Daisy Miller Summary
Henry James

Daisy Miller by Henry James In the 1800s, Americans took to traveling in Europe in huge numbers. Newspapers across the nation were filled with travel accounts, and many of America's most prominent ... Read more

The American author Henry James (1843-1916) was one of the major novelists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His works deal largely with the impact of Europe and its society on Americans.Henr... Read more

Henry James was a highly self-conscious author with a systematic interest in the techniques of novel writing--an interest that culminated in the landmark prefaces to the New York Edition of his own wo... Read more

Traveling often throughout his long and productive life, Henry James wrote fiction and travel literature about Americans in Europe and Europeans in America during the great epoch of transatlantic to... Read more

In the following essay, Barnett asserts that James proposes more options for women in Daisy Miller than in any of his other stories or novels. Although Henry James satirizes the idea of a women'... Read more

In the following excerpt, Hocks maintains that Daisy Miller is truly the story of the making of a Europeanized American. Finally, the best known and perennial favorite among James's early stori... Read more

In the following essay, Weisbuch analyzes Winterbourne's flawed perception of Daisy and the world around him, and compares him to other bachelors in modern literature. 1 Henry James is like the... Read more

In the following essay, Dunbar traces the development of James's novella. In his introduction, Henry James says that Daisy Miller originated in an anecdote about a young American girl which he ... Read more

In the following excerpt, Edel discusses public reaction to Daisy Miller. "My London life flows evenly along, making, I think, in various ways more and more of a Londoner of me," Henry w... Read more

In the following essay, Randall examines the role of manners in Daisy Miller. In an age in which one president is critcized for having a Boston-Harvard accent and another has it held against him that ... Read more

In the following essay, Houghton explores the role of illness in James's novella, maintaining that many Americans visiting Europe become ill in the story "not so much because of any obje... Read more

In the following excerpt, James discusses the inspiration for his novella Daisy Miller, and the difference between his original, real-life observations of character and the final product of his art. I... Read more

In the following essay, Wood records her impressions of Daisy Miller, noting that Daisy, as an example of the typical American girl, is ultimately 'public property"—little more th... Read more

In the following essay, Barnett compares the limitations society places on women with Winterbourne's self-imposed social and personal restrictions. Although Henry James satirizes the idea of a ... Read more

In the following essay, Kirk argues that James's narrative strategy in Daisy Miller is designed to promote alternate and even contradictory interpretations of characters and themes in the novel... Read more

In the following essay, Weisbuch examines Winterbourne as a literary type—the bachelor—whose misogyny, obsessiveness, and self-absorption are his defining characteristics. 1 Henry James ... Read more

Volpe is an American author and educator. In the following essay, he refutes the tradition that Daisy Miller was poorly received by critics, citing instead the social uproar it created and its effect ... Read more

Ohmann was an American author and educator. In the following essay, she argues that James' attitude toward Daisy shifts over the course of the novella, beginning as a comedy of manners critical... Read more

Deakin is an American author and educator. In the following essay, he places Daisy Miller within the tradition of European literary heroines found in the works of Turgenev, Cherbuliez, George Sand, an... Read more

Holloway is an English author and educator. In the following essay, he discusses the evolution of theme in Daisy Miller, claiming that the novella dramatizes "the fate of innocence in a devious... Read more

There's Always Two Sides to Every Story The word impression in the dictionary is defines as being, "a mark produced on a surface," and the word mark is described as having, "a lasting effect." To som... Read more