Henry James, The Figure in the Carpet

Mhairi Catriona Pooler (University of Aberdeen)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1896

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story

Resources

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Initially published in

Cosmopolis

magazine in January and February 1896, Henry James’s “significant fable” (

The Art of the Novel

, 225) “The Figure in the Carpet” concerns the relationship between an author and his audience and issues of literary interpretation. Published in the same year in the collection

Embarrassments

, together with “The Next Time” amongst other works, “The Figure in the Carpet” is one of several stories about writers and artists written for the most part in James’s so-called “middle period” of the late 1880s and the 1890s.

Attending a party in the wake of the publication of a review of Hugh Vereker’s new novel, the unnamed narrator encounters the novelist himself, who dismisses his critical efforts for having seen nothing of his true purpose

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1315 words

Citation: Pooler, Mhairi Catriona. "The Figure in the Carpet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 October 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=867, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Henry James, The Figure in the Carpet

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