An American princess, Milly Theale, the 'dove' of the title, is exposed, on a visit to Europe, to the calculating duplicity of an older civilisation. Milly knows herself from the outset to be the victim of an incurable disease, which lends pathos to her eager search for happiness and her innocent friendship with the dazzling Kate Croy.
Note on the text: This edition has been carefully edited to conform as closely as possible to the (original) 1902 English edition of the work. Most free editions of 'The Wings Of The Dove' are derived from the Gutenberg edition, in which Volume One is derived from the 1902 edition, but Volume Two is derived from the 1909 New York edition, and has significantly different (i.e. distinctly less) punctuation to guide the reader through James' complex text. This makes most Gutenberg-derived versions, in my view, somewhat unsatisfactory hybrids.
Readers wishing to read the later (1909) version of the text can do so by purchasing either the Oxford World's Classics or the Penguin Classics books, which are both based on the New York edition.
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