The Figure in the Carpet

The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James was first published in a journal called Cosmopolis, an international monthly review in 1896. The key question is whether those books as a whole have any kind of meaning, any through line, any secret within them and if so, can the reviewer discern what it is? We are in rarefied territory here for those of us who love books and authors. What happens when we read all of Faulkner or all of George Eliot or Proust?What do we find from book to book as we watch a life and artistry unfold?