The Beast in the Jungle. The Figure in the Carpet

Henry James (1843?–1916) — an American writer and literary critic. The late period of his creativity — which includes the titular stories of this collection — is characterized by a complex and unconventional narrative style. Long, convoluted sentences mimic the flow of spoken language, leading the reader in a spiral towards the center of a semantic whirlpool. The collection includes two stories by Henry James: "The Beast in the Jungle" and "The Figure in the Carpet." In each of them, the central character is obsessed with an idea: one lives in anticipation of a disaster that should destroy his life; the other seeks the solution to a mystery hidden between the lines of novels. The stories are published in English without adaptation or abridgment.