The Wings of the Dove
By Henry James
Rating : 3/5
Genres: classics, drama, fiction, 2021-read.
The plot is good -- but the writing is not.
I picked this book wearily knowing the author - having read his other classic The Turn of the Screw. Something in his style of writing calls for skipping chunks of text and not miss much in the line of story/plot. It's not an easy read this big book - if he hasn't delved so much into the characters' inner conflicts, psychological reactions, thoughts, feelings to the extent he has - I believe this book would have been much shorter and manageable. At the level of modern day and age, the plot feels trite anyways - it's like walking in tested waters.
Basic theme : A couple of lovers try to scheme and trick a rich young heiress into winning over her wealth for their own. What hand has fate dealt these ingrates? Is their earning worth the price paid for it?
Kate Croy and Merton Densher have fallen in love through meeting often and having found a common mind. What he has, she wants and what she brings into his life, he lacks in himself. They sort of fill a void in each other that's present in the absence of the other. But there are some hurdles to their union. One obvious one is Kate's aunt Aunt Maud - also referenced as Mrs. Lowder. Aunt Maud has taken responsibility of Kate and has set high ambitions for her future - in terms of a worthy gentleman to take her hand in marriage. Kate tries to get away from her but both her father and sister (a widow with a bunch of kids on her hands) refuse to take her in. Merton Densher is a journalist - at any rate, he writes articles in newspapers - and that's his only source of income with no other assets to his name. They try to get on the winning side of Aunt Maud so that she would accept their alliance. But the older woman being rigid in her stance, it comes to nothing.
Luck favours them in the form of a new entry into their world - a wealthy and orphan young girl from America, Milly Theale. Her governess, a Mrs. Stringham, is an old acquaintance of Aunt Maud and Milly planning to visit London, brings her into the society of Aunt Maud and the others. Milly immediately takes a liking to Kate and considers her very exquisite and elegant in person. But Kate - instead of having an innocent reciprocation of feeling towards this harmless, guileless creature - schemes and pushes Densher into falsely winning Molly's affections. She looks at Milly as a handsome and vulnerable Dove whose wings are unclipped and her nature quite gullible to deception. There are a couple of occassions where she makes it clear to Densher - who is quite dependant and attached to her, more than her to him I thought - that she covets the wealth and jewels in possession of Milly and which he under no other circumstances can provide for her.
So they plan to act detached and unrelated in public while he actively and with no real interest pursues Milly for marriage. What they know is that Milly is sick and hasn't got much time left. So Densher intends to marry her and upon her death come into possession of her wealth - which is even bigger than Aunt Maud's. But they get closer on an emotional level, Milly learns of his deceptive motive and that breaks her heart/will. She falls sick and send him away to London. Densher returns to Kate and they await for what happens with respect to Milly. Is it worth what they have done at the end ? The poor girl leaves behind a huge amount of her wealth to Densher but he doesn't want it. What about Kate?
I hate people who are like Kate. She is very callous and selfish woman with a motive of exploiting the trusting Milly. She used both Milly and Densher as her tools to achieve what she wanted. Densher is of a nobler kind - very uncomfortable in his position of deceit and disloyalty. He is definitely made of a nobler fiber than Kate. But the writing is too awful - it's easier to get all this reading a study guide or a summary version than the whole book! Wish I could have given a higher rating!!
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