Wings of the Dove Authoritative Text, the Author and the Novel, Criticism

Summary: "[W]hat must surely be the most exhaustive attempt ever made of rendering the sensitivity or reflection of a tragic experience. It is the experience that matters; the aesthetic achievement is secondary....It is Milly's consciousness of her experience, and the consciousness of sin on the part of Kate and Densher, that make the novel great. It is an education, a growth of the moral sense in all involved, that is the 'r...eality' of the novel." [read more]