A virtuoso stylist, an underestimated master of depicting changeable emotional states by his contemporaries, a creator of unfinished and multifaceted dramatic situations, a subtle connoisseur of Russian literature, an exemplary aesthete artist who did not recognize aestheticism - all these are components of the brilliant literary reputation of the famous American prose writer Henry James (1843– 1916).

“Letters of Aspern” is one of the masterpieces of the writer’s “small” prose, the plots of which are based on the collision of European and American cultural consciousness, the “point of view” of an individual and social stereotypes, the “bookish” perception of the world and individual experience. The tragicomic search of an unlucky biographer for the lost letters of the great poet - such is the conflict of this story.

The story was included in the author's collection of Henry James "The Siege of London", published in the series "ABC Classics (pocket-book)".

Translation by Evgenia Kalashnikova.