The Figure in the Carpet, Henry James offers a subtle and compelling meditation on literature, criticism, and the obsessive search for meaning. Centered on the idea that a writer’s works may conceal a unifying “figure” visible only to the most attentive readers, this novella follows a narrator determined to uncover the secret at the heart of a celebrated author’s fiction.
With elegance, irony, and psychological insight, James invites readers to question not only the nature of literary ...