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Title: The Wings of the Dove (A Norton Critical Edition) by Henry James, Richard A. Hocks, J. Donald Crowley ISBN: 0-393-09088-4 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: September, 1978 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.05 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.11 (27 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Wading Through the Muck
Comment: I am a huge fan of the classics, and one of my goals is to read as many classic novels as possible. I have a shelf full of them in my house! However, when I sat down to read "The Wings of the Dove," I found myself wondering what in the world this author was trying to say. Henry James writes in a very thick, wordy manner, and many of his sentences are so long and convoluted that they take up an entire half of one page!I would read the same sentence over and over again, going,"Huh? " I've attempted to read this novel three times now since acquiring the book and have not made it past page 69. The basic plot of the story sounds very enticing and I know it must be a good story. The problem is that reading this book is like reading a foreign language. You know it's in English; you even know what all of the words mean! But the way Mr. James puts these words together into thoughts and sentences is so dense you feel as though you're wading through the muck and you've forgotten your overshoes. I kept thinking that this would be a great book if it was written in modern English, and I kept mentally rewording all of the sentences as to how I would say it if I were writing the book. Finally, I got frustrated and relegated it back to my bookshelf where it's been sitting for the past year, unopened. This is definitely not a book you'd want to take with you on your summer vacation;if you read this, you'll think you've taken a job as a foreign correspondant and they've forgotten to pay you! Don't torture yourself!
Rating: 5
Summary: Through a glass darkly
Comment: 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: 4
Summary: Worth it if you work for it
Comment: You really have to work for what you get out of this book. The thick prose is difficult, and the long, rambling sentences and page-and-a-half paragraphs require the whole of the reader's attention. This is certainly not a book that I would be able to read on a trip, in a public place, or when I'm tired. That having been said, this is a great piece of literature that demonstrates an interesting contrast in European and American society. The story revolves around a conspiracy by two individuals, Kate Croy and Merton Densher (both Londoners), against a young, rich American girl named Milly. The ultimate goal of these two is to get the dying Milly's vast fortune for themselves when she dies. Densher, who is not a wealthy man, would by gaining Milly's fortune to gain enough social standing to gain the consent of Kate's rich aunt Maud for Kate's hand in marriage.
The motives of the pair are not completely selfish. Milly is dying, it is true, but as long as she enjoys life she does well, and the doctor pronounces that the more joy she can have, the better. Kate is a good friend of Milly's, and knows (or at least thinks) that her last days will be happy with even the artificial love of Densher.
The contrast between American and European society comes in the question of social standing. As Maud puts it, and as everyone understands it, Densher is not 'good enough' for Kate. Milly, though many times more wealthy, has no such scruples, and the common Densher is plenty good for her, even though she's also being pursued by a nobleman named Lord Mark. Milly sees Densher's personality as the core of her fondness for him, and cares nothing for his social standing. Maud, though she really likes Densher, will not consent to Kate's marriage to him for the simple fact that he is, essentially, nobody.
The ultimate distinction between Europe and America is the fact that the Europeans, especially Aunt Maud, will do nothing for anybody unless it will somehow benefit themselves. Maud is a grand hostess, and a generous woman, but only when it works to her advantage. The climax of the novel is when Milly proves herself the stronger in character, by committing an act so charitable, though she knows of the plot against her, that only Densher can truly understand it, and Kate is left at a loss. Densher and Kate have a chance to redeem themselves, and the truly climactic finish of the novel is an interesting look at how the Londoners (Kate and Densher), so different in social standing, deal with this chance.
Overall this is a very good book. I would not call it an enjoyable read, because of the complex and often confusing prose, but it nevertheless is worth reading, both for the message it conveys and for the fascinating and multifaceted characters.
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Title: The Golden Bowl (Penguin English Library) by Henry James, Gore Vidal, Patricia Crick ISBN: 0140432353 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: May, 1985 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin Classics) by Henry James, Geoffrey Moore ISBN: 014043223X Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: December, 1988 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Ambassadors (Penguin Classics) by Henry James, Harry Levin ISBN: 0140432337 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: March, 1987 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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Title: TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald ISBN: 068480154X Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 July, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion (Oxford World's Classics) by Ford Madox Ford, Thomas C. Moser ISBN: 019283620X Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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