The Aspern Papers

By: Henry James

Narrated by: Adrian Cronauer

An editor and literary critic becomes obsessed with the life and work of poet Jeffrey Aspern, who long ago died at a Romantic and tragic young age. Now, the editor pursues the only living person to have known Aspern - the 80-year-old Juliana Bordereau. But more than memories of Aspern, Juliana has secreted away papers belonging to the poet - papers she would rather see burned than passed on to future generations.

As the editor roams the canals of Venice attempting to wheedle the papers out of the old woman, Juliana relives memories of the poet she knew for so long. Meanwhile, her live-in companion, her spinster cousin Miss Tita, plots an escape from her sheltered life. Could those notes and letters play a role in her escape? In his usual manner, Henry James weaves these strands together in a moment that culminates in a single withering glance.

Public Domain (P)1999 Recorded Books, Inc.

A good straightforward reading

What I like about Cronauer's reading is that he is subtle in depicting the voices and emotions of the characters. For me, listening to this recording is close to the experience of reading the Henry James text.

Oh, human nature

As a great fan of Henry James, I was delighted to find this novella on Audible.
I found this main character to be his most detestable of them all. While James’ lead male characters are often arrogant- this one (who is unnamed and functions as narrator) seems to have absolutely no moral compass. I found myself feeling quite angry with him. Being privy to his innermost thoughts and rationalizations was cringeworthy. I couldn’t wait to find out the ending. Isn’t that mark of a great author!

A wonderful, bittersweet experience with great rewards

It’s a truly great story. It’s my first time hearing it, having read it in print twice.
The reader is very good, but goes just a little bit too fast fir my liking. I enjoyed his reading best when I slowed it down to .9x speed.

Not That Good

This story had a very interesting premise, and I wanted to give Henry James a try. Unfortunately, the story did not prove to be as well written as I hoped it would be. I thought the narrator‘s performance was mediocre at best, even with the characters are expressing great emotions. He didn’t seem to make much effort towards giving each character different voices.

Poor sound quality

This recording is only available in formats 1 or 2. I downloaded the format 2 version and found the sound quality so poor I could not even complete the book. I usually download format 3 for my MuVo, so I was very surprised by the difference one level made.