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Penguin Classics Daisy Miller

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American Society in the mid 19th century operated under a strict
code of moral values, which were scrupulously observed while traveling abroad. Responsible women were constantly on the alert to protect young ladies from predatory Europeans, for it was a recognized international scam to marry American money. Society dowagers and conscientious mothers artfully contrived to both Exhibit their eligible daughters and yet Protect them--their reputations as well as their persons. (To be culturally honest, there were some American girls who went abroad seeking to marry Titles.)

This novella in two parts is narrated by a pleasant and decent American youth who has been living and stuyding in Siwtzerland for some years. Instantly charmed by a very pretty American flirt, whose precocious little brother he's just met, the naive protagonist seeks every legitimate means to make her acquaintance and enjoy more of her company. Miss Daisy Miller certainly turns heads abroad, but she is playful and coy--enjoying the game of tormenting her beaus.

The plot progresses as the unnamed hero gradually realizes that his divine Daisy does not radiate a positive reputation, for hostesses in Switzerland and later in Rome begin to shun her. Adding insult to inury, they actually warn him about her. How can he compete with her latest conquest, a handsome and indolent Latin Lover? Daisy ignores all sincere attempts to deflect her from her headstrong course of social ruin. Her mother seems utterly indifferent to her daughter's fate--demonstrating ineffective parenting skills with her horrid son as well. All of which leaves readers wondering how naive, stupid or shallow this socialite truly is. Like the governess in James' TURN OF THE SCREW, Daisy projects conflicting opinions about her personality. What terrible price will she pay for toying with men's hearts and flaunting social customs abroad? This comes across as a serious cautionary tale.

Originally published in book form in 1879, "Daisy Miller" brought Henry James his first widespread commercial and critical success. The young Daisy Miller, an American on holiday with her mother in Europe, is one of James' most vivid and tragic characters. Daisy's friendship with an American gentleman, Mr Winterbourne, and her subsequent infatuation with a passionate but impoverished Italian, bring to life the great Jamesian themes of Americans abroad, innocence versus experience, and the grip of fate.

This story emphasizes an upper-class expatriate's efforts to understand and deal with a charming, independent but uninformed heroine who posses a strong challenge to conservative manners. In the end the story's emphasis is not so much on social portraiture as on the tragic effects of class distinction. When Winterbourne learns that Daisy was after all completely "innocent", he understands his serious mistake in going along with the other Americans who blackball her. Like the ancient Roman spectators in the Colosseum, Winterbourne has participated in a human sacrifice. While Winterbourne worries over the morality of the young American woman, it is his own behaviour that constitutes immorality. He is committing an unpardonable sin in his overly intellectualized searching out of the moral fault of another.

As in other tales, James makes direct contact with the mythic materials of Judeo-Christian culture equally to gloss his sense of evil and measure its fate in the modern world. The narrative in "Daisy" can be understood as a commentary on a culture in which gossip has replaced the gospel. In a remarkable scene set in St Peter's, as scandalizing chatter ignores and disturbs the lovely music of Spirit, Winterbourne hears from a friend that Daisy and Giovanelli have been sighted viewing the portrait by Velazquez of Pope Innocent X, a rendering that reveals the ill-named Pope as a worldly cynic. By means of this juxtaposition, James extends the evil from Winterbourne to the gossipy Americans and then to the history of European religions.

The narrator is not an "unnamed hero", but has an eloquent name. Not only do Winterbourne's fate - utter stasis - and name link him to the wintry Satan of Dante; they become allegorically appropriate to his status, and emblematic of his punishment: the endless repetition, fixed in loneliness, of his self-love, which is encompassed -"bourne" - as it is "born" by winter. The only motion available to Winterbourne is the futile beating of wings that immures him and the more fixedly in an ice that represents his fear and hatred of others. The role of Evil in this tale is less that of pointing out at narcissism (though it is also clearly about that), and more about the terms for living in a modern world where all comforting authority has been lost. The freedom in this tale is a terror rather than a liberation for the characters who confront it, and leads them to an attempt to impose meaning on a recalcitrant world that leads in turn to the violation of others. Because Winterbourne will not live with the challenge of self-awareness required in a world where we are alone, he loses respect for Daisy and he learns nothing. His confusion between his parenting and courting roles, and his panic of the social "other", make him lose trust in her individual strengths. This story defines an evil fit for the century of Henry James and for our own. James' later story "The Beast in the Jungle" is a reworking of the same theme.

American society in the mid 19th century operated under a strict set of moral values which were also scrupulously observed while traveling abroad. Responsible women were cosntantly on the alert to protect young ladies from predatory European males, for it
was a recognized social scam to marry American money. Society dowagers and conscientious mothers artfully contrived to both exhibit their elegible daughters and yet protect them--their reputations being as precious as their persons.

This novella in two parts is narrated by a pleasant and decent American youth who has been living/studying in Switzerland for some years. Instantly charmed by a very pretty American flirt, whose precocious little brother he's just met, the naive progtagonist seeks every legitmate means to make her
acquaintance and enjoy her company, before his schedule removes him from her delightful presence. Miss Daisy Miller certainly turns heads abroad, but she is playful and coy--happily aware of the game of having beaus. The plot progresses as the unnamed hero gradually realizes that his divine Daisy's behavior does not promote a positive reputation. Hostesses both in Switzerland and in Rome begin to shun her--and to warn him. How can he compete with a handsome and indolent Latin lover? Alas, Daisy ignores all well-meaning attempts to moderate the terrible talk behind her back. How can her sincere admirer prevent her from rushing headlong into social ruin? Which leaves readers wondering how naive or stupid or shallow the lady really is. As in James' TURN OF THE SCREW, this heroine projects a conflicting personality, producing two contrasting viewpoints about her attitude. What terrible price will Daisy pay for toying with men's hearts and rejecting her national code of morality?

"Daisy Miller" is a small classic that loses its risqué themes in today's society. It's an uncomplicated book to read with interesting phrases, which are explained in the back of the novella. Without a lot of detail, one must use their imagination greatly. Nonetheless, it's attention grabbing. I recommend.

In the novel "Daisy Miller", Henry James shows the readers how Daisy, a young American girl, lives outside the social guidelines of the upper class in the 1800's. Daisy travels through in Europe with her family when she meets an American man, Winterbourne. They had known each other for only four days when Daisy asked Winterbourne to come visit her in Italy, however, when he does, her friendship with a young Italian, Mr. Giovanelli, made Winterbourne realize that she was a "flirt." Daisy Miller does not have a father and I believe that she craves for attention from men, and her manipulation of men is one of the themes of the novel.
The author shows an interesting side of the characters and how they think about each other. The climax of this story was not what I had thought it would be and it was hard to notice. This novel was interesting however because it shows how people may think in one way, but act in another at times. I think that Henry James expressed the character's feeling well even though this novel was written in the third-person point of view.

I read this book without thinking too much its meaning. To me, it merely shows the culural clash of personalities between naive Americans and pensive Europeans at around the time of the First World War. As Barbara Tuchman indicated in 'The Proud Tower', it was a time of rapid and unbelievable changes.

Later I read that the personality of Daisy Miller reflected that of President Woodrow Wilson who failed miserably in his attempts to build the League of Nations and to make the world safe for democracy. I am afraid that reading the book did not covey this to me .

DAISY MILLER is "early" Henry James, so if you've only read the more famous THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, or the even later masterpieces, THE WINGS OF THE DOVE and THE GOLDEN BOWL, you'll find this little novella quite different. Conspicuously absent are the convoluted stroylines (this book is too short for that anyway), the long sentences and the highly stylized writing that characterizes much of James' later work.

Although DAISY MILLER isn't vintage James, it is quite refreshing in both its simplicity and its straightforward quality. I also think James did a wonderful job of capturing the essence of the American tourist in Europe and the vast differences in American versus European society.

I didn't enjoy this book simply because I didn't like either Daisy Miller or Frederick Winterbourne. I found Winterbourne too "stuffy," even for his "time," and Daisy too spoiled and self-indulged. I think perhaps James went a little overboard in creating her. I really believe Daisy was supposed to come across as a sweet, innocent, charming young girl...a girl who was very genuine. I saw her as spoiled, petulant and always needing to "have her own way." I would have liked to have seen more interaction between Daisy and Frederick, but James always kept Frederick a bit too much on the conservative side.

I am sure part of my problem with this book lies in the fact that I've been living in Europe for most of my life. I can say with certainty that Europeans aren't really unaccepting of Americans. In fact, most Europeans like Americans (the French are the one exception). What they don't like are Americans (or anyone else) who come to Europe and expect Europe (and Europeans) to be "just like" America and Americans. This was Daisy's tragic mistake and it infuriated me that Frederick wasn't more vigorous in his attempts at educating her. What's interpreted as sweet and innocent and even charming in one place can be seen as bold and brazen in another. I'm sure, had I not lived in Europe, my view of Daisy would have been different. As it is, I can see the European side of the story all too clearly and I can so easily understand why Daisy wasn't accepted and embraced by society there.

And speaking of Europeans, I have a bone to pick with Mr. James regarding the character of Giovanelli. Although James spent far more time in Paris and London, he did visit Rome and should have known that the "Italian lover" (a la Giovanelli) was/is nothing but a stereotype. Italian men come with all different types of personalities...just like all the rest of us.

To repeat, DAISY MILLER isn't vintage James and, in my opinion, it lacks the maturity and insight that characterize James' later novels. That doesn't mean it isn't worth reading, however. It is. DAISY MILLER is a sad story about a sweet girl who simpy lacks the maturity to adapt and, in the end, pays a very heavy price.

A delightful, quick read. "Daisy Miller" is a great introduction to American Realism. It is most interesting to read Henry James' comments on American innocence vs. European "cultural superiority." Allows for a catalyst to examine how America has evolved in world social position.

I read this book as part of an English course on late-19th and 20th century American literature. It's the first time I've read a novel by Henry James, having so far only seen the movie adaptations of 'Portrait of a Lady' and 'Washington Square'. Having been wary of reading James (because of his reputation for dense, convoluted prose) I was surprised at this novel's relatively brisk plot and overall readability. The story itself, ostensibly a simple one about one man's inability to understand a seemingly complicated woman, also has interesting things to say about gender, class and the relationship between the United States (personified by the heroine) and the rest of the Western world. I was actually somewhat amazed that the image of America created through the characterization of Daisy Miller still rings true 125 years after this book's publication.

Daisy is an awkward and culturally embarrassing character- but what would one expect from Henry James? The dedicated expatriate and sexually repressed author had as is logical, much ambivalence about the nature of American innocence and social ignorance and the manner that it both outshone and was dimmed by European codes of courting and displays of youthful romance.

Daisy is a tragedy in part because of her mother's extreme passivity and inability to read cues from the environment that she visited for all the wrong reasons. Similarly, though Daisy has some passion for the landscape and sites; her own interests are primarily for attention and male reactions to her attempts to allure and confuse.

The hero is a sorrowful figure who is drawn to the young woman primarily for her appearance and later out of some romantic/protective impulse. In Europe, this American upperclass bachelor has languished within an unfulfilling and far from illustrious lifestyle. He is boringly European and less and less American in his vitality.
Ironic today, in the face of multicultural and global involvements to think of the huge walls between the Americans and Europeans- yet for James and his contemporaries it was a compelling issue. The other issues- that would be James' own; are sidelines to his exquisite writing and capacity to leave the reader to meditate and return to his tales and their intentions.