Daisy Miller

Frederick Winterbourne, an American long accustomed to Europe, meets Annie “Daisy” Miller at a hotel in Vevey, Switzerland. Daisy is traveling with her mother and younger brother, Randolph, and approaches European society with an openness that unsettles Winterbourne. He is attracted to her spontaneity but repeatedly tries to interpret it through the stricter conventions observed by his aunt, Mrs. Costello, and other expatriates.

After an excursion to the Château de Chillon, their paths cross again in Rome. Daisy's friendship with the Italian Giovanelli draws gossip and disapproval from the American community. Mrs. Walker urges her to behave more cautiously. Winterbourne moves between defending Daisy and accepting the judgments made about her, so his uncertainty becomes as important as her actions.

Henry James uses the encounter to examine social perception across American and European settings. The novella asks how quickly manners become moral evidence and how reputation is produced by observation, rumor, and class expectations. A useful reading focus is the gap between Daisy's own explanations and Winterbourne's changing interpretation of them.