The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Author Of Beltraffio, by Henry James

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Title: The Author Of Beltraffio

Author: Henry James

Release Date: June 8, 2007 [EBook #21770]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AUTHOR OF BELTRAFFIO ***

Produced by David Widger

THE AUTHOR OF BELTRAFFIO.

By Henry James

1885

PART I.

Much as I wished to see him, I had kept my letter of introduction for
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 brilliancy 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 that it was in my pocket, not to mix it with
satisfactions more superficial and usual In the little game of new
sensations that I was playing with my ingenuous mind, I wished to keep
my visit to the author of _Beltraffio_ as a trump card. It was three
years after the publication of that fascinating work, which I had read
over five times, and which now, with my riper judgment, I admire on the
whole as much as ever. This will give you about the date of my first
visit (of any duration) to England; for you will not have forgotten
the commotion--I may even say the scandal--produced by Mark Ambient's
masterpiece. It was the most complete presentation that had yet been
made of the gospel of art; it was a kind of aesthetic war-cry. People
had endeavored to sail nearer to "truth" in the cut of their sleeves
and the shape of their sideboards; but there had not as yet been, among
English novels, such an example of beauty of execution and genuineness
of substance. Nothing had been done in that line from the point of view
of art for art This was my own point of view, I may mention, when I
was twenty-five; whether it is altered now I won't take upon myself
to say--especially as the discerning reader will be able to judge for
himself. I had been in England, briefly,