Daisy Miller

I finally found a Henry James story (required reading naturally) that I sort of enjoyed.

Daisy Miller is a rather unusual story about an American girl and her family visiting Europe. But the tale of Daisy is told by a man who meets her in Switzerland, Mr. Winterbourne. He's very attracted to her and thinks about her constantly, even meeting her again in Rome months later. But Daisy is a flirtatious girl, and (in the time this story was written), it was often seen as very inappropriate for young, unmarried women to be seen alone with men.

I really enjoyed it because it didn't have a vague underlying tone like The Turn of the Screw or The Beast in the Jungle had. This was a very open story. You immediately see the kind of person that Daisy is, and as much as you try to warn the main character against her, you know he's going to love her.

I didn't particularly like Daisy as a character, but I loved Mr. Winterbourne. He was always very respectful to her, even when she didn't deserve that respect and after most of the society in Rome had rejected her.

I'd probably recommend this story to some people. But I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. I think that it's a story that only some people would find enjoyable and others would find dull.