Reading Groups

In Short: Henry James’s “The Aspern Papers” with Sheridan Hay

$50

1 Session

Out of stock

Wednesday, 6:00 pm EDT - 7:30 pm EDT June 11, 2025

The Center for Fiction

This single-session group is held in person at The Center for Fiction. Registration includes a complimentary drink from our Café & Bar.

First published in 1888, Henry James’s long short story “The Aspern Papers” has as its inspiration a fragment of gossip passed on to James about the existence of letters between Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, still in the hands of one of Byron’s former lovers.

James takes this hint and invents the esteemed and deceased American poet, Jeffrey Aspern. A priceless cache of Aspern’s letters are reputedly held by an aging former mistress, still alive and living in sad obscurity in a beautifully evoked Venice. The unnamed narrator, a literary scholar, comes to Venice to try to get his hands on the infamous Aspern papers. Is he the noble biographer of Jeffrey Aspern he sees himself to be, or is the narrator a “publishing scoundrel” who misapprehends the emotions he unleashes in the women he courts for access to their treasure? Leon Edel, James’s own noble biographer, wrote: “The story moves with the rhythmic pace and tension of a mystery story; and the double climax … gives this tale … high drama.” It is also very funny.

What to read in advance of the meeting: Please read “The Aspern Papers” by Henry James before the first meeting. A copy of the story will be emailed to you upon registration.

Capacity: 25

Led by

Sheridan Hay

Sheridan Hay

Sheridan Hay is a writer, editor, and teacher. She holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. Her first novel, The Secret of Lost Things (Doubleday/Anchor), was a Booksense Pick, a Barnes and Noble Discover selection, shortlisted for the Border’s Original Voices Fiction Prize, and nominated for the International Impact Award. A San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and a New York Times Editor’s Choice, it was published in fourteen countries. Sheridan has led The Center for Fiction’s popular Moby Dick reading group many times, as well as leading a long-standing Henry James group, among others. Early in her career, Sheridan was an editor at Simon & Schuster and worked at HarperCollins and Penguin Books in New York and in Sydney, Australia where she was born. She is a partner in the literary development and management collaboration, Filmore Projects.

About this series

Reading Groups

Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

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