The Wings of the Dove (Penguin Classics)

What makes Henry James' 'Wings of the Dove' exceptionally brilliant is both his peculiar use of the English language, and how this novel is structurally arranged and presented; each chapter approximately 16 - 18 pages each, which means that James put himself in a temporal bind both in terms of his content, or situations conveyed, and the amount of words/language arranged to convey it. Perhaps James' English may seem a bit archaic to some (since he was writing in the late 19th century and early 20th century, not in the time zone of language changes that have become general (perhaps too general) after his time). But writers TODAY can choose what tone, or type of language they choose, going all the way back to Petronius, Apuleius, Ariosto, D'Annunzio, Huysmans....and that's not being 'post-modern' either! Yes, a writer TODAY can use whatever tone or style of language he or she wishes taken from the history of literature, what makes a work contemporary is the integration of knowledge and attitudes that have LEARNED from the history of the human world. James hardly impresses upon his readers the 'plot' of his stories, their plots to me at least come as a bonus AFTER his use of sentences, phrases, paragraphs, even chapters that one may need to read over, and over, to finally get at the linguistic logic conveyed. And it is THAT discipline, he perhaps demands, which make him a GREAT writer, indeed MORE than simply an American writer! This is NOT 'flash in the pan' literature for 'story' obsessed readers who want to know 'what it's all about' and can't wait to find out at the novel's final pages. I'm really glad he wrote!, especially books like 'Wings of the Dove', 'The Aspern Papers', 'Daisy Miller' etc, and especially one of my favourites of all his writing: 'The Seige of London'.

More than any other novel of Henry James, The Wings of the Dove is transitional between nineteenth and twentieth century literature. On the one hand, it’s a realist character study; rarely has a writer more finally drawn protagonists than Kate Croy and Merton Desher. On the other hand, most of the real substance of the novel takes place in what might be called proto-stream of consciousness. While difficult to follow, it clearly anticipates authors like Joyce, Woolf and Faulkner.Reading James is always worth the effort; even the sometimes tortuous passages inside the characters’ minds. In fact, those are particularly worth reading. James’s ability to convey personality is precisely because of his literary innovation. Moreover, although his perennial theme of Old versus New World is latent, The Wings of the Dove is more simply an exquisite study of human personality than any of his other novels. James may be the quintessential writer meant by the quip, “Reading fine literature may not tell you how to design a circuit, but it will teach you how to live.”Additionally, James anticipates Ian McEwan’s Atonement by basing this novel on an imagined life for a beloved cousin who died young. All together, you have one of those works of the human imagination that bear comparison to the world’s natural wonders. It’s not essential reading of course, but not experiencing Henry James is akin to what’s been said about not knowing another language, “One’s life is so much the poorer for it.” I strongly recommend making the lengthy but worthwhile effort to delve into this choice work from James’s oeuvre.

Reading Henry James takes effort. His allusive, complex style (someone once compared it to a hippopotamus trying to pick up a pea) requires constant attention on the part of the reader to stay on top of the narrative. Most of the 'action' takes place in the interior thoughts and feelings of the characters in their interactions with each other. The plot could be summed up in a sentence and is almost irrelevant. A James novel is all about character and its slow revelation through the flickering light of his indirect prose. As his brother William James rightly pointed out, you have to read every word to get the full effect (even harder for us modern types with our short attention spans) but the full effect is worth it. At the end of the day, you get a fragile but extremely powerful impression of the three main characters; Milly Theale, the rich American heiress who is dying; Kate Croy the beautiful, amoral schemer ('full of life') who sees a way to secure her and her lover's future through Milly's money; and last, Merton Densher who is passionately in love with Kate and led by her to pose as a suitor to Milly in order to gain her money after she dies.A sordid plot but James manages to elevate the whole thing to art. Every character gets his/her full consideration, even Kate who is not a 'good' woman but not completely bad either. She is a dutiful daughter and sister to people who see her as their ticket out of poverty and care little about what happens to her in the process. The heroine Milly Theale is the character who emerges least clearly from the novel (at least for me), probably because she is so good she seems (to me) more like a fantasy or an ideal than a real person.Milly's illness is a key plot point since it is the anchor on which the rest turns so I found it kind of amusing how James elides over the subject. We never even know what disease she has; the closest we come to knowing anything is when the doctor says it is not tuberculosis, a curious statement when you think about it. It doesn't really help to know what she doesn't have but then again this is the 19th century (when the novel takes place) and doctors didn't have many diagnostic tools. Even so, Milly's interview with her doctor is one of the more curious in fiction since it never seems to approach a clinical diagnosis but is rather the sort of conversation that might have taken place in the intervals at an opera house. (James remarks in his introduction that he doesn't want to dwell on Milly's illness, that it is not the subject of the book but rather her intense desire to live so perhaps that is why.)Anyway this is a marvelous book which well repays the effort of reading it. Some have remarked that the books of James's later period (to which The Wings of the Dove belongs) are more obscure and harder to read than his earlier books but I disagree. I don't think The Wings of the Dove is any more difficult to read and understand than A Portrait of a Lady (a novel of his 'social' period) and it is (for me at least ) far more rewarding.

I know Henry James is one of the greats, and this novel is considered a masterpiece, but it's a real slog to read. I think this Penguin edition with its densely typed pages didn't help. This is a book to read at a table with a pen and notebook, definitely not one to read in bed.

Questo romanzo del 1902 di Henry James, racconta la storia di Milly Theale, un'ereditiera americana colpita da una grave malattia, e dei suoi effetti sulle persone che la circondano. Alcune di queste persone fanno amicizia con Milly per motivi onorevoli, mentre altre per il proprio rendiconto. Lo stile di James può essere un po' complicato alle volte, ma comunque è in grado di descrivere in maniera impeccabile scene e situazioni. Consigliato.

Ayant étudié l'anglais j'aime par périodes me lancer dans des classiques ou de récentes parutions dans cette langue mais j'en reviens toujours à mon auteur préféré dont la psychologie des personnages est étudiée à fond. Pas de difficulté de langage,pour moi un chef d'oeuvre dans la collection penguin classics avec petit dossier et notes.

MILLY THEALE ROCKS.SO DO MERTON DENSHER AND KATE CROY IN THIS HUMANISTIC LOVE STORY.