Daisy Miller: A Classic Study of Freedom, Judgment, and the Violence of Respectability - Paperback

by Henry Jr. James (Author)

Henry James's Daisy Miller is a concise and influential study of innocence, social judgment, and transatlantic manners in the late nineteenth century. At the centre of the story is Daisy Miller, a young American woman travelling in Europe whose independence, directness, and refusal to obey the unwritten codes of polite society make her both fascinating and suspect to those around her. Through the watchful perspective of Frederick Winterbourne, James examines the tension between American openness and European convention with remarkable economy and precision.

First published in 1878, Daisy Miller helped establish James as one of the central figures in American literary realism. Its apparent simplicity conceals a subtle moral and psychological design: Daisy may be naïve, reckless, free-spirited, or simply more honest than the society that condemns her. This edition presents a landmark work of classic American fiction, ideal for readers of nineteenth-century literature, literary realism, psychological fiction, and stories of social class, reputation, and cultural misunderstanding.