Daisy Miller
by Henry James
The one thing
from this book that sticks in my mind is the discussion on moustaches we had in
class. I know I use this word a lot but Daisy is delightful and memorable. If
you are a fan of Edith Wharton or any James, or Evelyn Waugh then you will love
this novella. At first it seems that Winterbourne, the young American, just
can’t figure out if Daisy is flirting, defying expected manners or just does
not know what is expected of her. But then a rival comes in the form of an Italian
Giovanelli (who does have a moustache) and the question of whether Winterbourne
is jealous or not arises. It is short novella, although be careful what edition
you get. Mine is Penguin Classics and based on the first English publication of
it in book form by Macmillan in 1879 but there are many different editions. In
fact, I had the wrong one for class. We were supposed to have the Oxford
World’s Classics one. Just read the ‘note on text.’ Essentially the story is
the same but it may be worth buying two editions for comparison to see what was
taken out and what was left. The book is worth reading for the descriptions of
the character’s travels in Europe alone. The ending is a bit unexpected. Daisy
Miller is a figure beyond her time, better placed in a Fitzgerald novel perhaps?
No comments:
Post a Comment