Octavio Solis’s Reviews > The Aspern Papers and Other Tales > Status Update
Octavio Solis
is on page 238 of 384
The Real Thing is the most comical of all the pieces in this book, but like the others, truly sad. As times changes and centuries turn, so do class structures and their mores. Here James poignantly portrays a well-to-do couple fallen on hard times who are willing to do anything for some meager pay, which in this case is posing for an artist who is illustrating a novel. It is their accustomed mien which undoes them.
— Apr 16, 2026 11:45PM
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Octavio Solis
is on page 256 of 384
Greville Fane. Less a story than a great sketch of a wretched writer who churns out potboilers. James is savage here, the entire thumbnail of this woman is practically composed entirely of very clever biting aphorisms.
— Apr 18, 2026 12:44AM
