The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- Like what I do? Feel free to buy me a coffee: ko-fi.com/leaf...
linktr.ee/leaf...
Wardrobe courtesy of Conveyor Belt Books in Covington, KY
/ conveyor_belt_books
#leafbyleaf #bookreview #reading #literature #books #booktube
I just started reading The turn of the screw from Henry when this was uploaded! Easily the best RUclipsr when it comes to books, most in depth and insightful stuff on the platform but with no ego. Just great analysis and a passion for reading
Very, very, exceedingly, so so kind of you! Thank you!
It was made into a movie (The Innocents) with Deborah Kerr. Highly recommended whether you’ve read Turn of the Screw or not.
I love that brushstrokes analogy. Will be stealing that!
I hope it serves you well! 😁
One of my favorites. Nicely and thoughtfully presented. Your videos are illuminating. Cheers!
Thanks so much!
You know it’s funny when I first really got serious about literature I would often confuse Henry Miller and Henry James. Such remarkable differences within the similarities and vice versa depending on who you ask. 📚 📖
You know--you've really got me thinking about this now. Never thought about the interesting contrast of Miller and James, but--I see it!
That was cool! I just finished a short essay written by Henry James on his friend Ivan Turgenev. Well, one more nudged to the TBR list. Cheers :)
Literary serendipity!
Love the description of the characters as nodes of constellations that are rearranged throughout the novel. I’m currently rereading the recognitions and felt this description to be appropriate to Gaddis too. The recognitions opens with “the first turn of the screw” - pretty clear homage to James
Absolutely a blatant homage to James and setting up for the wraith(s) that will appear soon after the epigraph-allusion-title!
@@LeafbyLeaf so cool.
Chris this video was so good! I love your channel because you have an understanding of great literature that goes way beyond anything one typically finds on the internet, and you offer this understanding with deep insight and knowledge, but always with humility.
Even though I loved The Wings of The Dove before seeing this video, you have caused me to appreciate it even more. Thank you Chris for all you do!❤🎉😊
Jeff, how could I thank you enough? What a compliment that the video helped you appreciate James's work even more. That's precisely my goal, the whole point of doing this channel, so thank you for validating me again and again. All my very best to you!
Philip Roth said that great fiction "drives a wedge of consciousness into reality." James is an expert at this. His later works are novels of consciousness. These works can serve as a bridge from 19th century realism to 20th century modernists such as Proust, Woolf, and even Beckett. Thanks for this excellent discussion of The Wings of the Dove. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The fact that James composed these last few novels primarily through dictation has always struck me as remarkable. Evidently, James could think out loud in this kind of elaborate, discursive prose.
Oh, I hadn't heard that Roth quote--it's perfectly applicable here. Thank you for that! Yeah, I've been reading about all that was going on in his life while "writing" these late masterpieces and it's incredible that he pulled it off. His popularity was waning, publishers were shafting him, he didn't want to serialize, his assistants were becoming drunks, he was going through wretched illness. Yeesh. To be able to achieve such a steady mind despite all of this is such a testament to the power of artistic endeavor.
Reading a late-stage James while in the midst of a feverish sickness is probably the best way to do it lol!
It definitely forced me to slow down and meet him at his preferred pace!
Very interesting. Taste is such a funny thing; I never imagined I'd find Henry James appealing. A fascinating tutor I encountered at university was all about James, especially the late works. It planted a seed in my mind which is beginning to flower now as I re-engage with Portrait of a Lady after abandoning it 1/3 through, determined to see it through this time (atm I'm 3/5 in: She's just announced to Goodwood her intention to marry).
Perhaps this can be next. Would you recommend that Norton edition?
And I love seeing A Dance to the Music of Time on your glorious set of shelves!
I've only flirted with those volumes so far--opening them at random and reading little bits. I really need to buckle down and immerse myself in the English Proust.
"Many who have been to Rooms forbidden the others, report seeing, inside these, a Door to at least one Room further, which may not be opened. The Penetralia of the Lodge are thus, even to those employed there, a region without a map." - M&D. It seems so much nuance can be opened up on the sentence level by writers like James and Pynchon. I think they have the key to the pentralia of the English language. A lot of the things you found here struck me as particularly insightful you might be interested in Helen Vendler's Paris Review interview from '96 "The phrase “close reading” sounds as if you’re looking at the text with a microscope from outside, but I would rather think of a close reader as someone who goes inside a room and describes the architecture. You speak from inside the poem as someone looking to see how the roof articulates with the walls and how the wall articulates with the floor. And where are the crossbeams that hold it up, and where are the windows that let light through?" Anyway you have a really interesting dialogue going on with ol' James here. The architecture and constellation analogies cannot be overstated.
Ah, I didn't recall that Pynchon used the word, too, in that magisterial text (though I just checked and I made a note in the margin)! Dear Helen Vendler is so wonderfully articulate. Yes, in one of my videos on the Why Do We Read Fiction series, I used the verse in Proverbs that talks about how "it's the glory of God to conceal a thing and the glory of kings to seek it out" (paraphrase). I want to enjoy both the end product that a master architect like James has create _and_ , simultaneously, get inside that control room, raise the curtain, peer into the inner workings, and, ultimately, seek out what has been concealed. I love this point you made: " I think they have the key to the penetralia of the English language." Thanks for this insightful comment!
Thank you so much for this analysis--I have Portrait of a Lady but have not attempted it yet--many years ago I began to read it and did encounter tgat issue of needing to slow my brain velocity lol. Tge way you have described not only the work but the manner of reading the work is extremely edifying for those of us who might just need to tweak our perception a little.
Wow, thank you so much. This is very affirming of a major part of what I want to do with these videos! :)
I absolutely devoured The Turn of the Screw last year and loved every page! But this one seems so much more daunting.
No denying that it's more demanding than _Screw_ (which, as you say, is just about perfect), but I can't stress it's rewards in the end enough.
Portrait of a Lady is the natural next step, in between the two.
Thank you, Chris! In the last two days I read two of your recommendations, both so superb that they will be placed on my “Transcendent Works” exalted shelf! (The Birds and Sickle) To say I’m grateful doesn’t even begin to cover it. THANK YOU! 😊
I am so absolutely thrilled to hear that you trusted me on those two outstanding books! Those books really touch the heart. I love, too, that you have a special shelf for such treasures. All best to you!
Hi Chris.
I immensely enjoy watching and listening to your reviews and learning about all the incredible books that you read. Thanks for sharing these videos, I look forward to more!
Coming to the core of my comment, I am intrigued by the dense book marking system of labels with multiple colors that I observe in your videos and I am curious to learn about the principles that guide how you place them and what you write in them (assuming you do take notes on them). In general, I guess I am interested in learning about the etiquettes that you follow while reading a book. Would love to read your comments or probably watch a video where you cover some of those details!
Cheers
I’ve been struggling through finishing volume 1… I’ve hit the James wall but I’m like 6/8 done… ugh fine I’ll slog through the rest. Something about book 4 just made me forget how to read James, the circuitous conversation between Milly and Susan regarding why Condrip would want Milly to tell Kate she knew Merton.
I totally get that. And I found myself in a situation where I could spend lots of contiguous hours reading this one, which, I think, works best for James.
I’m reading The Turn of the Screw and am absolutely blown away, even though I have to read each line at least three times to understand what the hell the narrator is trying to say. Can’t wait to read more of his work. I’m thinking Washington Square will be next.
Washington Square is much easier to understand .
As a lifelong horror fan I have read and loved 'The Turn of the Screw' and also loved 'Daisy Miller', will have to give this a read though to be honest I he's not really in my wheelhouse of books I tend to read and love.
I totally get that. It's definitely not for everybody. I used to read a lot of horror, though it stopped doing it for me a decade or so again. But I still watch a good helping of horror movies. My favorite recent one is _Barbarian_ .
Have you seen 'The Empty Man' from 2020? Strange but I thought it was particularly well done. @@LeafbyLeaf
I left a comment recently suggesting you to do a video on Sorrentino’s novel “Mulligan Stew” since I’m re-reading it at the moment and it’s fantastic, and I noticed when I revisited your video “Q and A part IV,” you mentioned that you enjoyed the films of Fellini. As I was re-reading “Mulligan Stew,” I had the realization that there are some uncanny similarities between the themes and style of Fellini’s “8 1/2” and Sorrentino’s work, and I was wondering if you would agree or have ever considered it? Might be something fun to mention if you end up doing a video on the book as well!