Daisy Miller, the heroine he created in 1878 in a novelette by the same name, Henry James styled a protagonist who is both quintessentially American and absolutely feminine. Indeed, beyond forwarding the action of the story itself, Daisy may also be seen as a device created by James to help his readers -- both American and European -- understand what it was to be a young American women in the decades just after the Civil War.

The story follows Daisy as she travels through Europe and encounters a number of compatriots who have become in many ways more European than the real Europeans: These resettled Americans are intent on enforcing the morality and mores of established (and in at least some ways antiquated) European communities. Daisy is herself not so much intent on violating these established ways of behaving as she is inured to them. As an American, they are...
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