The Author of Beltraffio is a short story by Henry James, first published in the English Illustrated Magazine in 1884. The storyteller of the story, a to some degree credulous American admirer of English author Mark Ambient, visits the essayist at his home in Surrey. The storyteller is eager about Ambient's work, particularly his most recent novel Beltraffio. He meets Ambient's wonderful however cold spouse, his debilitated seven-year-old child Dolcino, and his bizarre sister Gwendolyn. He additionally discovers that Ambient's better half firmly detests her significant other's books and thinks of them as bad and agnostic. Dolcino in the long run turns out to be substantially more sick. To "secure" him from what she sees as the noxious impact of his dad, Ambient's significant other retains the kid's medication. Excerpt: Much as I wished to see him I had kept my letter of introduction three weeks in my pocket-book. I was nervous and timid about meeting him - conscious of youth and ignorance, convinced that he was tormented by strangers, and especially by my country-people, and not exempt from the suspicion that he had the irritability as well as the dignity of genius. Moreover, the pleasure, if it should occur - for I could scarcely believe it was near at hand - would be so great that I wished to think of it in advance, to feel it there against my breast, not to mix it with satisfactions more superficial and usual.
Author
Henry James, OM (1843-1916), son of theologian Henry James Sr., brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James, was an American-born author, one of the founders and leaders of a school of realism in fiction. He spent much of his life in England and became a British subject shortly before his death. He is primarily known for a series of major novels in which he portrayed the encounter of America with Europe. His plots centered on personal relationships, the proper exercise of power in such relationships, and other moral questions. His method of writing from the point of view of a character within a tale allowed him to explore the phenomena of consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting. James insisted that writers in Great Britain and America should be allowed the greatest freedom possible in presenting their view of the world, as French authors were. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue and unreliable narrators in his own novels and tales brought a new depth and interest to realistic fiction, and foreshadowed the modernist work of the twentieth century. An extraordinarily productive writer, in addition to his voluminous works of fiction he published articles and books of travel writing, biography, autobiography, and criticism,and wrote plays, some of which were performed during his lifetime with moderate success. His theatrical work is thought to have profoundly influenced his later novels and tales.
