The Wings of the Dove, Volume 1 of 2

by Henry James

This novel tells the story of Milly Theale, an American heiress stricken with a serious disease, and her effect on the people around her. Some of these people befriend Milly with honorable motives, while others are more self-interested. Kate Croy and Merton Densher are two betrothed Londoners who desperately want to marry but have very little money. Kate is constantly put upon by family troubles, and is now living with her domineering aunt, Maud Lowder. Into their world comes Milly Theale, an enormously rich young American woman who had previously met and fallen in love with Densher, although she has never revealed her feelings. Her travelling companion and confidante, Mrs. Stringham, is an old friend of Maud. Kate and Aunt Maud welcome Milly to London, and the American heiress enjoys great social success. With Kate as a companion, Milly goes to see an eminent physician, Sir Luke Strett, because she worries that she is suffering from an incurable disease. The doctor is noncommittal but Milly fears the worst. Kate suspects that Milly is deathly ill. After the trip to America where he had met Milly, Densher returns to find the heiress in London. Kate wants Densher to pay as much attention as possible to Milly, though at first he doesn't quite know why. Kate has been careful to conceal from Milly (and everybody else) that she and Densher are engaged. With the threat of serious illness hanging over her, Milly decides to travel to Venice with Mrs. Stringham. Aunt Maud, Kate and Densher follow her. At a party Milly gives in her Venice palazzo (the older Palazzo Barbaro, called "Palazzo Leporelli" in the novel), Kate finally reveals her complete plan to Densher: he is to marry Milly so that, after her presumably soon-to-occur death, he will inherit the money they can marry on. Densher had suspected this was Kate's idea, and he demands that she consummate their affair before he will go along with her plan. Aunt Maud and Kate return to London while Densher remains with Milly. Unfortunately, the dying girl learns from a former suitor of Kate's about the plot to get her money. She withdraws from Densher and her condition deteriorates. Densher sees her one last time before he leaves for London, where he eventually receives news of Milly's death. Milly does leave him a large amount of money despite everything. But Densher does not accept the money, and he will not marry Kate unless she also refuses the bequest. Conversely, if Kate chooses the money instead of him, Densher offers to make the bequest over to her in full. The lovers part on the novel's final page with a cryptic exclamation from Kate: "We shall never be again as we were!"

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Novels

151 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1902

About the author

Henry James was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.
He is best known for his novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans, such as The Portrait of a Lady. His later works, such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often wrote in a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to Impressionist painting.
His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media. He wrote other highly regarded ghost stories, such as "The Jolly Corner".
James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. Born in the United States, James largely relocated to Europe as a young man, and eventually settled in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death. James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. Jorge Luis Borges said "I have visited some literatures of East and West; I have compiled an encyclopedic compendium of fantastic literature; I have translated Kafka, Melville, and Bloy; I know of no stranger work than that of Henry James."

Reviews

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was just okay. Hoping sequel is better. I wouldn't bother with this one.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

James is a superb writer. Although his paragraphs are very long and
intricate, his story telling is amazing. The descriptions of Venice are
dazzling. James understood women very well and this story circles around
three friends and variations on love and money. Our book group is reading
this novel for September. i love this book.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

James has a command for the English language that is 5 stars plus! My reaction though to this particular novel (which comes in two volumes) is that not enough happens. The plot as it exists is also very slow in developing. I am hoping the second volume gets better.

[Patrick Sprunger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pt. 1: Defining Henry James as "Gibberish."

I've identified three distinct types of gibberish through my inspection of modern literature. There is the "crypto-gibberish" of John Dos Passos, which takes a little work to be decoded but can be as pleasurable as a painting or poem once apprehended. Then there's the "total" gibberish of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, in which something is ostensibly buried in impenetrable word salad (that, to be honest, probably exists for no reason other than to hear itself clang), but is designed not to be found (so why bother?). Finally - and most reprhensible of all - is the "estates" gibberish of Henry James.

I acknowledge a certain flaw in this taxonomy. Henry James's original style placed him at odds with - rather than in league with - the cavalier stylings of Joyce, et al. James didn't make up words, talk about pooping, or make up words to talk about pooping. James wouldn't have talked about pooping at all - obliquely or not - he was far too british for that.

James, in fact, was ferociously proud of his perfect English elocution and prose - prose that was so masterful and self defeating (a metaphor for the fat-elvis period of court and empire itself) - that his became a language comprehensible to a very few.

Pt. 2: Assuming "Gibberish" is Anathema to the English Novel; Defending Allegations of Henry James as "Gibberish."

Even though the words he used were the height of perfection and regularity, James used them like nunchaku - in a whirlwind of eccentric arcs that only the most certified mental powerhouse could keep pace with intellectually. Once that mode of communicating crosses a certain vector of eccentricity, it passes a point of no return. Language, at that point, does become like nunchaku - terrifying and frantic; destined to destroy something (maybe everything) but unable to focus and make its point any longer. Rather than persuade, nunchaku force one to flee or fight. The purpose of the English novel has been debated, but few have argued that it is inherently an unreasonable object that must either be fought or run away from. Proponents of the form suggest the English novel is basically good for you. Language applied like James in 1902 is like a shotgun discharged point blank at a human face. It does that human face no good whatsoever.

Pt. 3: Argument for "Attacking" Wings of the Dove on the Assumption that Whatever Is In There Has Value.

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[Christie Bane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, at least this is slightly more readable than James Joyce, and if everything by him is one star, I guess I will be generous and give Henry James two. I know the names of the main characters and that there's something happening with an English girl who's in love with a guy who's not wealthy, and who can't be with that guy because of her controlling rich aunt for some reason I can't figure out. Also there's a very rich American girl with no family but with a "companion", an older woman named Susan who was friends long ago with the controlling aunt back in England. I am not really sure what any of these people have to do with each other, but they all meet up in England and I still have Volume Two to figure out what happens. By my standards of "I have to enjoy a book for it to be a good book", this is not a good book. It's a lot of work. But God forbid I not be acquainted with one of the 100 Most Influential Novels of the 20th Century! I will persevere. 200 more pages and approximately 10,000,000,000 useless commas to go.

[Scott O. Kaszyk · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, without a doubt, the worst book I've ever read. I couldn't wait to finish and definitely will not be reading volume 2. To use James' own words, this book was just a bunch of "twaddle." I could tell from the first few page with his continuous use of comma after comma after comma that I was not going to enjoy this author. I can entirely imagine this sort of writing is what drove Hemingway to his condensed style. I could see if the mid-sentence interruptions were poetic or added texture to the overall story. But they mostly were just that - interruptions that made his prose unbearable.

Unfortunately, and amazingly, there are two more of his books on my top 100 list that I'll have to ignore. I just can't stomach this sort of writing. Cumbersome to read and wholly about nothing. Looking back after 151 grueling pages I still don't see a story. Nothing happens and I could care less about the inner lives of these unimportant snobs and their imagined conflicts. Give me a break.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This society novel has a curious style in which the author rambles at length giving a general sense or description of events and comversations, of thought processes, rather than presenting dialogue in the traditional way. I know surprisingly little about Henry James and should probably do some research but I imagine this was considered a groundbreaking approach to the novel at the time. I'm not sure it's aged terribly well in terms of accessibility to the modern reader, and the plot isn't really substantial enough to warrant such an approach, although I can see that given the web of deception woven, giving us the internal dialogue of various characters is important. I certainly did enjoy it in the end, but I'm not sure everyone would.

[madcrazyreviews · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I could give half-stars, this would be 1.5 stars.

Florid to an egregious extent, my rating isn't so much a reflection of the quality of the book/writing so much as this was an absolute CHORE to read. The most unpleasant reading experience I've had in years, I frankly thought of putting the book down several times during the meandering, yammering, endless strings of commas and complex sentences.

God bless the people who love this book because it did not work for me at all.

[Heather Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was difficult to read, with a lot of vagueness and allusions. Maybe I'm just not switched on enough, or maybe the implications were more obvious at the time of writing, but I often found it hard to figure out what was going on. Only close to the end of the first volume did I start getting a sense of the plot and the full scale of the duplicity of Kate and Densher, which made it more interesting.

[Lena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mówiąc za autorami poprzednich opinii: książka to wnikliwe studium ludzkich charakterów. Mówiąc po mojemu: ta książka jest ekstremalnie przegadana! Jej fabułę można by zamknąć w jednej trzeciej jej długości. Oczywiście rozbudowane opisy myśli i rozterek emocjonalnych oraz motywów bohaterów stanowią o jej wyjątkowości, niemniej jednak zabieg rozważania przez cztery bite strony tego, że ona weszła, a on spojrzał budził we mnie pełne rozczarowania westchnienie.

[Erneilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Supposedly one of the great novels I found it very difficult to read with convoluted sentences that had to be read twice to fathom their meaning. Maybe it's just me but I found my self wishing to get through it so I can strike it off my list and be done with it.

[Jane Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ex-Pat Lit. Classic.

[Cyndi · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was better than I expected. At least, that's when I could focus on the story instead of all the commas. Seriously, Henry James used more commas in a sentence that a teenager uses "like." Very distracting.