About this title: In THE WINGS OF THE DOVE, Kate Croy, a penniless young Englishwoman, tries to arrange a marriage between her fiancé Merton Densher and the American heiress she has befriended, knowing that Millie, the heiress, has a fatal illness and not long to live. Informed about the situation, Millie generously leaves her money to Densher anyway, as proof of ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: D. Campbell, London
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9781857152302ISBN:1857152301
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover., In like new dust jacket. xxxvi, 508 p.; 21 cm. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: D. Campbell, London
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9781857152302ISBN:1857152301
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover., In like new dust jacket. xxxvi, 508 p.; 21 cm. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Date Published: 1978
ISBN-13:9780393090888ISBN:0393090884
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Some penciled underlining in text of novel and in one of the essays. Two diagonal bends near lower corner of front cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 583 p. Norton Critical Edition. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardback
Publisher: The Modern Library
Date Published: 1946
Description: Fair. Hardback. No dj. Ex-library without mylar cover, has envelope and normal markings. Clean and clear text and pages. Edgewear and coverwear. Tanning pages. Some binding on spine is unattached. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Signet, New York
Date Published: 1986
ISBN-13:9780452008588ISBN:0452008581
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Very nice clean flat paperback with only very light overall wear. pages clean and unmarked. very nice copy! read more
"Honestly, I think this is only the third best of James' three late masterpieces (after the Ambassadors and the Golden Bowl.) I found it much harder going than either of those, although the plot was much more involved and interesting. I'm not sure how to explain that- maybe the plot was the main thing dragging me through the interminable paragraphs, whereas in the other two the reflections and nuances seemed much more important. Although I got something out this (as ever, James is an education in form and psychology), I would definitely recommend the Ambassadors over Wings of the Dove."
"I don't like to give up on a book but this one defeated me. I plowed through to page 239 of 711 pages and came to a few conclusions. First, I was dreading picking the book up, second, I was reading whole sentences I couldn't follow, third, the characters never came alive for me and I didn't care what happened to them. This is supposed to be one of three novels that are considered the best works of Henry James. I, however, found it wordy and hard to follow. Perhaps I'll try another work by James sometime way in the future."
"I have a soft spot in my heart for this book about the treacherous duo of Kate Croy & Merton Densher who would take advantage of the goodness and weakness of the best of creatures, Milly Theale, by having Densher go with her to Italy and win her love. Then, when she inevitably dies of her unnamable malady, Kate & Merton can themselves marry. All this must be done in secret under the sharp nose of Kate's Aunt Maud. But Milly is so wonderful, (reminiscent of several of James' other women,) that she arranges for Densher to get the money without marrying her and that scotches the marriage to Croy for Densher. What a cat's cradle James has played at and how subtly! The depths of Milly's plaisance are beyond words and the beauty she creates around herself is astounding. In spite of the nastiness of two of the main characters, this book is illuminated by Milly and is her's alone. I adore it."
"Well, I finished it and I didn't even skim one passage, though there were countless sentences that, no matter how many times I read them at whatever angle and no matter how sincere my desire to understand, had absolutely no meaning to them whatsoever. Often this was caused not by subtlety or for suspense, but but because of simple misuse of pronouns. (Who's thinking this of whom? Ah, never mind. I must have an inferior intellect to care for such details.)
Others are merely clotted arteries of metalanguage, suggesting, it was as though, somehow, upon reflection, one could surmise the undeniable but fleeting truth of what she had guessed and know it was how she had been meant to understand it all along.
Other passages, however lofty their intention, remind you that James is writing of an experience he himself has never had but has only considered from every possible theoretical guise. So as not to spoil anything, I won't mention what it is (and who in this book ever mentions anything directly, except at parties where anyone can overhear?), but suffice it to say, much of his ability to keep so much on a pedestal results from his having lived so pinched a life.
The rest of the novel is characterized by constant evasion, unceasing fogs, and unverifiable rumors. If this were a Harlan Coben novel, it would be titled Don't Tell Her. This is most aggravating in Milly's visit to the great doctor, where nothing as tawdry as a medical exam takes place, or in book 8 chapter 1 where Aunt Maud and Susan Stringham discuss Susan's own meeting with the great doctor, with discretion best suited for those in a witness protection program.
And may I ask, if James is such a master at characterization, why must he clobber the reader by introducing characters as representing something larger than themselves (Merton as the embodiment of intellect, Kate of life, and Susan of culture) and then fail to support such claims with the characters' own decisions and behaviors? In fact, how can the greatest literary critics not be bothered by how every James character speaks with the same voice and possesses the same ever-comprehending and analytical mind that considers all nuances of each sentence in mere seconds (over the course of several pages) before coming up with precisely the right thing to say?
Yet, despite the repeated reminders of what is so exceptional about the lead characters, why can I not understand why Merton is so alluring to Kate and Milly or why Kate if she is so beautiful and brilliant, is courted by only two men in London? What did Isabel Archer (of Portrait of a Lady) have that Kate lacked? It's one thing if it were made a point that others were interested but were kept away by Aunt maud, who had decided for Kate that she should only consider Lord Mark. But even if this is the case, Kate has the freedom the roam about the city and meet whomever she likes (as she did Merton), so the Rapunzel theory doesn't quite fit.
I just don't know what to make of this book. It frustrated me so intensely and its supposedly brilliant ending was so out of character--for Merton because he'd do anything for Isabel, for Isabel because she was never the jealous type--yet the shocking last line was also so ploddingly built up to for hundreds of pages that it was hardly a dramatic slap, that all I can feel right now is that the movie was much more satisfying and fixed many of the problems in the book. There, I said it.
P.S. I do respect James for having admitted disappointment in this book and thinking it didn't live up to what he had wanted it to be in terms of characterization and plot, so some credit must be given to him for that.
I wrote to a friend, "I don't think I'll ever be one of those James fans who think his writing genius and are blind to his impossible evasions and taking ten pages to convey what can be expressed in one, but I do find myself now able to get through the dull passages so I can appreciate the moments when things click together. And there is a mental challenge (worthy or not) in figuring out what the heck he's trying to say. So I enjoy putting up with him--for now. That said, I do need frequent breaks from him and alternate a chapter of his with several from a book with sparse and clean writing. Reading him is akin to going antiquing: you can find very valuable pieces among lots of junk hidden beneath decades of dust. And I may want to bring a piece home, but I'm not inspired to cramp my home with these purchases or stop dusting so as to romanticize my apartment. How's that for praise?""
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