DAISY MILLER

DAISY MILLER is often thought of as the quintessential James novel: the story of the innocent abroad who is corrupted by contact with an older, more sophisticated society. Daisy, a delightfully uninhibited young American, scandalizes the European community in which she is a visitor with her high spirits and disregard of ancient conventions. After an innocent but unwise tryst with an Italian admirer to see the Colosseum in Rome by moonlight, Daisy contracts malaria and dies. The pathos of her death is compounded by the fact that another admirer, Winterbourne, is never entirely convinced that Daisy is merely the frank, innocent girl she seems.