Daisy Miller: And Other Stories (Wordsworth Classics)

This title includes an introduction and notes by Pat Righelato, University of Reading. Daisy Miller is one of Henry James' most attractive heroines: she represents youth and frivolity. As a tourist in Italy, her American freedom and freshness of spirit come up against the corruption and hypocrisy of European manners. From its first publication, readers on both sides of the Atlantic have quarrelled about her, defending or attacking the liberties that Daisy takes and the conventions that she ignores. All three tales in this collection, "Daisy Miller", "An International Episode" and "Lady Barbarina", express James' most notable subject, 'the international theme', the encounters, romantic and cultural, between Americans and Europeans. His heroes and heroines approach each other on unfamiliar ground with new freedoms, yet find themselves unexpectedly hampered by old constraints.

by : Henry James