Daisy Miller (Penguin Classics) Paperback – December 18, 2007

Daisy Miller is a 100-page book that is deceivingly full of ideas that will leave the reader pondering it for a long time. Henry James wrote many stories that brought the question of class, mores', manners and etiquette. Worlds where men have every freedom and women that have few. James styles a vivacious curious young American heiress and places her into the stuffy class centric world of the established European aristocracy. While men find Daisy refreshing, eccentric, and dangerous, women find her bold, gauche and quite unacceptable. A point that more or less points to their fears. Daisy herself is curious about the world and doesn't want to miss a single experience due to someone else's sense of propriety. It's a wonderful collision of values in just 100 pages!

“Daisy Miller” is an early novella authored by Henry James. While not a scintillating story it is an interesting well written work of a very noteworthy author. Other reviewers have correctly pointed out the dated social standards. The novella could be seen as simply a slow moving story if all one is interested in is a reading experience. That of course, is up to the reader and completely valid. Viewed as study material it proved interesting to me. Therefore I believe it depends on what you are looking for.Note: I am uncredentialed in regard to a formal education in literature.Towards the end of the nineteenth century there was the beginning of an evolution of literature as well as other arts into an era known as Modernism. I think this novella is early modernist. There is symbolism. Daisy is the title character. Her name evokes the image of a pretty spring flower. She has a friend Winterbourne, also symbolic I believe. He is more conservative. They are both Americans visiting Europe. There are issues about different cultures. These differences may include emerging feminist issues, and their differ within the various cultures.While I personally prefer the voice of women authors describing to me the nuances of feminist issues, I am always interested in hearing a male attempt to give voice to such issues. Therefore the opportunity to read what I believe is one an early modernist novella, by a then newly emerging American author, giving voice to changing and sometimes clashing social issues, including feminist social issues, is what intrigues me about this novella.I prefer an eclectic mixture of reading. This is not a novella I would choose for light entertainment. I enjoy this novella more for study purposes. It is all in what one is looking for. Thank You for taking the time to read this review.

This is yet another of those classics that feature a vain, "charming", rather hollow female character acting coquette and fluttering her parasols about while playing the usual class and status game when it comes to love interests. .. stunningly gorgeous, of course., who is about as likable and charming as a nail file. Let's see: will she go for Bachelor #! who is a well to do counsel to royalty, #2 who is a handsome but dull accountant, or #3, who picks pears for a living but is a coarse and unrefined sex god? We know that she is BEAUTIFUL because the writer exhausts all of his impressive writing skills to make sure we know that at least ten times in the course of this short work. It doesn't take much for a woman to have an "edge" in those times so she is also portrayed as a rebel of sorts, a liberated gal before women's lib was a thing, but mostly a somewhat tacky American tourist. Unfortunately, she becomes less and less attractive the more she opens her mouth. Naturally, there is a distinguished and successful man chasing her skirt. Will she go for the stability and money he has to offer or rebel against convention and choose the "bad boy" as if she is one of The Shangri-Las with a boy from the bad part of town? Such suspense! And naturally there is.... well, it's a really short story so I will say no more so as not to spoil it . Is it well written? Very, and occasionally funny. Is it entertaining? Mildly. Is it predictable? Yes, unfortunately it adheres to the dreary formula of romantic drama popular in its time. If you find the whole Jane Austen thing entertaining you will enjoy it. If not, it will be better than Melatonin.

I read this during a trip to the grand hotels along the Lake Geneva waterfront in Vevey and Montreux, Switzerland, where Henry James set this work. He is an exquisite portraitist, able to conjure up just the right collection of details, internal and external, to make the characters come alive, even though the world of manners, money, and rigid sexual morals has since become almost unrecognizable. The cruelty of social condemnation, especially of those trying to make it into the circle of the accepted wealthy, the urge to marry and marry well, has been the theme of so many works that it's amazing there is anything much at all original left to say. But James repeatedly surprises in this arena.

James is an author very close to my heart. I realized that Daisy Miller had a scene at Chillon castle while visiting it. Thence my decidion to read this delightful short story. The character of Daisy is both endearing and masterfully depicted. Perhaps as well depicted are the stern, austere world of Calvinist Geneva and the superficial society of Rome where the end of the story takes place. No obvious typo in this kindle transcript which spared my "library of america" copy a trip to the mountains.