Daisy Miller: A Study

Daisy Miller: A Study, novel by Henry James, published in 1878 and dramatized by the author in 1883.

Frederick Winterbourne, an American ex‐patriate visiting at Vevey, Switzerland, meets commonplace, newly rich Mrs. Miller, from Schenectady, N.Y., her mischievous small son Randolph, and her daughter Daisy, an “inscrutable combination of audacity and innocence.” The Millers have no perception of the complex code that underlies behavior in European society, and Winterbourne is astonished at the girl's innocence and her mother's unconcern when Daisy accompanies him to the Castle of Chillon. Some months later he meets the family in Rome, where Daisy has aroused suspicion among the American colony by being seen constantly with Giovanelli, a third‐rate Italian. Ostracized by former friends, who think her “intrigue” has gone too far, Daisy denies to Winterbourne that she is engaged to Giovanelli, with whom the American meets her one night in the Colosseum. When he comments on her indiscretion in exposing herself to the danger of “Roman fever,” Giovanelli says, “but when was the Signorina ever prudent?” A few days later she falls ill with malaria, and a week afterward dies. At her funeral Giovanelli tells Winterbourne that Daisy was “the most beautiful young lady I ever saw, and the most amiable …and the most innocent.” He says that he had hoped to marry her, but believes she would not have accepted him.