I am not much interested in romantic dramas, so this one was a bit dull. A young woman is interested in a young man who her family dislikes. Over time it turns out almost all the women in the story are attracted to this young man, but he is still poor, or at least not wealthy. The young woman, Kate, comes up with a scheme to make her would-be-fiance rich so her family will approve of her marrying him. The scheme is decidedly unethical, and the big question seems to be whether Kate and her beloved will still want to marry once the scheme has run its course.
The writing in this novel is readable enough, and if you like romantic dramas, this is probably a good book. ( )

It took me more than a year to get through this book. It has my maiden name inside the front cover so I know for sure how long it has been languishing on my tbr pile. I think I've admitted before that I used to be a real literature snob, only reading "worthy" novels, an attitude I developed on my own but had strongly reinforced in graduate school. I have since become less of a jerk (and I didn't stay in academia). But I still had this book on my shelves and thought I should finally read it. Well, my mother told me not to say anything if I couldn't say anything nice but I've never been a completely compliant child so I'm ignoring that advice. And let me tell you, the nicest thing I can say about reading this book is that it was a mind-numbing chore.

Bare bones, the plot in a nutshell : poor but beautiful young woman falls in love with poor journalist. They cannot marry because they are poor. Rich American heiress who has previously met the journalist and fallen for him comes to London and meets the young woman. They become friends. Heiress is convinced she's dying. Poor woman is also convinced and decides the journalist should marry the heiress so he'll inherit the money when the heiress dies and then they can afford to marry each other. Things don't entirely go as planned. I mean, it doesn't sound terrible, does it? But in James' hands, it is. He took almost 500 pages to get through this small and unremarkable plot. The man wrote in circles, repeating things over and over ad nauseum. Nothing about the book is head on, everything is obtuse and drawn out. His characters never speak plainly either and there are pieces that are completely baffling. In fact, the plan for the future stays completely unstated until the last quarter (eighth?) of the novel. Our journalist is rather dim until he asks his sweetheart, Kate, to come to his rooms or he won't fall in with her plan. Merton has been unobjectionable until this point and suddenly he's taking advantage of his one true love. Kate is not a greedy Machiavelli until near the end. She is observant but it's still a mystery of sorts how she knows that our heiress is dying given that even the fancy doctor won't say it, only exhorting Milly to "live" and suggesting to Milly's companion that if she just falls in love and marries, she'll come out right in the end. If I had to read a character calling Milly a "magnificent" dove one more time, I was going to heave the book at the wall. The only thing that seemed to make her magnificent was that she had a lot of money and was in danger of being relieved of it. Honestly, by the end, I was hate-reading this byzantine insomnia cure. And by byzantine, I'm definitely referring to the writing and not the plot. Unless you are the snobbiest of literary classic readers, I recommend giving this one a wide berth for sure. ( )

Ambientada en medio del esplendor de los salones de Londres y los palacios venecianos dorados, Las alas de la paloma es la historia de Milly Theale, una heredera estadounidense ingenua y condenada, y un par de amantes, Kate Croy y Merton Densher, que conspiran para obtener su fortuna. En esta ingeniosa tragedia de traición y autoengaño, Henry James entreteje tres destinos nefastos y totalmente humanos inesperadamente unidos por el deseo, la codicia y la salvación.

Although I generally like Henry James, this was really a long slog. He was at his best obscure in this one and pages would go by with sentences that were mostly indefinite pronouns and words in quotes. I remained baffled on most of the characters motives and really got only a bare outline of the plot. Yes, he can craft a beautiful sentence but I need a bit more. He also did what I think of as the Russian novel thing of using different names for the same character in different circumstances and I am sure that had some meaning but I mostly spend a long time convinced Susan Shepard and Mrs. Stringham were different people. I think I will need a little Henry James break, esp. as The Golden Bowl was next in the pile.

The Wings of the Dove is the longest book I have ever read. No, not the most pages, just the most unending. This is considered a masterpiece and makes dozens of touted “must read” lists, so it is with a bit of chagrin that I say it was a painful experience for me. I pushed myself through it, and that alone keeps it off the favorites page. I strongly felt that every sentence, with the exception of James’ dialogue, could have been edited to half its length and been vastly improved.

The sad thing is, this book does explore significant themes and is built upon an interesting plot idea, but James loves innuendo, so none of his characters ever says what they are thinking and James tells you and tells you and tells you, while showing you little. I found the true meaning of "to beat a dead horse”...in this novel, Henry James has perfected that!

I wanted to like this. I wanted to find at least one character that I could care about in even the slightest way. James is so brilliant in some ways. He is eloquent and luminous and has moments in which you know why he is so admired. So, it feels presumptuous to criticize him, and yet I cannot pretend to love this, because in the end I kind of whispered to myself and for Milly, “thank God that is over!”
( )