Daisy Miller (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Patricia Crick (Editor), Geoffrey Moore (Editor) "At the little town of Vevey, in Switzerland, there is a particularly comfortable hotel..." (more)
Key Phrases: Miss Miller, Miss Daisy Miller, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

James's brief 1858 classic is here presented as a no-frills edition in Dover's Thrift series. Since the text is a staple in many high school and college literature curricula, Dover provides a painless, inexpensive way of stocking multiple copies.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

Novel by Henry James, published in Cornhill Magazine in 1878 and published in book form in 1879. The book's title character is a young American woman traveling in Europe with her mother. There she is courted by Frederick Forsyth Winterbourne, an American living abroad. In her innocence, Daisy is compromised by her friendship with an Italian man. Her behavior shocks Winterbourne and the other Americans living in Italy, and they shun her. Only after she dies does Winterbourne recognize that her actions reflected her spontaneous, genuine, and unaffected nature and that his suspicions of her were unwarranted. Like others of James's works, Daisy Miller uses the contrast between American innocence and European sophistication as a powerful tool with which to examine social conventions. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (March 3, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140432620
• ISBN-13: 978-0140432626
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #307,175 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "You had better not meddle with little American girls who are uncultivated.", March 4, 2006

By	Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

One of Henry James's earliest novellas, Daisy Miller (1878) follows the activities of a wealthy, and brashly confident, young American woman as she audaciously challenges European society in Vevey, Switzerland, and in Rome, having fun, doing what pleases her, and leaving staid European society gasping in her wake. Daisy Miller, whose father is in the US and whose mother is her ineffectual "chaperone," is a free spirit in a society bound by unstated but rigid "rules," determined to do whatever she wants, whenever she wants, with whomever she chooses.

Frederick Winterbourne, an expatriate who has spent most of his life in Geneva, is attracted to Daisy, but his bonds with his stuffy aunt, Mrs. Cosgrove, and her friend, Mrs. Walker, both of whom govern ex-patriot society in Europe, leave him ill-equipped to deal with Daisy's flouting of society's conventions. When she is obviously attracted to Mr. Giovanelli, a singer/musician of no social standing, and when she is seen with him publicly in places that a "nice" girl would not grace at night, her reputation is threatened, and anyone associated with her is tainted. Winterbourne is uncertain how to protect her, while, not incidentally, protecting his own reputation.

Developing his most famous theme, James considers the conflicts between American and European values and the naivete of the Americans and their spontaneity as it contrasts with the old world formality of the Europeans. Daisy, who is often foolishly naïve, is also seen as brash and ego-centric, a young woman whose destiny cannot be avoided (or even predicted) because of the strength of her own, often wrong, willfulness.

James focuses on two characters here--both Daisy and Winterbourne--and though the story is told from Winterbourne's point of view, Daisy is often the more vibrant of the two characters. Though she is shallow and assertive, he is hidebound by convention, leaving both characters with limits in terms of reader identification. When a night-time dalliance leads to serious consequences for Daisy, the reader is neither surprised nor shocked.

Filled with trenchant observations about Americans and their differences from Europeans, the novel incorporates significant symbols--the Coliseum (associated with innocent Christian martyrs), malaria (to which Americans are particularly susceptible), Randolph (Daisy's rude and undisciplined 10-year-old brother, the ugliest of Americans), and Mrs. Cosgrove and Mrs. Walker (converts to the European way of life). Carefully observed and critical of American naivete, Daisy Miller is the "preface" to Portrait of a Lady and many of James's more fully developed novels. n Mary Whipple

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece miniature., March 14, 2001

By	darragh o'donoghue (dublin, ireland) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Read heading a collection of James short stories, 'Daisy' is a delight, with a classically clear narrative, beautifully direct prose (especially if you've come from the late novels!), a charming heroine, and a sublime balancing act between unexpected comedy (the great Randolph C. Miller!) and the most horrifying tragedy.

Puffed up as a 'novella', however, with an introduction (Geoffrey Moore) almost as long, and copious notes (Patricia Crick), and the poor girl is left a little exposed. Maybe my feeling of relative disappointment, having fallen in love over ten years ago, was due to this infuriating critical apparatus, the introduction patronising James, the notes condescending to the reader.

What strikes me now as the work's brilliance is not the concise treatment of the America/Europe, man/woman, appearance/reality, Geneva/Rome dialectic that so obsessed James; or even the astonishing achievement of the narration, somehow distancing and conflating the narrator and his silly hero. What is especially striking is the visual quality, the minutely composed tableaux - now Gothic, now impressionistic, now sharply lucid - as an abortive love affair is played out on the placid shores of Lake Geneva, the rondelay of the Pincio Gardens, or the ruins of ancient Rome, malaria poisoning the air on its way to Venice and Thomas Mann.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An American in Europe, October 17, 2001

By	Michael J. Mazza (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Daisy Miller (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

As I read Henry James' novella "Daisy Miller," I found myself reminded of Anthony Minghella's film "The Talented Mr. Ripley," starring Matt Damon. Both the novella and the film tell the stories of Americans living luxurious lives in Europe. Both stories also deal with the issue of social unacceptability, and are haunted by the aura of sexual transgression.

James' novella was first published in 1878, making it an early work in the author's illustrious literary career. "Daisy" opens in Switzerland, where Winterbourne, a young American man, meets the title character. An American girl who is described as "an extraordinary mixture of innocence and crudity," Daisy becomes a troublesome figure for the snobby community of Americans abroad.

Some of James' social satire strikes me as rather dated, and I found the conclusion of the tale somewhat unsatisfying. Still, "Daisy" is a well-written tale that, on the whole, remains a good read today. And Daisy herself is a curiously compelling character whose story invites both a serious feminist analysis, as well as an analysis based in economic and class issues. Recommended as a companion text: "Strange Pilgrims," Gabriel Garcia Marquez' collection of stories about Latin Americans in Europe for various reasons.