Felony is the story of the literary treachery that took place at no. 43 via Romana, Florence, where Claire Clairmont, once lover of Lord Byron and mother of his daughter Allegra, lived until her death in 1879. It is also the story of Henry Jame's brilliant novella The Aspern Papers, which is based on that household and the nefarious doings of the lodger there, Edward Augustus Silsbee, thief and Shellyite. n Emma Tennant's novel, Claire Clairmont is nearly eighty years old. Looked after by her niece Paula and paid an exorbitant rent by Silsbee - who becomes Paula's lover to further his aim of acquiring the Shelley papers and letters at her aunt's death - Claire dotes on her great niece Georgina. It is Georgina who narrates this story from the perspective of a thirteen year old girl, in turn baffled and entranced by the gallery of rogues and blackmailers who batten on her great aunt. Who will extort the most from poor Claire, be it money, undiscovered poems by Shelley or simply anecdotes about Byron? enry James will set The Aspern Papers in Venice, not Florence, while Claire and her niece are transformed into the American Misses Bordereau. Jame's narrator will lead on the nie
- ISBN10 0224060341
- ISBN13 9780224060349
- Publish Date 14 November 2002
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 5 October 2004
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Vintage Publishing
- Imprint Jonathan Cape Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 208
- Language English