Daisy Miller (Classics) - Softcover

James, Henry

3.37

34,334 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140432620 ISBN 13: 9780140432626

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1986

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To Winterbourne, the young man who meets her in the garden of a hotel overlooking Lake Geneva and is immediately captivated, Daisy presents an agonizing dilemma. She apparently thinks nothing of 'flirting with any man she could pick up', and although in public Winterbourne defends her as simply 'uncultivated', privately he hesitates. This indecision gives particular edge and poignancy to the novella, in which James portrays the sweetest of all his American princesses.

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Review:

"Everything about this edition commends it to instructors, students, and general readers alike. Kristin Boudreau's authoritative introduction provides an excellent orientation, no less for seasoned scholars than for students discovering Henry James. The text of the novella is well chosen--the 1879 Harper edition, capturing the freshness of James's early style (as opposed to the ornate 1909 revision), but with the benefit of James's revisions of the first magazine and book versions. Twelve appendices offer contemporary materials that cast strong and helpful lights on key aspects of James's art and of the literary and cultural contexts of this early masterpiece."--Daniel Mark Fogel

From the Back Cover:

Daisy Miller is a fascinating portrait of a young woman from Schenectady, New York, who, traveling in Europe, runs afoul of the socially pretentious American expatriate community in Rome. First published in 1878, the novella brought American novelist Henry James (1843-1916), then living in London, his first international success. Like many of James' early works, it portrays a venturesome American girl in the treacherous waters of European society--a theme that would culminate in his 1881 masterpiece, "The Portrait of a Lady."
On the surface, "Daisy Miller" unfolds a simple story of a young American girl's willful yet innocent flirtation with a young Italian, and its unfortunate consequences. But throughout the narrative, James contrasts American customs and values with European manners and morals in a tale rich in psychological and social insight. A vivid portrayal of Americans abroad and a telling encounter between the values of the Old and New World, "Daisy Miller" is an ideal introduction to the work of one of America's greatest writers of fiction.

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