Henry James: Daisy Miller Paperback – September 1, 2016

This was included in "Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters," and since I'd never read it and didn't know anything about Daisy Miller (and since I found a free Kindle book), I thought I'd check it out. It is short, but the language is rather flowery (it first appeared in 1878), so I couldn't read the whole thing in one sitting.I always find it interesting how times have changed when I read "period pieces" like "Daisy Miller". It's not a spoiler to say that Daisy Miller is a flirt and "flouts social conventions", but it's remarkable just what causes lips to flap. Walking around outside with a gentleman with no chaperone? Scandalous! Nowadays, no one would blink an eye at that.I will say I was shocked at what becomes of Miss Miller and her free-wheeling ways. Definitely was worth the read, and it made me appreciate the many sections in "Texts from Jane Eyre" about this character!

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!

I usually have a hard time with older novels (this one is from the 1870s) with all the themesof dating and courtship and cultural norms, social class and so forth. But I enjoyed this onemore than usual, and in fact it is delightful. It is a short novel set in Europe, with an Americanman fascinated by a down to earth American girl from Schnectady, and an Italian gentleman.There also are references to places like Saratoga. So I thought it was cool that we're in all theseromantic places like Geneva and Rome, and the characters are wishing they were in the MohawkValley. The girl and her mother have money, but typical of an American, she is all in your face andsays and does random stuff, but is fairly innocent. So the story raises questions of what is properbehavior "when in Rome" in a particular social or cultural setting. There also is the question ofgossip, and while our world is quite different from the 1870s, that is a constant of the humancondition.

Daisy Miller is a perfect novel, which rises in my esteem with each reading. Henry James draws an exquisite sketch of an American young lady visiting Europe, admired for her beauty and universally dismissed as a flirt. Her recklessness of convention, and her lack of fear of a contagious illness, combine to cause a potential admirer, Winterbourne, to assume she should be considered beneath his regard until he hears she is deathly ill.

"Daisy Miller" captures emerging transatlantic cultural differences, as well as a general societal change from traditional european stufffiness towards a new more open liberalism and sense of personal freedom. It succeeds though mainly in terms of atmosphere, as a tragic romance. What I love is how the author idolises women and presents them as encapsulating the spirit of their time.James's formula is based on challenging, liberal, and unattainable women who present an enigma to their starchy suitors. Love is never more than an emotion, never consummated, and the protagonists live wasted lives in the grip of illusions. His women are strong, carefree Goddesses perched on pedestals.This is a very nice annotated edition.

Now that I have read a handful of Henry James tomes I am beginning to believe that he is not the author for me. He writes well, and the story is interesting, but I am just getting tired of never having a satisfying ending to one of his stories. Perhaps he took a perverse pleasure in twists and turns of plot, especially at the end. If you want the standard formulaic happy ending, Henry James is not your author. I dont have a problem with an unexpected ending, but I get tired of never feeling satisfied by the "turn" of the story. Just my 2 cents. I'm not saying I will never read another Henry James novel, but probably not for a long time.

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.

While I don't feel this work represents James at his best (or maybe it just doesn't resonate very well with my particular tastes), some people like it a great deal. And I don't really feel as if I can explain why it leaves me a bit cold. So I'm going to just review the Kindle version of this book.Many free Kindle classes feature problematic formatting -- errors of various types that tend to reflect the volunteer nature of the groups bringing these editions together. I'm not complaining -- I'd rather read a free book than pay for one (even if I do have to endure a couple of typos). This edition, however, is very well done.The only thing for you to figure out is if you're likely to enjoy this or not (and there are a few dozen reviews already existing that will help you figure that out).

I'm not sure where I stand with this book. I enjoyed it but felt unsatisfied when it ended. In many ways the girl reminded me of Sally Bowles from Cabaret. She represented the dawning of a new age, of more liberated, free women in an age where seeking scandal in others was a national pastime.SPOILERThe ending was all too convenient for me, but is indicative of novels written in this age - problem woman - well here's the way to put an end to that. Perhaps I am writing this review too soon after reading it. Maybe it needs to resonate for several months.We'll see.

Just as it says.No idea who decided to translate this book written in English into another language and re-translate it.The translation is so poor it's making me dizzy and I had lots of other books I'd downloaded in lockdown to read first, so I've missed the return deadline.Very. Poor. Show, Amazon.The Actual Book would have received 5 stars.

lightweight and uninteresting,Characters not developed. Plot thin. Writing skilful but over elaborate

Characterisation is under par by comparison to the generation of novelists he belonged to. Setting is not used in any imaginative or allegorical way and of felt too short and sparse

I decided to read Henry James after listening to a version of this story on the radio. It's a short read but highly enjoyable. I am now encouraged to read more of his work.