The Figure in the Carpet Henry James 9781449984373 Books
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The Figure in the Carpet, written by legendary author Henry James is widely considered to be one of the greatest books of all time. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, The Figure in the Carpet is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Henry James is highly recommended. Published by Classic Books International and beautifully produced, The Figure in the Carpet would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library.
The Figure in the Carpet Henry James 9781449984373 Books
A few years ago, I let a friend read one of my short stories, an 8-page piece based on an event from my childhood. She enjoyed it, she said, but what was the message? What was the main point? What was I trying to say with this story? I replied by asking my friend what the story had said to her. The tourists (city people) in the story, she answered, were shallow, while the locals (country-folk) had a certain wisdom to them. That was, according to my friend, the "moral" of the story. If she thought that was the message, I said, then that was it. But my friend was not satisfied. Was that what *I* (the *author*) was trying to say? I explained that what I had been trying to say (provided I even knew what this was) did not really matter; all that mattered was what the story said to each reader. My friend persisted. She wanted me to state the moral of the story, the one underlying message from the author to his readers. Why couldn't I just tell her? If she had been a literary critic, she would have been able to "figure it out," she said, so what was the point in keeping it secret? My friend, I should mention, had a master's degree in literature.Henry James' "The Figure in the Carpet" is a short story. I must state this clearly because when it comes to James it is now common for readers to see novellas everywhere. (We've gone from not seeing novellas at all to seeing them all over the place.) Many of James' so-called short stories are in fact novellas; "The Figure in the Carpet" is not one of them. (For my thoughts on the novella as a genre, please see my reviews of Doris Lessing's _Adore_, Haroldo Conti's _Southeaster_, or Tolstoy's _The Death of Ivan Ilyich_.) The text occupies 37 pages in the authoritative Library of America volume that collects James' tales from 1892 to 1898. There is definitely more to the novella than length (structure is the thing), but let's just say that for technical reasons most novellas exceed 50 pages.
The story is incredibly simple. An unnamed (as so many of James' characters are) literary critic reviews author Hugh Vereker's latest novel, then gets to meet the author, who tells him that so far not a single critic has been able to perceive the author's "little trick," his "exquisite scheme," the "primal plan" that is equated to "a complex figure in a Persian carpet." James' story follows the unnamed narrator as he tries to discern the "figure in the carpet." Other important characters are his friend George Corvick, another literary critic, who gives the narrator the opportunity to review Vereker's novel in the first place; and George's love interest Gwendolen Erme, whom he hopes to marry when her mother dies. This background romance adds a bit of tension to the story, as James alternates the literary quest with the romantic pursuit. The two threads intersect towards the end of the story, as the search for the figure in the carpet becomes more desperate and complicated.
In short: a critic tries to figure out an author's main theme. Why is "The Figure in the Carpet" such a great story, regarded as one of James' best? Numerous reasons. One might mention, for instance, James' exquisite style, which in some of his works becomes the central element, to the extent that even characters and plot become secondary, almost an excuse for the beautiful, convoluted, often irritating prose. Another reason one could cite would be the ambiguity that we "modern" readers have come to appreciate. Is there actually a "figure in the carpet"? Might not Vereker be playing with the literary critics, leading them on a wild goose chase? We never know. The story allows for both interpretations, an approach that James favored in many other tales, most notably in _The Turn of the Screw_. This "both/and" approach lets the reader decide, involving him/her in the creative process.
"The Figure in the Carpet" is also significant because it prefigures a prominent twentieth-century literary theory, that of the death of the author, expounded in the late 1960s by Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault. According to this theory (which today we may take for granted), it is the text itself that speaks, and the author is a mere function. The critic is creative. He/she does not seek to unveil the mystery woven by the author; instead, the critic participates in the creative process by investing the text with meaning based on his/her own experience, knowledge, prejudices, etc. The narrator of "The Figure in the Carpet," according to this theory, should dismiss Vereker's remarks about the underlying theme that permeates his entire oeuvre. Who cares what the author meant to say? It is what the reader gets from the text that matters. This is, in a sense, an Oedipal theory, as it symbolically kills the father figure that is the author. Going back to that friend of mine I mentioned above, I wanted her to take possession of my story and to derive her own meaning from it. Like many readers, she could not let go of the figure of authority. Interpreting a text by ourselves gives us freedom, but as we know, with freedom comes responsibility, and many readers hesitate to accept the fact that when it comes to interpretation there is no such thing as a single right answer.
It's been over fifty years since Barthes wrote his essay on the death of the author. Did the author truly die? The literary scene suggests that, in a way, Barthes was correct. In olden times, authors were members of an elite, sometimes even a clique. Take as an example the Latin American Boom and its precursors. Borges, Bioy Casares, Cortázar, García Márquez, Rulfo, Onetti, Vargas Llosa, Fuentes, Asturias, Donoso. These authors were completely different from one another; some of them were leftists, others right wing; they belonged to different cultural regions (the Southern Cone, the Caribbean, etc.); and yet they all came from virtually the same social and educational background. Today (and this is an issue that I heard Carlos Fuentes address after a reading he gave in Houston back in 2010) the literary scene has exploded: there are all kinds of authors all over the place doing all sorts of different things. Literature has, to a large extent, become democratized. What this means for the author, however, is that he/she is no longer a celebrity. Sure, Don DeLillo, Toni Morrison, and Haruki Murakami are celebrity authors (so are the writers of bestsellers, but I'm talking about literary fiction), but for most authors these days, success means limited success. The vast majority of authors these days cannot support themselves by writing. The author as authority figure seems to have died, though sometimes the publishing industry tries to resurrect him through events involving the few authors who still carry the weight of symbols. I am not, by the way, being nostalgic. I simply state a fact. Both the current situation and the ancient one have their pros and cons.
If you have not read Henry James before, "The Figure in the Carpet" is the place to begin. It contains much of what makes Henry James the great author that he is, and none of his excesses. The story is engaging and rich in implication. The characters may not be extensively developed, but then this is a short story, and as such it focuses more on plot. If you enjoy this tale, I recommend the underrated novella _The Aspern Papers_ (1888), which has just been adapted into film once again. _The Pupil_ (1891) is another very good novella (please see my review). If you have not had enough of my thoughts on James, you may find my reviews of _An International Episode_, _What Maisie Knew_, _Washington Square_, and _In the Cage_ in the appropriate places.
(Note: the free Kindle version I downloaded is missing the last paragraph of the story. I'm not taking this into consideration in my review; I am reviewing the work itself. The missing paragraph may be found online easily.)
My next text by Henry James will be the short story "Nona Vincent." I'll get to _The Portrait of a Lady_ eventually.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the book!
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The Figure in the Carpet Henry James 9781449984373 Books Reviews
Who am I to review Henry James? He uses words as no one else can. I always find him just a bit sinister.
delivered on time and as advertised
An enigmatic "ars poetica"; to be read urgently by anyone who cares about the master of masters. Beware of who claims to hold the solution of the mistery!
It is not possible to best James -and this James, not the modern one.
great!
This is one those tales that illustrates James' psychological acuity and storytelling power, while being more accessible to the harried modern reader than his major works. It is a story about our need for mystery and meaning, universal despite the setting of late 19th century literary life.
The version of this Penguin book mixes up pages near the beginning, so that we get two or three pages of James's introduction to "The Death of the Lion" interrupted by Frank Kermode's Note on the Texts, which is itself printed with its second half first and first half buried in James's introduction's second half.
It's easy to figure out what's happening and live with it, but oh when will publishers start taking even the most elementary care of their products? Penguin has a reputation to consider, after all.
The selection is good and Kermode's introduction is thorough and intelligent. The stories are all about writers and their problems with the public, with editors, and with their own works. It's ironic that such a collection should be partly ruined by sloppy commercial publishing.
A few years ago, I let a friend read one of my short stories, an 8-page piece based on an event from my childhood. She enjoyed it, she said, but what was the message? What was the main point? What was I trying to say with this story? I replied by asking my friend what the story had said to her. The tourists (city people) in the story, she answered, were shallow, while the locals (country-folk) had a certain wisdom to them. That was, according to my friend, the "moral" of the story. If she thought that was the message, I said, then that was it. But my friend was not satisfied. Was that what *I* (the *author*) was trying to say? I explained that what I had been trying to say (provided I even knew what this was) did not really matter; all that mattered was what the story said to each reader. My friend persisted. She wanted me to state the moral of the story, the one underlying message from the author to his readers. Why couldn't I just tell her? If she had been a literary critic, she would have been able to "figure it out," she said, so what was the point in keeping it secret? My friend, I should mention, had a master's degree in literature.
Henry James' "The Figure in the Carpet" is a short story. I must state this clearly because when it comes to James it is now common for readers to see novellas everywhere. (We've gone from not seeing novellas at all to seeing them all over the place.) Many of James' so-called short stories are in fact novellas; "The Figure in the Carpet" is not one of them. (For my thoughts on the novella as a genre, please see my reviews of Doris Lessing's _Adore_, Haroldo Conti's _Southeaster_, or Tolstoy's _The Death of Ivan Ilyich_.) The text occupies 37 pages in the authoritative Library of America volume that collects James' tales from 1892 to 1898. There is definitely more to the novella than length (structure is the thing), but let's just say that for technical reasons most novellas exceed 50 pages.
The story is incredibly simple. An unnamed (as so many of James' characters are) literary critic reviews author Hugh Vereker's latest novel, then gets to meet the author, who tells him that so far not a single critic has been able to perceive the author's "little trick," his "exquisite scheme," the "primal plan" that is equated to "a complex figure in a Persian carpet." James' story follows the unnamed narrator as he tries to discern the "figure in the carpet." Other important characters are his friend George Corvick, another literary critic, who gives the narrator the opportunity to review Vereker's novel in the first place; and George's love interest Gwendolen Erme, whom he hopes to marry when her mother dies. This background romance adds a bit of tension to the story, as James alternates the literary quest with the romantic pursuit. The two threads intersect towards the end of the story, as the search for the figure in the carpet becomes more desperate and complicated.
In short a critic tries to figure out an author's main theme. Why is "The Figure in the Carpet" such a great story, regarded as one of James' best? Numerous reasons. One might mention, for instance, James' exquisite style, which in some of his works becomes the central element, to the extent that even characters and plot become secondary, almost an excuse for the beautiful, convoluted, often irritating prose. Another reason one could cite would be the ambiguity that we "modern" readers have come to appreciate. Is there actually a "figure in the carpet"? Might not Vereker be playing with the literary critics, leading them on a wild goose chase? We never know. The story allows for both interpretations, an approach that James favored in many other tales, most notably in _The Turn of the Screw_. This "both/and" approach lets the reader decide, involving him/her in the creative process.
"The Figure in the Carpet" is also significant because it prefigures a prominent twentieth-century literary theory, that of the death of the author, expounded in the late 1960s by Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault. According to this theory (which today we may take for granted), it is the text itself that speaks, and the author is a mere function. The critic is creative. He/she does not seek to unveil the mystery woven by the author; instead, the critic participates in the creative process by investing the text with meaning based on his/her own experience, knowledge, prejudices, etc. The narrator of "The Figure in the Carpet," according to this theory, should dismiss Vereker's remarks about the underlying theme that permeates his entire oeuvre. Who cares what the author meant to say? It is what the reader gets from the text that matters. This is, in a sense, an Oedipal theory, as it symbolically kills the father figure that is the author. Going back to that friend of mine I mentioned above, I wanted her to take possession of my story and to derive her own meaning from it. Like many readers, she could not let go of the figure of authority. Interpreting a text by ourselves gives us freedom, but as we know, with freedom comes responsibility, and many readers hesitate to accept the fact that when it comes to interpretation there is no such thing as a single right answer.
It's been over fifty years since Barthes wrote his essay on the death of the author. Did the author truly die? The literary scene suggests that, in a way, Barthes was correct. In olden times, authors were members of an elite, sometimes even a clique. Take as an example the Latin American Boom and its precursors. Borges, Bioy Casares, Cortázar, García Márquez, Rulfo, Onetti, Vargas Llosa, Fuentes, Asturias, Donoso. These authors were completely different from one another; some of them were leftists, others right wing; they belonged to different cultural regions (the Southern Cone, the Caribbean, etc.); and yet they all came from virtually the same social and educational background. Today (and this is an issue that I heard Carlos Fuentes address after a reading he gave in Houston back in 2010) the literary scene has exploded there are all kinds of authors all over the place doing all sorts of different things. Literature has, to a large extent, become democratized. What this means for the author, however, is that he/she is no longer a celebrity. Sure, Don DeLillo, Toni Morrison, and Haruki Murakami are celebrity authors (so are the writers of bestsellers, but I'm talking about literary fiction), but for most authors these days, success means limited success. The vast majority of authors these days cannot support themselves by writing. The author as authority figure seems to have died, though sometimes the publishing industry tries to resurrect him through events involving the few authors who still carry the weight of symbols. I am not, by the way, being nostalgic. I simply state a fact. Both the current situation and the ancient one have their pros and cons.
If you have not read Henry James before, "The Figure in the Carpet" is the place to begin. It contains much of what makes Henry James the great author that he is, and none of his excesses. The story is engaging and rich in implication. The characters may not be extensively developed, but then this is a short story, and as such it focuses more on plot. If you enjoy this tale, I recommend the underrated novella _The Aspern Papers_ (1888), which has just been adapted into film once again. _The Pupil_ (1891) is another very good novella (please see my review). If you have not had enough of my thoughts on James, you may find my reviews of _An International Episode_, _What Maisie Knew_, _Washington Square_, and _In the Cage_ in the appropriate places.
(Note the free version I downloaded is missing the last paragraph of the story. I'm not taking this into consideration in my review; I am reviewing the work itself. The missing paragraph may be found online easily.)
My next text by Henry James will be the short story "Nona Vincent." I'll get to _The Portrait of a Lady_ eventually.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the book!
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