Henry James' "Daisy Miller" Is Published

Considered one of the greatest novelists of the English language, James was also an accomplished writer of short fiction.

Shunning what he called "the baseness of the arbitrary stroke," James wrote carefully stylized stories, emphasizing introspection and moments of revelation over plot. The publication of Daisy Miller in 1879 earned him his first, and perhaps greatest, popular success. The novella contrasts the rigid social laws of Europe and the independent, unconventional spirit of a young American woman, Daisy Miller, who has been regarded by some commentators as an archetypal American woman. To this day the story continues to be widely anthologized and discussed for its complex and interesting characters and its examination of late nineteenth-century morality and manners.

Daisy Miller, an 1878 novella by Henry James, portrays the courtship of the beautiful American girl Daisy Miller by Winterbourne, a more sophisticated compatriot of hers. His pursuit of her is hampered by her own flirtatiousness, which is frowned upon by the other expatriates they meet in Switzerland and Italy.