The figure in the carpet is a short story sometimes considered a novella by american writer.
The figure in the carpet summary.
Summary the narrator a writer prides himself on his astute review of hugh vereker s latest novel.
Vereker dismisses his efforts explaining that all critics have missed my little point the particular thing i ve written my books most for the thing for the critic to find my secret like a complex figure in a persian carpet.
In that sense it s a kind of warning not to associate writers lives too closely with their work so i won t try to figure out what it might mean in connection with henry james own life and work.
The figure in the carpet is partly about readers and the obsessions they can sometimes develop with writers who intrigue them.
The figure in the carpet has become a short hand or idiom for the key to understanding a writer s work.
The figure in the carpet plot summary an un named literary critic feels he has successfully.