Recently Read: Daisy Miller: A Dark Comedy of Manners, by Daniel Mark Fogels

 

Unlike the routine study guide for Henry James' Daisy Miller I was expecting, Daniel Mark Fogels' Daisy Miller: A Dark Comedy of Manners is packed with insights and well-researched observations. I especially appreciated Fogels' thoughts on the novella's point of view(s) and the excerpts from travel guide books of the 19th century "selling" the various locales used in the work. It was interesting to discover that James himself used such guidebooks in his own initial European tours. This is, all in all, a well-rounded guide to Daisy Miller and I'm interested in reading the Twayne guide to The Portrait of a Lady after I've read that novel.

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Recently Read: Daisy Miller, by Henry James

This short and succinct novella works as a dual character study of two American expatriates in 1870s Europe; it observes the proper but intrigued Frederick Winterbourne observing, puzzling over and only half-heartedly attempting to win the attentions of nouveau riche Daisy Miller. Miller, accompanied by her oblivious mother and a rambunctious younger brother, either deliberately or innocently ignores the social graces demanded of both European upper society and the upper class Americans attempting to ingratiate themselves with the natives.

Whether Daisy's fresh, open and free approach to life is natural or calculated (and to what extent is it a reflection of societal differences between new America and old Europe) is the crux of Winterbourne's "problem", and when Miller begins spending much time in public with a lower class but gracious and handsome Italian gentleman, he's no less intrigued.

Although nearly perfect and, then as now, one of James' most popular works with the general public, I was disappointed in reading yet another James tale of a male character who can't or won't make a fighting commitment to a union with his female interest. It's the title character, seen through Winterbourne's eyes, that makes the story memorable. She's a vibrant, truly American spirit still relevant to all ages and sexes of readers nearly a century and a half later.

The Penguin edition, edited by David Lodge and Philip Horne, makes the smart choice of using the original version of the story, as opposed to the inferior late New York Edition text, and includes much background information, analysis, comparisons of the differing texts, relevant letters and more.

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