Complete Stories 1884-1891 features among its seventeen stories some of James greatest masterpieces, among them The Aspern Papers, a stunning novella about emotional ruthlessness in the service of literary scholarship, The Lesson of the Master, an intricate study of ambition, disappointment, and the demands of a life devoted to art; Brooksmith, a moving portrait of a house servant; and the enthralling ghost story Sir Edmund Orme.