"There Is a Figure in the Carpet": James, Hueffer, and Garnett

An unpublised letter from Henry James to Frod Madox Heuffer, dated 9 July 1899, reveals that Edward Garnett was the author of an unsigned review of The Awkward Age appearing in the British journal The Outlook for 10 June 1899. James claims that "there is a figure in the carpet" of his novel but Garnett has not dicovered it. Garnett's review serves as an important backdrop (and origin) for James's latter defense of his work in the preface to the volume in the New York Edition of The Awkward Age. The review can also be read, along with James's letter, as a motivating source for Hueffer's own assessment, in Henry James: A Critical Study (1913), of the older writer's achievement.