Henry James: Daisy Miller

Daisy Miller is an American girl from a New York wealthy family. But one that made their fortune themselves, not one having been born with it. Which means that Daisy's money is not old money, but new. And so she is not fully recognized as a peer among the established American aristocracy of money. And of course, Daisy does not share their moral stiffness, or feels any need to. Those "artificial" conventions, the narrow mentality.

She is un outsider among the wealthy Americans from New York. She travels to Europe with her mother and a little brother, for the usual grand tour experience. First we will find her in Geneva. Later in Rome.

In the Italian capital, she will be a double outsider. Among the rich and rigid Americans living there, supposedly exquisite and sophisticated, art-lovers and stuff, ready for looking down upon about anyone. Of course,she is also un outsider among the native Italians ("representatives" of the Europeans in this novel), those individuals of a somewhat loose morality, from the American puritan perspective. America vs Europe again. Jamesian tout court. Young "innocent" American Daisy in Italy. A pigeon among cats.

But Daisy is a "liberated" woman (for the age). Her temper is an honest, authentic, direct one. She likes meeting people, even those she "should not", according to her inflexible fellow expatriates. She likes relating to the others, chatting, laughing, joking. Interested in knowledge and culture, but only if it is somehow linked to fully fleshed-human beings. She is open, independent. And she appears vulgar to the upper class bostonians or newyorkers living in the eternal city. Yes, vulgar. Fin de l'histoire.

In Geneva, Daisy had met Winterbourne, whom she now encounters again in Rome. This young man is a wealthy American, of the old money ones. He is somewhat fascinated by the girl. Split between his atraction to Daisy and a genuine concern about her plain independence, freshness, authenticity. Though he doesn't entirely dislike these either. The guy is split and a bit irritated by that. It would be a relief for him if he could reach a conclusion on Daisy's true nature. Certainly.

Daisy Miller is one early novel (1878) by Henry James when the author was 34. It doesn't have the verbosity of many of his future novels. It is short, simple (for James), straightforward. The read is a quick one, that flows nicely.

The Jamesian skill for portraying psychologies and their interaccions is here, of course. The study of the characters is a smart one. They are solid figures in James's hands. As usual, James suggests, rather than fully uncover emotional depths. In Daisy Miller's lively writing, he already insinuates the descriptive power that he will abundantly display in the future.

Over a century has gone by since the novel's first publication. But its themes still appeal. Cultures confronted. America and Europe. The contrast of psychologies. A dominant group, the effort for independence. A morality of one's own. A young mind in the shaping, struggling between wishes of freedom and a need to belong.  And the risks (even the tragedy) that we may face if we don't manage to find the proper balance.

Daisy Miller, 1878. Henry James