Daisy Miller (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
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Daisy Miller (SparkNotes Literature Guide) - SparkNotes
Daisy Miller
Henry James
© 2003, 2007 by Spark Publishing
This Spark Publishing edition 2014 by SparkNotes LLC, an Affiliate of Barnes & Noble
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.
Sparknotes is a registered trademark of SparkNotes LLC
Spark Publishing
A Division of Barnes & Noble
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New York, NY 10011
www.sparknotes.com /
ISBN-13: 978-1-4114-7466-6
Please submit changes or report errors to www.sparknotes.com/.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Context
Plot Overview
Character List
Analysis of Major Characters
Themes, Motifs, and Symbols
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4, first half
Chapter 4, second half
Important Quotations Explained
Key Facts
Study Questions and Essay Topics
Review and Resources
Context
In the autumn of
1877
, Henry James (
1843
–
1916
) heard a piece of gossip from a friend in Rome about a young American girl traveling with her wealthy but unsophisticated mother in Europe. The girl had met a handsome Italian of vague identity
and no particular social standing and attempted to introduce him into the exclusive society of expatriate Americans in Rome. The incident had ended in a snub of some sort, a small social check . . . of no great gravity,
the exact nature of which James promptly forgot. Nevertheless, in the margin of the notebook where he recorded the anecdote, he wrote Dramatise, dramatise!
He never knew the young lady in question or heard mention of her again, but he proceeded to immortalize the idea of her in Daisy Miller.
A native of New York, James had been born into a world of ideas and letters. His father, an amateur philosopher and theologian who had inherited a considerable fortune, socialized with all the leading intellectuals of the day. Henry’s older brother, William, would become a key figure in the emerging science of psychology. In
1855
, when James was twelve, the family embarked on a three-year tour of Europe that included London, Paris, and Geneva. The experience was to have a profound influence on James’s life and writing. In addition to European art and culture, the trip exposed him to the erudition of European society. It also put him in an ideal position to observe the contrasts between New and Old World values, a conflict that was to appear repeatedly in James’s fiction as the international theme.
Daisy Miller was first published in the June and July
1878
issues of the British magazine Cornhill. It was an instant success, transforming James into an author of international standing. The novel’s popularity almost certainly derived from the portrait at its center, of a naïve, overly self-confident, and rather vulgar American girl attempting to inhabit the rarified atmosphere of European high society.
The post–Civil War industrial boom had given rise to a new class of wealthy Americans for whom the grand tour,
an extended trip through Europe, represented the pinnacle of social and financial success. As a result, Americans