In his 1908 Preface to the New York edition of The Aspern Papers, Henry James explained that the novella was largely inspired by the story of Claire Claremont, a woman who had been the ex-lover of Romantic poet Lord Byron. James had learned that Claremont was living in Florence and had become fascinated by her background, and wrote a fictionalized version of Claremont's fate as a former muse living in an old Italian palazzo.
Claire Claremont had been closely connected to several Romantic-era literary figures; she was the step-sister of Mary Godwin Shelley, Romantic poet Percy Shelley's second wife. Claire often accompanied Mary and Percy while they traveled, and she later became Lord Byron's mistress. According to recently discovered letters of Claire's, she had romantic relationships with both Percy Shelley and Lord Byron over the course of her time spent in their circles. However, after the Romantic period had passed, Claremont remained in Florence and lived there until her death in 1879. Juliana Bordereau is based loosely off of Claire Claremont, with Aspern serving as the fictionalized, American version of Lord Byron in James's fictionalized retelling of Claremont's final days in Florence.
As James writes about Claire Claremont, The Aspern Papers explores the same conflict it portrays through the figure of the narrator and enters the realm of meta-fiction—fiction that discusses or depicts the process of writing fiction. Like the narrator writing about Aspern without having ever met him, James is writing about a historical figure that he never knew in person. However, unlike Aspern, James does not seek to become a biographer; he detaches himself from history and uses fiction in order to "understand" Claire Claremont, who had already passed away by the time that James began to write The Aspern Papers. It is also important to note that James was a highly private person himself, and was known to destroy his own letters and documents out of paranoia that someone would access them without his permission. This anxiety over private boundaries being violated is one of the central conflicts that The Aspern Papers explores.
