Scan barcode
tormentademar's review
4.0
“literature was a game of skill, and skill meant courage, and courage meant honour, and honour meant passion, meant life.”
smitchy's review
3.0
A man meets his hero (a writer) and is told that he has missed the very point of this writers work. The man then embarks on a quest to uncover it, obsessing over the writers books and tells his best friend (also a fan). The best friend tells his girl friend and all three start obsessing over this supposed mystery. The best friend on his travels telegrams to say he has cracked it and is going to confirm with the writer. He then telegrams to say the writer agrees with what he has found and says he will only tell his girlfriend if she marries him. Meanwhile the guy who started it all still doesn't have a clue and is getting increasingly obsessed. The best friend marries his girlfriend and tells her but on his honeymoon manages to get himself killed in a car accident. The the writer dies. Leaving the girlfriend ( now wife) the sole possessor of this information. The guy that started it all is going bonkers and the wife is refusing to tell him as she was only told in the sacred bonds of marriage and could only do the same. Time passes wife remarries and the guy now starts to obsess over the presumed fact of the new husbands knowledge. The wife then dies in childbirth with her 2nd baby. The guy finally confronts the new husband who, it turns out, never had any idea about any of it. The guy then informs the husband of the whole thing and they are in the end both obsessed.
My thought about all this was clearly this writer wasn't very good if everyone in the world has missed whatever point he was trying to make and maybe the writer was just a pretentious twat who liked fucking with people's heads
My thought about all this was clearly this writer wasn't very good if everyone in the world has missed whatever point he was trying to make and maybe the writer was just a pretentious twat who liked fucking with people's heads
duncanvb's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Very funny that Henry James wrote a story about making your critics go insane that subsequently made his critics go insane
b3qtr1s's review
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
obscuredbyclouds's review
2.0
I didn't totally dislike this short story, but I found it very frustrating, which might have been part of the point, but which greatly diminished my reading experience. I always have this problem when authors introduce a "problem" or a riddle and then don't end up explaining it/solving it.
marlene112358's review
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
mlafaive's review
challenging
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.5
deleore's review against another edition
3.0
This is a story of patience, one that you read knowing that you will be underwhelmed. Worth a read regardless, but don't get lost looking for the Figure in the Carpet yourself.