The Wings of the Dove

Rating:
Summary: Slow read, but worth the effort
Review: I generally read fairly quickly, but wasn't able to do so with this book. Until I forced myself to slow down I kept losing the thread and having to go back. As a result, I could only make it through around 10 pages a day. Once you make the adjustment, however, it is a very rewarding reading experience. Having read many of James's earlier, more accessible works, I could't at first understand the point behind the convoluted style. It seemed as if everthing was not only exceedingly slow but also very hazy, in sharp contrast to the vividness of The Portrait of A Lady. There is however, a method to James's madness. Instead of showing us a scene through an omniscient author's eyes, he is trying to render his characters' experiences of reality. For example, instead of a carefully painted portait of a English dinner party, we are shown how a young American woman would process it in her mind. The winding, comma-clotted sentences don't draw us a picture, but instead attempt to mirror the character's stream of consciousness. The result is fascinating, but also exhausting. It's worth the effort, but it's a good thing that most other great novels, including James's earlier ones, don't require this much work.

Rating:
Summary: James - an intellectual writer
Review: I read Wings of the Dove several years ago, then watched the movie. My first, quick impression of "The Dove" was that the long narrative is both tedious and mentally exhausting. But a determination to stick it out to the end is rewarding if only in the knowledge that the reader has overcome James's Victorian verbiage, his intellectual bent for words, his superfluous sentences seldom coming to a direct point, but generally dancing around with hints, inferences and intimations directing the reader, at long last, to a point. Thus, finally, in the end, the reader is left with something to think about. To this reader, the point is the failure of Victorian mores over morals and principles. Perhaps, as in "The Dove," Victorian mores encourage moral failures.

Later, after further study of James's writings, I am convinced of his genius and his ability to portray the human character in ways no one else has been able.

Briefly comparing the movie with the book: James's metaphoric phrase, "wings of the dove," is in reference to Milly. Milly's friend, Kate, compares her to a dove whose wings spread and surround all those she loves. In the movie, Densher attends Milly's funeral and, in his grief, says he wishes he were like a dove whose wings would carry him away. With this intentional misinterpretation (in my opinion), the movie misrepresents an important character description in James's novel: Milly is the "heroine" who loves, is loved, is good, loves life and wants to live and spread her wings during the last days of her life.

The movie does present the quandary of Kate's position: practically penniless and at the mercy of her rich aunt Maud, who, in her determination not to let Kate marry "poor" and lose her rightful place in society, has engaged her to Lord Mark. Kate thoroughly dislikes Lord Mark. Kate's love for Densher overshadows her moral senses and, indelicately, she encourages Densher to accept Milly's love for him, and to engage in an affair for the sole purpose of inheriting a great sum of money. Kate KNOWS that Milly has no family, is seriously ill, will soon die, is in love with Densher and would leave him an inheritance.
But, after Milly dies, both Densher and Kate realize that Densher's memories of Milly are, remorsefully, of love. He will marry Kate only on the condition that he not be pressed to accept Milly's money. Kate will marry Densher only on the condition that he not carry Milly's memory in his heart. They face the truth and separate.

I give Wings of the Dove 4 stars rather than 5 because some of my initial reactions to the book still linger.

Rating:
Summary: Much to my surprise...
Review: I was certain, in the first 100 or so pages of this book, that I was going to hate it. I nearly gave up on it a half-dozen times. James' thick, sometimes impenetrable prose took a great deal of getting used to; in fact I never really did get completely used to it. However, much to my surprise, I wound up engrossed in this novel. I must admit that the very same writing style that had me talking to myself at first, drew me in to the story at a level I hadn't previously experienced. The plot is fairly uncomplicated on the surface (it has been explained sufficiently elsewhere in these reviews), but the depth to which James' characters respond to their situation is anything but uncomplicated. So, if you are looking for a literary challenge, one that will reward you if you stick with it, this is a good choice. If, however, you're looking for a light, easy read... this ain't it.

Rating:
Summary: Through a glass darkly
Review: I've carried on a love-hate affair with The Wings of the Dove for more than 20 years. In that period of time, I started the novel (the same beautiful little Signet paperback edition) at LEAST 15 times and could never get past page 30 or so. But it kept nagging at me to read it. Last summer, I plowed through its dense prose thicket, and I felt as though I were peering through a glass darkly. Several times I felt like tossing it aside. I've studied Enlish and literature all my life and yet I had one heckuva time with those daunting banks of prose. But I'm glad I read it. It's masterful. Worth all the effort. Those scintillating scenes in Venice. Nothing like them! I just read The Golden Bowl, another difficult but rewarding book. There are astonishing scenes in it, like when the husband of the busy-body watches her in a pensive mood as if she were in the middle of a lake, coming closer. It's just an extraordinary scene! I love early James too, like that perfect jewel of a book, Washington Square. Sometimes, great as the late books are, I really do think they lose something of the wonderful clarity James achieved earlier. There are still a few scenes in Wings and Bowl, for instance, in which I have NO IDEA what James was trying to express. Talk about super subtle! But do make the effort, folks, they're incredible books.

Rating:
Summary: A more demanding, but deeper book than "Portrait of a Lady"
Review: In his old age, James returned to the story of love, wealth, and betrayal he had handled so well half a lifetime earlier. The difference is that in this novel, the victim overcomes those who would use her not by defeating them but by rising ethically and spiritually above them. In the last scene, Kate says,"I used to call her, in my stupidity -- for want of anything better -- a dove. Well she stretched out her wings, and it was to that they reached. They cover us." At that moment, the reader is rewarded for the long journey through this incredible book. Well worth the effort and time.

Rating:
Summary: James' Best
Review: In my humble opinion, this is James' best work. It surpasses even "The Ambassadors" and "The Golden Bowl" as well as his more often read, not to say more ubiquitous (since lousy movies from Hollywood seem to have revived interest in the author in a manner he would have found distinctly distasteful), earlier masterpieces, short and long. Shame on The Library of America for stalling out on its republication of James' work before getting to the late achievements. Here is one vote for completion of the canon in the usual estimable LOA volumes.

This is a novel to be savoured and treasured. If you're up to late James (he wrote ghost stories, but he's no Stephen King), read on without hesitation.

Rating:
Summary: Each Paragraph a Work of Art
Review: It's said that James aspired to craft each line of his later works into a work of art. Arguably he succeeded at this tremendous task, but in the process he made it a tremendous task just to read the result. This can still be rewarding, but it requires some discipline. Readers who can't or won't do this should steer clear, but those up to the challenge will find a wonder opens up for them.

From every paragraph, metaphors and analogies sprout and bloom, creating a dense tangle of verbal vegetation, richly flowered with bright ideas on all sides. Only close attention can keep one safely on the path, but the desire to smell the flowers constantly threatens to distract the reader, who often wanders off the path and becomes hopelessly lost. The reader who tries to forge forward nevertheless may wander for pages through the worst sort of brambles before accidentally finding the path again. Only the one who backs up and patiently tries again has any hope of enjoying the experience.

It amazed me that one could produce something this impenetrable with perfectly normal English prose - James never resorts to stream-of-consciousness or other techniques that make a book like Ulysses so difficult. On the other hand, the patient reader can navigate Wings of the Dove without outside help; the trick is not to proceed to the next paragraph until you have properly understood the current one. Otherwise, you'll find yourself in the frustrating position of looking at a paragraph of apparently normal English words arranged into reasonable sentences, but which you cannot make any sense out of. When that happens, you must go back to the last point where you had the thread and start over. If you try to muddle through, you may go through pages of incomprehensible prose before James lets you back in again. (I'll admit I threw the book at the wall and cursed at it at least once - then I sighed and went back to the beginning of the chapter and started over, reading closer and more carefully.)

It's like reading poetry - or math - and you should expect it to go a lot slower than your usual reading. Normally, I'd read a book this length in about three or four days, but Wings of the Dove took me over three weeks. Also, take it a little bit at a time. Read a dozen pages or so and then turn to something lighter for a bit. Definitely stop and take a break if you find yourself looking up at the page numbers and sighing at your lack of progress. Finally, do take the time to linger over an especially beautiful or thought-provoking passage; just don't try to do that while reading the next paragraph.

All of James' later work is like this, but the effort is ultimately worthwhile. There is a reason why these are considered his best work, and among the most important works in the English language. And the good news is that it does become easier with practice.

Rating:
Summary: difficult, but worth it
Review: James' style is indeed difficult. I found that reading some sections of the novel aloud helped me keep my focus and enhanced my enjoyment of James' language. Also, I read the Norton Critical Edition and the critical essays that accompanied the text help me get a lot more out of the story than I would have been able to on my own - Milly, the American innocent vs. the mercenary and dehumanized Kate Croy; Densher as typical Jamesian hero, charming, goodwilled but morally indecisive; self-consciousness or self-knowledge as characteristic of James' greatest heroes and heroines.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely an acquired taste
Review: Jane Campion's interesting and admirable Portrait of a Lady and the forthcoming film of this book have brought new attention to Henry James. I wonder, though, what readers fresh from Jane Austen or Trollope will make of this master of highly-wrought, impenetrable prose.

With a couple of English degrees behind me I find James extremely difficult to read; his convoluted syntax and portentous foreshadowing hover perilously near the verge of self-parody. Think Virginia Woolf wihout the passionate emphasis on transcendence, and with a heavy dose of fin de siecle ennui.

All that said, there are tremendous rewards for those who persevere with James; a cool, uncanny psychological insight that recalls his brother, the hugely influential post-Freudian William; imagery which thanks to its patient exposition is allowed to crystallise into remarkable structures; and an ability to evoke the eerie golden light of Europe and Europeanness that has seldom since been approached, and never equalled.

Henry James' specialty is youth and passion, generally identified with American protestantism, come to grief on the massive, impassive edifice of Catholic Europe. Any New Worlder who has ever been brought up short by a sardonic Continental will know exactly, exactly what he means.

Rating:
Summary: It's like watching a slow chess game played out.
Review: Make no mistake: this is a major novel. It will take everything you've got and then some to get through it. The plotline is simple: who gets to take advantage of a rich dying girl before the others do? But the novel is not about its plot; it's about its language. And what language! It's like trying to swim upstream against prose badly translated out of a dead tongue. Sentences perpetually delaying conclusions and meanings put the reader in the same position as the characters: trapped in amber struggling to get free from their situations. The prose style becomes an affectation one gets past; it's no harder than adjusting to Shakespeare, and easier than Joyce. The language is the true hero of the book, for there's no one else suitable for the position (Milly seems more object than subject as the novel progresses, and is removed for the last third). The chief interest consists largely of what James is going to do next--which viewpoint to take? which episode to develop? All this said, the book does have punch at the end, as characters play their hands and admit to one another and themselves what they won't do.