The “Time-Values” of The Wings of the Dove

This paper examines various forms of time as they’re marked and experienced in Henry James’s The Wings of the Dove (1902). Time might be most of the essence for the ill Milly Theale, but James shows that discrete increments of time play a particularly prominent role in constituting the consciousness of Merton Densher. In turn, it is precisely for his access to a divisible, measurable “specious present”—unique in the scheme of the book—that the journalist comes to be valued by others. Ultimately, then, the novel describes a kind of corruptive economy of “buying” and “saving” time.