How long does it take to read The Wings of the Dove?
The Wings of the Dove by Henry James takes about 9 hours 22 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 9 hours 22 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 1902. 511 pages, about 140,525 words.
19 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 15 hours 37 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 9 hours 22 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 5 hours 51 minutes |
The page count is the median across 60 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Beautiful Kate Croy may have been left penniless by her relatives, but her bold, ambitious nature ensures she will not succumb meekly to a life of poverty. If the financial circumstances of Merton Densher, the man she is passionately in love with, are not sufficient to secure her future, perhaps her cunning will. So when Milly Theale arrives in Europe from America, laden with wealth but also gravely ill, Kate sees an opportunity to exploit her vulnerability and devises a plan that will see her and Merton financially provided for. Her scheming is flawed though, for it fails to take into account the inconstancies of the human heart.John Bayley's introduction examines the novel in the context of James's other late, great works.
Subjects: Fiction, Americans in fiction, Americans, Triangles (Interpersonal relations), Terminally ill, Young women in fiction
