the Ambients' marriage. Critical evaluation Critic Robert Gale, in an odd echo of James' own comments in the Notebooks, called this story "morbid," and that verdict has found some agreement among other critics. Most commentators concede that James narrates the harsh events powerfully, and that he makes the conclusion as convincing as anybody could. Ambient's weird sister has also been much appreciated as a clever satire on the self-consciously "artistic" personality. The crux for the reader is whether Ambient's wife is really capable of showing such disregard for her son's suffering, in a wildly misguided belief that the boy is better off dead than corrupted by his father's influence. While Mrs. Ambient is shown as rather cold and overly prim, she may not be convincing as such a monster to her own child. The reservations that James himself expressed about the tale's "unnatural" plot might be all too valid. References The Tales of Henry James by Edward Wagenknecht (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. 1984) A Henry James Encyclopedia by Robert L. Gale (New York: Greenwood Press 1989) Meaning in Henry James by Millicent Bell (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1991) A Companion to Henry James Studies edited by Daniel Fogel (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press 1993) The Complete Notebooks of Henry James edited by Leon Edel and Lyall Powers (2005) External links New York Edition text of The Author of Beltraffio (1909) Author's preface to the New York Edition text of The Author of Beltraffio (1909) Note on the texts of The Author of Beltraffio at the Library of America web site 1884 short stories Short stories by Henry James Works originally published in The English Illustrated Magazine