter of inquiry. In Juliana's cosmology, Aspern is Christ and the critic is the Anti-Christ. She does not want his relics, his letters to her, to be contaminated by the hands of the devil. However, she cannot destroy them because "she loves them too much" (73). The papers are her one remaining link to the man, to the God, that she has spent the rest of her life hiding from the peering eyes of the world.

She sees her papers as holy, not to be defiled by those who did not know Aspern and could not know his true intent. The narrator tells her the discoveries of critics "often lay bare the truth." She replies that "[t]he truth is God's, it isn't man's: we had better leave it alone Who can judge of it?-who can say?" (79). The truth that she holds is Jeffrey Aspern's, and she alone can judge it as the intended recipient. From the papers, critics could only discern lies. While both Juliana and the narrator, in their religiosity for Aspern, think that their aims are for a higher truth, their ends are utterly at odds with each other. Because the relics are under Juliana's power, the narrator is forced to be subservient to her whims or to act outside of the boundaries of decency. It is this mania that cause him to act (or think) in ways that could be seen as insane.

James, Henry. The Aspern Papers. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Co. Inc., 1994.




Recommended: Yes