Daisy Miller (Penguin Classics)
by Henry James
published
December 18th 2007
(first published 1879)
by Penguin Books Ltd
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binding
Paperback, 128 pages
characters
isbn
0141441348
(isbn13: 9780141441344)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2234)
Read in January, 2008
This little story catalyzed a lot of late 19th century debate about American values and European values and--particularly--the confident, un-blushing American girl who is not inclined to conform to the snobbish tastes and attitudes of the upper class people she meets as her family becomes wealthy.
"Daisy Miller" became a debatable type of American girl, Daisy Millerism a controversial kind of topic.
Contemporary readers should give some thought to how Daisy's major sin aga...more
"Daisy Miller" became a debatable type of American girl, Daisy Millerism a controversial kind of topic.
Contemporary readers should give some thought to how Daisy's major sin aga...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommends it for:
Anti-Americanists
This novella is the kind of book that one reads in school, studies with interest, and then forgets about entirely. I only finished "Daisy Miller" a few days ago, and already the tiny details that were supposedly significant are fading, the characters becoming fuzzy.
"Daisy Miller" is a study of Americans in other countries. It could also be called a piece of propaganda, because it proves a point: Americans are greedy, selfish, loud-mouthed pigs and generally look like fool...more
"Daisy Miller" is a study of Americans in other countries. It could also be called a piece of propaganda, because it proves a point: Americans are greedy, selfish, loud-mouthed pigs and generally look like fool...more
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Read in May, 2007
I picked up this book because it was a frequent reference in Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran. I've never read Henry James before, but I was rather disappointed in this book. Nafisi emphasizes the importance of courage and empathy in the heroes of novels. I'm not sure what she saw in this book. Throughout this novel, the hero, Winterbourne attempts to understand Daisy Miller, but only in the sense of whether she is a proper (if innocent) young woman, or a tramp. He lacks the courage to actually...more
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Read in December, 2007
I honestly wasn't too impressed with this, given its esteem and reverence in literary circles. In a lot of ways it's identical to every other piece of Victorian-era literature: for stupid reasons of social propriety, rich people without jobs can't be with each other. That the main characters are American is really the only novelty (and Winterbourne may as well be European for all his dandy-foppery). James's style is overblown to the point of irritation, most likely in an attempt to pad what's...more
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Read in June, 2008
A favorite with study abroad students who quickly sympathize with the heroine, Henry James' novella Daisy Miller (1878) tells the story of a rich though uncultivated American girl's first trip through Europe. Switzerland and Italy provide the backdrop to a story that concerns Daisy's encounter with stodgy, old-money Americans who take exception to parvenue Daisy's lively and mostly innocent quest for fun. As much a study of snobbism as of a young woman, Daisy Miller was very...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone who finds Henry James daunting but wants to try him out anyway
Daisy Miller was a lovely little book about society in Europe in the 19th century. James brings two characters together - Daisy, a young and vivacious American girl on a tour of Europe with her family, and Winterbourne - an English student who moves in societies most exclusive circles. Daisy's flirtatiousness and Winterbourne's sense of decorum clash a bit in their courtship and the books ends in tragedy.
Henry James meant, in this book to write about the effects of Americans and Europeans ...more
Henry James meant, in this book to write about the effects of Americans and Europeans ...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommended to Dawn by:
Read about it in "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azir Nafisi
This was a weird little book. I don't know what else to say about it.
This book is about Daisy Miller, a young girl from America who is exploring Europe with her mother (who seems painfully shy) and her completely out-of-control brother.
Daisy is a sweet girl, with "grand" idea's and is unconcerned with convention and gossip. She does things frequently that are very inappropriate without seeming to care.
She meets a young man (Winterbourne) who she seems to bewitch from first meetin...more
This book is about Daisy Miller, a young girl from America who is exploring Europe with her mother (who seems painfully shy) and her completely out-of-control brother.
Daisy is a sweet girl, with "grand" idea's and is unconcerned with convention and gossip. She does things frequently that are very inappropriate without seeming to care.
She meets a young man (Winterbourne) who she seems to bewitch from first meetin...more
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Read in January, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in November, 2006
Is it cheating to pick a novella for my Fall classic? I was going to pick The Grapes of Wrath, but my book club isn't discussing that until Spring, and I wanted it to be fresher in my mind. Besides, I have epic, Russian plans for Winter, for both the non-fiction and the classic.
You always hear Daisy Miller referred to in lit classes, and I remember particularly wishing I'd read it when I read Reading Lolita in Tehran. I should've read it when I was younger, because I didn't have much too much ...more
You always hear Daisy Miller referred to in lit classes, and I remember particularly wishing I'd read it when I read Reading Lolita in Tehran. I should've read it when I was younger, because I didn't have much too much ...more
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I quite enjoyed this little book. However, unlike Jane Austen's novels, the main benefit is in negative example. That is; from how Daisy is criticised we may learn better what modest behaviour is. Of course there are some aspects of what was acceptable back then which are not necessary today, but most of it is, and we need to gain an idea of what is decent, proper, and modest from them. We tend to think that if we are not as immodest as others in this utterly wicked generation, then we are meeti...more
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An excellent and charming -- though not necessarily endearing portrait of a period American girl in the late 19th century. Daisy is a beautiful, young, open, uninhibited and flirtatious American woman touring Europe (Rome and Switzerland) with her mother and her rambunctious brother where she met a sophisticated, sensitive and reserved American expat named Winterbourn -- notice the names and meaning Henry James give to these two characters. The novella tells a story of their courtship but aims...more
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Read in January, 2005
Travelling in Europe with her family, Daisy Miller, an exquisitely beautiful young American woman, presents her fellow-countryman Winterbourne with a dilemma he cannot resolve. Is she deliberately flouting social convention in the outspoken way she talks and acts, or is she simply ignorant of those conventions? When she strikes up an intimate friendship with an urbane young Italian, her flat refusal to observe the codes of respectable behaviour leave her perilously exposed. In Daisy Miller Jame...more
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Read in December, 2007
I don't have many regrets, but one of them is that I did not discover Henry James until just two years ago. I didn't know much about him until reading Allan Hollinhurst's 'Line of Beauty', which heavily references James. This novella is a masterpiece. It can easily be read in one sitting, and is such a nuanced and delicate portrait of American women, and the American spirit. James is very similar to Austen in so many ways; his ironic wit, his understanding of the complexities in human society an...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
english majors
I learned it is a simple book with a simplistic view at the concepts of new money versus old money with the main stay of reputation. Underlying is a love interest that the main character refuses to entertain and covers with his questioning throughout the text of whether daisy is truely "innocent"
In the end his infatuation, love interest or what ever word you would like to use to describe it, is as easily passed on as it started.
I thought it was boring and pointless in my personal ...more
In the end his infatuation, love interest or what ever word you would like to use to describe it, is as easily passed on as it started.
I thought it was boring and pointless in my personal ...more
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Read in May, 2002
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Read in June, 2008
Daisy lives her own life, despite convention and society's rules...her total disregard for what is deemed proper endears her to me. At times I was reading and thought, "seriously, is she really doing that?" but then you check yourself and think, what is really so wrong about it, good for her for not bowing to what other people think and expect of her! Her independence, her spirit and willingness to just be herself is fresh, and innocent as well. Innocent in a way that we don't usuall...more
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recommends it for:
all
I have felt intimidated by Henry James -- such vague writing, but then I heard that Daisy Miller is a way to enter his world.
A young man meets Daisy at a hotel and is captivated byu her many mixed messages -- was she really innocent or the great manipulator??
The3 whole book is about society's rules. Would this young woman bow to the older set who try to dicispline her/shame her -- or will she be willful and allow her standing to be come very improper?
This gets 4 stars from me. Perhap...more
A young man meets Daisy at a hotel and is captivated byu her many mixed messages -- was she really innocent or the great manipulator??
The3 whole book is about society's rules. Would this young woman bow to the older set who try to dicispline her/shame her -- or will she be willful and allow her standing to be come very improper?
This gets 4 stars from me. Perhap...more
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Read in January, 2007
Perhaps a little thin, but interesting in the way it foreshadows James's major concerns: the opacity of character, the tendency to draw conclusions from unstable evidence, the transformation of a person into an idea. All three of those concerns are really the same thing. The fact is, we are alone in our heads, and we create every other person around us.
It's also one of the more American novels of James's and a precursor to _Portrait of a Lady_ in that way, although, of course, we get inside ...more
It's also one of the more American novels of James's and a precursor to _Portrait of a Lady_ in that way, although, of course, we get inside ...more
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Read in April, 2007
I Don't know why I waited so long to read this story. It was so compelling I read the whole novella in a day!!! Truly a masterpiece of feminist fiction, I love how Daisy always manages to make Winterbourne, a professional student studying in Geneva, look like an artless and spineless ingenue --I don't even know if I am making any sense-- but there is something hilariously funny at times in the story in the many artful ways Daisy manages to make Winterbourne look like a fool. Because she is...more
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Read in January, 1988
recommends it for:
deep thinkers
It's a novella that I keep going back to. Is it just a super-quick tale about a shallow young girl who makes a fool of herself (and her countrymen), or is it an insightful look at the price one pays for being true to herself? The great news: you can easily read it in an evening and you'll be instantly aware of James' skills with symbolism. If you're an astute reader, you'll realize that the book makes an important point for the contemporary person who attempts to melt into another way of life. T...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.47 (1813 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.68 (69 ratings) number of reviews: 137
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quote
"'My father ain't in Europe; my father's in a better place than Europe.'
Winterbourne imagined for a moment that this was the manner in which the child had been taught to intimate that Mr. Miller had been removed to the sphere of celestial reward. But Randolph immediatley added, 'My father's in Schenectady.'"
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