{"id":5145,"date":"2018-06-02T20:11:18","date_gmt":"2018-06-02T18:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=5145"},"modified":"2020-05-30T21:43:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T19:43:57","slug":"daisy-miller-henry-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2018\/06\/daisy-miller-henry-james\/","title":{"rendered":"Daisy Miller \u2022 Henry James"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Ever since I read my first book by Henry James, The Ambassadors<\/a>, I\u2019ve kept coming back to the American-British author, and without even noticing it at first, I\u2019ve continued to read him ever since that first book. It\u2019s probably his style\u2014unruffled and composed. A Balzac novel hits you like a bomb going off. Henry James, by contrast, is restrained, polished, utterly relaxed, and gets by without a steep dramatic arc. And yet I love his books, because in the subtle observations and wonderful dialogues there are so many delicate, all-too-human nuances that reading them is a true delight. His novella Daisy Miller<\/em> predates The Ambassadors<\/em> by 25 years, and since I\u2019d stumbled across it several times\u2014and as it\u2019s among his better-known works\u2014I was curious to see what it would be like.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Not long ago I introduced Four Meetings<\/a> by Henry James. I especially liked the story Pandora<\/em>, because his female characters are particularly fascinating. Daisy Miller<\/em> is very similar to Pandora<\/em> in structure and theme and likewise centers on a young American woman. Daisy Miller is traveling through Europe with her mother and little brother. The American Frederick Winterbourne, who has been living in Switzerland for some time, meets her at a spa town and strikes up an acquaintance. Once again the book explores the cultural contrasts between the new America and the old Europe. And again, the protagonist Winterbourne lacks the insight to grasp Daisy Miller\u2019s true nature and cannot see the situation clearly. The reader comes to know Daisy gradually through Winterbourne\u2019s subjective impressions and must piece together an image from their encounters and his descriptions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What I wrote about Pandora<\/em> there<\/a> applies fully to this novella as well. This is pure Henry James and sheer reading pleasure. I love the dialogues, always engaging and full of subtext. He depicts situations so you clearly feel that much more is being exchanged between the protagonists than what\u2019s said aloud. It\u2019s quite an achievement to distill that into a novella. His manner is relaxed, with a certain refinement. His figures move in polite, well-bred society\u2014reserved, courteous, cultivated. Yet that very cultivatedness often gets in their way, for the American temperament and the social structures of old Europe in James always create a latent but palpable rift. Here too, the unpredictable Daisy Miller\u2014her willful manner, and the social reactions to her\u2014are elements that stoke the reader\u2019s curiosity. I kept wondering how the story would end\u2014what would ultimately come of it all.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Unfortunately, Daisy Miller<\/em> is once again only a very short novella. I feel I could go on reading endlessly. The characters feel vivid and realistic, and together with those fine descriptions, the even, orderly prose, and that refined society, the book exerts a pull that\u2019s hard to resist. James is known for his psychologically delicate portraits of women, and like Pandora<\/em>, this novella is a showcase of his art.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Last year, to mark the 100th anniversary of Henry James\u2019s death, dtv reissued several of his books. Daisy Miller<\/em> is the only hardcover in the series (as far as I\u2019ve seen). The slim volume is well produced, though not a bibliophile masterpiece. But the colors are nicely balanced, it includes a ribbon bookmark, and the cover is quite attractive. I really like the look of it. I also found the notes very helpful\u2014they explain certain terms and are an excellent addition. The translation made a solid impression, too. Overall, I liked the package very much.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Conclusion:<\/strong> The novella Daisy Miller<\/em> is wonderfully written\u2014pure Henry James\u2014and it delighted me once again. It strongly resembles his novella Pandora<\/em>, once more offering a finely drawn portrait of an American woman, delivered in his usual calm, composed, and matter-of-fact style that I find so pleasant I could read it forever. The cultural divide between the new America and old, conservative Europe is again central, made tangible through the characters and rendered in all its nuances. Even though the book doesn\u2019t build conventional suspense and the plot flows gently along, I couldn\u2019t put it down and was very curious to see how the story would end. I find the dialogues brilliant, and the way James describes reactions and encounters is superb. A recommendation for anyone wanting to try Henry James for the first time\u2014and definitely for those who already enjoy his other novels.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Book information:<\/strong> Daisy Miller<\/em> \u2022 Henry James \u2022 dtv Verlag \u2022 128 pages \u2022 ISBN 9783423146531<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since I read my first book by Henry James, The Ambassadors, I\u2019ve kept coming back to the American-British author, and without even noticing it at first, I\u2019ve continued to read him ever since that first book. It\u2019s probably his style\u2014unruffled and composed. A Balzac novel hits you like a bomb going off. Henry James, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Daisy Miller \u2022 Henry James”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Daisy Miller \u2022 Henry James - lesestunden","description":"Seit ich mein erstes Buch von Henry James, Die Gesandten gelesen habe, bin ich irgendwie immer wieder auf den amerikanisch-britischen Autoren zur\u00fcck gekommen un"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"_slim_seo_primary_term_category":0,"_slim_seo_primary_term_post_tag":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,20],"tags":[169,84],"class_list":["post-5145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classics","category-reviews","tag-britta-muemmler","tag-henry-james"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/daisy_miller_beitrag_2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}