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The Aspern Papers by Michael Redgrave
This was produced in September 1966 by Phyl Bennett and was the WDG entry in the NSW Arts Council's "Country & Metropolitan Drama Festival" adjudicated by Mr Reid Douglas. It is based on the story by Henry James. The play ran for three performances, Friday 2 September, Friday 9 September and Saturday 10 September 1966, the last one of which was the adjudicated entry in the Drama Festival. The play was adapted by Michael Redgrave in 1962 from the novella written by Henry James, published in 1888. It has also been made into an opera, a movie (The Lost Moment starring Susan Hayward and Robert Cummings) and was serialised on BBC radio's A Book at Bedtime series. James was a dominant literary figure at the turn of the century (1899-1900), one of those Americans who, like the central character of the play, looked to Europe for the tradition not yet developed in his own country. He became more English than the English, a master of the grand manner and grand style. His influence lasted until Hemmingway and other younger rebels swept away the pretentiousness in the 1920s. In the story, a nameless narrator goes to Venice in order to locate Juliana Bordereau, an old lover of Jeffrey Aspern, a famous and now dead American poet. The narrator insinuates himself into the old woman's house as a lodger and flatters Miss Tita, her niece, a plain, somewhat naive spinster, in hopes of getting a look at some of Aspern's letters. When the old woman falls ill, the narrator sneaks into her room and gets caught by Juliana as he is about to rifle her desk for the letters. Juliana calls the narrator a "publishing scoundrel" and collapses. The narrator flees, and when he returns some days later, he finds that Juliana has died. Miss Tita hints that he can have the Aspern letters if he marries her. Again, the narrator flees. For a time he considers Miss Tita's proposal, but when he returns, he finds that she has burned all the letters, one by one. The narrator never sees the precious papers, but he does send Miss Tita some money for a miniature portrait of Aspern that she gave him. The Aspern Papers Programme (pdf file, 236,506 bytes) The Aspern Papers Novella by Henry James (text file, 230,566 bytes)
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