1 h 46 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if every book you admire holds one secret—and you are the critic who keeps missing it?
In Henry James's The Figure in the Carpet, an unnamed young reviewer admires the novelist Hugh Vereker. Then a country house encounter unsettles his confidence. Vereker says one hidden design runs through all his books, yet nobody has found it. Stung and eager to prove himself, the critic begins to search.
His gifted friend George Corvick joins the hunt, as does Gwendolen Erme, a novelist engaged to Corvick. What begins as a puzzle about books becomes a test of ambition and understanding. James makes the search both comic and unsettling: can these readers grasp Vereker's meaning, or does their hunger to know get in the way?
What you’ll discover
- A mystery without crime Follow a literary hunt where the elusive prize is an idea hidden inside books.
- A critic under pressure Meet a vain, earnest narrator whose wish to understand becomes an obsession.
- Praise that misses everything Encounter Hugh Vereker, a novelist weary of admiration that overlooks what matters to him.
- Rivals in the search Watch Corvick and Gwendolen pursue the same meaning with energy and ambition.
- The pleasure of uncertainty Explore what it means to understand art through a bright but not always reliable guide.
Who will love it
For readers who love puzzles about books, writers and readers, and anyone who has argued over what a story really means. This comic and unsettling mystery explores hidden meaning and obsession.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A review stings the novelist
- The secret behind every book
- Corvick joins the hunt
- Knowing becomes a private possession
- Can a meaning be hunted down
- How James tells a riddle
Who’s who
- The narratorAn unnamed young critic, vain and eager, who is stung by Vereker's remarks and becomes obsessed with finding the secret of his books.
- Hugh VerekerA respected novelist who says his books share one hidden design, and who is weary of praise that misses it.
- George CorvickA gifted young critic and friend of the narrator, who takes up the hunt for Vereker's secret with energy and ambition.
- Gwendolen ErmeA young woman who writes novels and is engaged to Corvick, and who wants to find Vereker's meaning as keenly as the men do.
- Lady JaneThe hostess at Bayham, where the narrator meets Vereker and the whole matter begins.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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La figura nel tappeto
by Henry James · 1896
A novelist tells a young critic his books hide one secret idea, and the hunt begins to shape the lives around him.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A review stings the novelist
The story opens with the narrator, a young critic who writes for the papers. He has just published a review of the latest book by Hugh Vereker, a novelist whose work he admires. He is proud of the piece and hopes it shows how sharp he is. He is also invited to a weekend at Bayham, the house of Lady Jane, where Vereker will be a guest.
There the narrator is thrilled to find that Vereker has read his review. Hope turns to embarrassment fast. Vereker is polite, but he makes it clear that the piece, like most of the praise he receives, has missed the point. The narrator is hurt, and he is also curious, because he cannot see what he has missed.
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What is The Figure in the Carpet about?
It follows a young critic who is told by the novelist Hugh Vereker that all his books share one hidden idea. The critic and his friends then try to find it, and the hunt shapes their lives.
What does the figure in the carpet mean?
It is Vereker's image for a pattern running through all of an author's work. Seen from the right angle it is plain, but up close you see only threads. It stands for a book's deep design.
When was The Figure in the Carpet written?
Henry James published it in 1896. It is fiction, not a true story, though James drew on his own long experience of critics, reviews and the odd relation between writers and their readers.
The author
Henry James
1843–1916 · American British novelist
Henry James was born in New York City in 1843. He settled in England in 1876 and became a British citizen in 1915. He wrote novels, stories, plays, and travel books. His works include Daisy Miller (1878), The Turn of the Screw (1898), and The Ambassadors (1903). He died in London in 1916.
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