The Wings Of The Dove

Return to Book Page. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James ,. In this witty tragedy of treachery, self-deception, and betrayal, Henry James weaves together three ill-fated and wholly human destinies unexpectedly linked by desire, greed, and salvation. Paperback , The Modern Library Classics , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Wings of the Dove , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Wings of the Dove.

Lists with This Book. But this novel has overflowed me.

• Diana Palmer Christmas Collection: The Rancher / Christmas Cowboy / A Man of Means / True Blue / Carreras Bride / Will of Steel / Winter Roses (Mills & Boon e-Book Collections).
• The Heart of Worship;
• A Very Merry Christmas?
• Keep Exploring Britannica?

So far this is the most Jamesian writing I have read. May be The Ambassadors is of the same tone and texture, and I would like to immerse myself in it too. Anyway, reading this was like listening to a lullaby that would drag you into a lethargic mood in the early hours of the afternoon. Not a sign of boredom, just a state of undefined bliss. It is with this succession of washes that a picture begins to emerge even if upon closing the book one wonders if one has been staring at the reflections of the Venetian lagoon rather than deciphering black graphics on a white page.

No, his writing has no defined contours and his exploration of the referentiality of language is pulled to its tight extremes, for example, with the way he spins and stretches personal pronouns All these shifting identities at times perform an interrelated dance in front of multiple mirrors that confound the illusion with the tangible or verifiable, and we remain on a state of surmising.

James ability to explore the malleability of language is also seen in his widened used of some terms, however simple these may be. With James it could refer to awareness, or to money, or to intelligence, or to subtlety, or to health, or to consideration. For me then, in this novel, James writing takes a much higher flight than I had been able to survey before. For winged it certainly is.

View all 43 comments. Jul 21, Ann rated it it was amazing. I mean, why is this not more widely discussed? Like how after reading him you can never look at a conversation in the same way because he is absolutely devastating in creating and describing and codifying how a mood can shift from sentence to sentence, how he who actually walks you from glance to glance? Like how the plot of this book, so languid to start, coils you into a tighter and tighter spring up until the very last sentence?

It is also one of many, many passages that took me about three readings to understand. I want to write a check to the estate of this man. Henry James is a genius. View all 11 comments. Conversation continued from the updates… Well hello again! So you work in reviews too?

Yes, sometimes I get assigned to reviews - but with characters to count down in the review boxes as opposed to in the status update boxes, I avoid this posting whenever possible. You'll not have much counting down to do today - I rarely use even half the characters available for reviews.

I wish I could use the rest in the status updates though We've been through all that already. There is nothing more to be done. But there is one thing you can do: It's an important part of the reviewing process. But I never use the star rating system.. Don't tell me you're one of those people who don't stick to review rules. Are there review rules?

Well, not quite rules as such, more like tried and trusty conventions: Such an approach simplifies life for everyone concerned, and especially for the review reader.

The Wings of the Dove

He clicks on a book title, familiar or unfamiliar. He reads about the book, which he knows something of already or he doesn't. He notes the star rating while mentally agreeing or not depending on his level of familiarity with the book or on what he's picked up from the content of the review. Everybody knows where everybody stands and confusion is unlikely. Sounds more like tired and rusty to me Then show me the justification for interfering with something that works. Show me the rationale for introducing vaguenesses where there should only be certainties and convolutions where none are needed?

Where is the value in withholding star ratings, and obliging readers to second guess, as if the reviewer's opinion were some great and significant puzzle? We're only talking about books here after all, not the meaning of life or the riddle of mankind. But some books can be microcosms of a larger world and their contents can comprehend the riddles of existence in unique and creative ways. That larger significance, and the unique creativity used to frame it, is partly why it seems impossible for me to rate books in relation to other books. Literary works are just too different one from another to be equated in any way.

It would almost be like rating my friends…. I presume Henry James is about to be called on to back up your claims? Incomparable artist, stand-alone figure, etc, etc Well, this 'review' is under the banner of a Henry James novel after all - and you've read 'The Wings of the Dove' yourself, you've seen what he can do in terms of constructing microcosms of the world. But I wouldn't dream of writing a review of it.

That's precisely why I can't write a conventional review of it either!

The Wings of the Dove () - Rotten Tomatoes

But I can write about why I can't. Well, I think plot isn't the most important aspect of his stories so even if I was inclined to outline the plot in my reviews which I rarely do , I'd never do so in the case of a Henry James novel. So you're not going to tell the readers what the book is about? So maybe a little analysis? A few stabs at the meanings behind the themes and symbols? In the case of a Henry James novel, that's not at all obvious.

You can't do it, in other words. I can do it, and quite easily, but they would indeed be another's words. The thing is, Henry James has two voices. There's an omniscient narrator in each of the three James novels I've read recently, and the narrator sometimes switches to being a third person limited narrator, presenting things just from one particular character's point of view and allowing other characters to keep their thoughts secret. Is that what you mean about the two voices?

What's new or original about that? It's what he does when he's being omniscient that's interesting. He comments on the narrative as he's telling it, and sometimes analyses the characters and their motivations as well. And then from time to time, he slips into first person narration, he drops in an 'I' voice that adds another later of analysis to the story being told. It's as if James is being the critic of his own story - and in fact he becomes an actual critic at the end of this book. Hmm, I didn't know about the appendix.

So you're saying there's no need to review him in the usual way because he himself has anticipated everything that can be said about his story. Yes, more or less. But what about style? Funny you should mention his style because something you said earlier reminded me very much of his unique way of writing. You spoke of vaguenesses where there should only be certainties and convolutions where none are needed. If ever there was a writer who indulged in vaguenesses and convolutions, Henry James is the one!

He seems to revel in creating long sentences, and as many of them as possible, and he will always choose an elaborate way to explain something rather than a simple one. If a metaphor will bear expanding, he will push it to the limit, when a circle can be drawn wide, he will draw it very wide indeed. In short, he uses 50 words where 5 might do. Did he know he was doing that? Oh yes, I think his elaborate style was very intentional. And once again, he addresses this issue in the appendix. He has a theory about enjoyment of works of art being greatest when they demand more of our attention, and there is no doubt that when reading a Henry James novel, we have to read with full attention.

We have to read every word, but when we do, what treats we get as rewards! That may be your experience but I see a lot of negative feedback on his style generally. I talked about the rewards when we read every word. Sometimes they arrive in a particularly efficient piece of phrasing that sums up all the foregoing narrative, as in the following excerpt, for example. How to explain better! I couldn't have noticed the perfection of that final paradox unless I'd paid attention to everything leading up to it.

They had accepted their acquaintance as too short for an engagement, but they had treated it as long enough for almost anything else, and marriage was somehow before them like a temple without an avenue. They belonged to the temple, and they met in the grounds; they were in the stage at which grounds in general offered much scattered refreshment.

The grounds were shady - and secluded! Those two sentences just work perfectly on so many levels. One more then, and again it's an example of elaborate efficiency: She balanced an instant during which Densher might have just wondered if pure historic truth were to suffer a slight strain. But she dropped on the right side. Densher had for this, as he listened, a smile of the largest response. You must have been underlining your edition too!

Have you come across the sentence full of negatives in The Golden Bowl yet? Ah - you're reading it too! Do you mean this one: Mr Verver, it may further be mentioned, had taken at no moment sufficient alarm to have kept in detail the record of his reassurance; but he would none the less not have been unable, not really have been indisposed, to impart in confidence to the right person his notion of the history of the matter.

I admit I had to read that one twice. But it works in the context, and tells us so much about Mr Verver! For example The unspoken had come up, and there was a crisis - neither could have said how long it lasted - during which they were reduced, for all interchange, to looking at each other on quite an inordinate scale.

About this scene, the narrator later says: The little crisis was of shorter duration than our account of it; duration would naturally have forced him to take up his hat. I love the layers of construction that are revealed. You speak of novels as if they were buildings. Even of a review. And there wouldn't have been characters left in this review box either!

Well, at least my shift is over so I'm off home. Bon Dimanche to you too. Ah, I've just realised, this is a Sunday review. No wonder I've had trouble with it I'll edit it tomorrow View all 76 comments. My third Henry James, but only the second I managed to complete.

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He didn't set the world on fire for me with this either, more like a quivering flame. I was hoping for great things, somewhere along the lines of Edith Wharton's brilliant 'The Age of Innocence'. As classic fiction generally goes, it was written impeccably well, but my problems were with the characters, who seemed to drift in and out of my consciousness all too often.

Well over one hundred pages in, wasn't doing anything for me. Sl My third Henry James, but only the second I managed to complete. Slowly, this changed for the better, and how he handled the cultural clash between naive Americans and the sophisticated, often decadent Europeans of the time was done with much enthusiasm, but Henry James, ultimately, may be a writer that's just not for me. Do I give him another chance? Thus, Kate reasons, although Milly will likely die soon, she will at least be happily in love, Merton will pocket her fortune,, and Kate and Merton can marry and be filthy rich.

The greedy Kate on the other hand is playing hard ball leading to their relationship hitting the rocks. The novel looks closely at consequences and differences between characters, than it does on the events that carry the story. Most books these days are ninety percent plot heavy, so is it any surprise that for some, we have trouble understanding an author who isn't bothered by any of that. The second half of the novel definitely left more of an impact than the first, and had I read this in hour sittings to get accustomed with it's pace, rather than thirty minutes here and there, then things may have been more positive.

I will now ponder on reading 'The Portrait of a Lady' which was my first choice anyway , but that's now probably fallen back in the queue. This was very well written, but for me, maybe just read in the wrong way. View all 13 comments. Mar 04, Yulia rated it liked 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? I must have an inferior intellect to care for such details. Others are merely clotted arteries of met 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. 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? The rest of the novel is characterized by constant evasion, unceasing fogs, and unverifiable rumors. 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? 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. 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.

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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: Post Share on Facebook.

Movie Info British director Ian Softley's take on this lesser-known Henry James novel offers a tightly-woven, witty look at clashing social classes in turn-of-the-century Europe as it tells the tale of a strong-willed aristocratic girl who takes drastic measures to marry her lower-class lover. Helena Bonham Carter as Kate Croy. Linus Roache as Merton Densher. Alison Elliott as Millie Theale. Charlotte Rampling as Aunt Maude. Elizabeth McGovern as Susan. Michael Gambon as Kate's father.

Alex Jennings as Lord Mark. Ben Miles as Journalist 1. Philip Wright as Journalist 2. Alexander John as Butler. Shirley Chantrell as Opium Den Lady. Diana Kent as Merton's Party Companion. Georgio Serafini as Eugenio. Rachele Crisafulli as Concierge. Bruckheimer Talks "Pirates 3" and "National Treasure 2". New Line Prepares to Deliver "Inkheart". Jan 9, Rating: Jan 5, Full Review…. Aug 17, Full Review…. May 31, Full Review…. Jan 15, Rating: Mar 1, Full Review…. Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Jan 1, Full Review…. Nineteenth-century mores conflict with twentieth-century passions Jan 1, Rating: View All Critic Reviews Bruce Bruce Super Reviewer.

Byron Brubaker Super Reviewer. 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: Milly is based on Minny Temple — , James' beloved cousin who died from tuberculosis. In his autobiography James said that The Wings of the Dove was his attempt to wrap her memory in the "beauty and dignity of art. He established the background of Kate and Densher's inability to marry because of a lack of money.

The Wings of the Dove has one of the strongest critical positions of any of James' works, although James himself sometimes expressed dissatisfaction with it. In his preface to the New York Edition , James spent much time confessing to supposed faults in the novel: By and large, critics have regarded these faults as venial or nonexistent.

Instead, they have concentrated on the central characters and supporting cast, and the technique that James uses in their presentation. In , the Modern Library ranked The Wings of the Dove 26th on its list of the best English-language novels of the 20th century. It was adapted for television again in , when it was presented on Playhouse 90 , also by CBS. It starred Dana Wynter as Kate Croy. It played a total of 23 performances, opening November 13, and closing less than three weeks later on December 1. The novel was adapted as a stage play and successfully produced on the West End in starring Susannah York and Wendy Hiller.

The Wings of the Dove has been made into theatrical films twice, first in and again in The film received mostly favourable reviews, and fared well at the box office. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.