The Wings of the Dove

Publisher's Summary

Milly Theale is a young, beautiful, and fabulously wealthy American. When she arrives in London and meets the equally beautiful but impoverished Kate Croy, they form an intimate friendship. But nothing is as it seems: materialism, romance, self-delusion, and ultimately fatal illness insidiously contaminate the glamorous social whirl.

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Public Domain (P)2017 Naxos AudioBooks

No one but Juliet Stevenson...

... could do Henry James justice. I'm convinced of it. His sentences are so long, his sensitivities and observations so nuanced (and downright complicated) that one needs either large print and lots of concentrated time to delve in, or the velvety syllable-by-syllable de-ciphering of a master codebreaker. Thank you, Ms. Stevenson, for once again opening the classics to me. Please keep them coming!

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

Not an easy read but SO worth it!

Henry James's writing is not for everybody. It is incredibly dense and detailed and he deep dives into the ruminative thoughts of all the major characters at such length that for the first 1/3 of the book, you might find yourself going a little crazy, thinking WHERE IS THE PLOT?! But the book picks up in intensity after the midway mark and I literally could not stop listening. The story is deeply philosophical, about the nature of love, betrayal and just how far one would go to get what one wants - only to then have to live with the consequences. It's absolutely Shakespearian, this story. If you want to be a "well read" person, you should read at least one Henry James novel and that should be this one. Give it a chance, be patient, retrain your focus when you begin to drift, and you will be richly rewarded, in the end.

20 of 21 people found this review helpful

Challenging text, beautifully read

This late novel by James is full of nuance, indirectness and innuendo. It requires a highly gifted and intelligent reader to capture the subtle shades of meaning and feeling. Juliet Stevenson is superb at fathoming and expressing the inner and outer worlds of each protagonist in this complex work.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Disappointing accent

I love Juliette Stevens’ reading generally, but was distracted throughout Wings of the Dove by the odd accent she used for the two American characters. It sounded forced and was unconvincing.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Excruciating and tedious

Henry James writes beautifully. Unfortunately, he writes beautifully about nothing. I can't help but wonder if Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld are fans?

I have never been a huge fan of the Victorian era but, as so many early 20th Century works pepper the Modern Library's Top 100 novels, alas, they must be endured. And it is no stretch of the metaphor that Wings of the Dove was an endurance event.

As perviously stated James writes beautifully but his characters are bland and unlikeable people. They are purely self involved, incapable of genuine expression and so self conscious because of their class distinction that they are absolutely devoid of any quality to warrant empathy due to the restrictions imposed by both the class they belong and to the class they aspire.

Perhaps because James was American born yet spent most of his adulthood in Britain and Europe, it feels like he is constantly trying to explain or apologize for Americans to a British audience by making every casual expression or American idiom overwrought with parenthetical and commatic explanation. This just adds to the tedium.

I believe there are other Henry James works on the list. More excrucruation to be endured, no doubt.

not for me!

too wordy by far. cannot finish it. really wish I hadn't chosen this one. disappointed

3 of 16 people found this review helpful