Finding the Figure in the Carpet

In his 1896 short story, The Figure in the Carpet, James sets forth a riddle for his critical readers as he approaches the major phase in his career. He imagines a fictional novelist, Hugh Vereker, who tantalizes his critics with the idea of a single thread, a design woven throughout all of his major works, hidden in plain sight. The design, Vereker says, is as obvious as a foot stuck in a shoe but the distinguished novelist is convinced no one will ever see it. One critic, Corvick, however, dur