Katy's review
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Katy's review
rating:
bookshelves: school
recommended for: Anti-Americanists
status: Read in September, 2008
rating:
bookshelves: school
recommended for: Anti-Americanists
status: Read in September, 2008
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 fools in good, old, civilized Europe.
It left my accelerated English class indignant. I can't really blame them, although I wasn't particularly offended. Henry James goes above and beyond to exaggerate the stupidity of Americans, and the book is peppered with barely veiled snide comments towards Americans, such as this one: (pg. 83) "He remembered that a cynical compatriot had once told him that American women - the pretty ones, and this gave a largeness to the axiom - were at once the mos...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 fools in good, old, civilized Europe.
It left my accelerated English class indignant. I can't really blame them, although I wasn't particularly offended. Henry James goes above and beyond to exaggerate the stupidity of Americans, and the book is peppered with barely veiled snide comments towards Americans, such as this one: (pg. 83) "He remembered that a cynical compatriot had once told him that American women - the pretty ones, and this gave a largeness to the axiom - were at once the mos...more
