Daisy Miller
A frank, pretty girl from Schenectady travels through Switzerland and Rome, and the Americans abroad cannot decide whether she is innocent or scandalous.
📖 Read the full bookThe complete public-domain novel, paired with the StoryBites version of every chapterWinterbourne, a young American who has lived most of his life in Geneva, meets Daisy Miller in a hotel garden and cannot make her out. She talks to strangers, agrees to go sightseeing alone with a man she has known for half an hour, and treats the family courier like a friend. In Rome she walks the Pincio with a handsome Italian and laughs off every warning, while the American colony closes ranks against her. Winterbourne keeps trying to decide what kind of girl she is, and by the time he decides, it no longer matters. James’s short novel is a sharp, funny, finally sad study of a young woman and the people who judge her.
What happens in Daisy Miller
Two or three years before the narrator tells the story, Winterbourne, a twenty-seven-year-old American who has long lived in Geneva, visits his aunt, Mrs. Costello, at a hotel in Vevey, Switzerland. In the garden he meets Randolph Miller, a blunt nine-year-old, and then his pretty sister, Annie P. Miller, known as Daisy. She chatters about her family from Schenectady and her gentleman friends in New York, and Winterbourne decides she is a pretty American flirt. When she says she longs to see the Castle of Chillon, he offers to take her. Mrs. Costello calls the Millers common, objects that they treat their courier, Eugenio, like a friend, and refuses to meet Daisy. Daisy guesses the snub. That night she introduces Winterbourne to her vague mother and asks him to row her out on the lake at eleven o’clock, then drops the idea. Two days later the pair visit Chillon alone. When Winterbourne says he must return to Geneva, Daisy calls him horrid, teases him about a woman there, and makes him promise to visit her in Rome. That winter in Rome, Mrs. Costello reports that Daisy goes about with Roman fortune hunters. Winterbourne meets the Millers at the home of his friend Mrs. Walker, then walks Daisy to the Pincio, where she meets Mr. Giovanelli, a handsome Italian. Mrs. Walker drives up and begs Daisy to get into her carriage to protect her reputation. Daisy refuses, even after Winterbourne advises her to accept. At Mrs. Walker’s party Daisy arrives late with Giovanelli, and the hostess turns her back on her as she leaves. The American colony stops inviting her. Daisy tells Winterbourne she is engaged, then says she is not. Late one night he finds her with Giovanelli in the Colosseum and warns her about Roman fever. She falls dangerously ill, and her mother passes on her message that she was never engaged. Daisy dies of the fever and is buried in the Protestant cemetery. At the grave Giovanelli calls her the most innocent young lady he ever saw. The next summer Winterbourne tells his aunt he did Daisy an injustice, then goes back to live in Geneva.
Where and when Daisy Miller happens
Vevey, Switzerland
A lakeside resort full of American tourists, where Winterbourne meets Daisy in the garden of the Trois Couronnes hotel.
The Castle of Chillon
The old castle on the lake that Daisy and Winterbourne visit alone by steamer, to his aunt’s disapproval.
Rome
The Pincio, Mrs. Walker’s drawing room, St. Peter’s, the Palace of the Caesars, the moonlit Colosseum, and the Protestant cemetery where Daisy is buried.
One summer and the following winter and spring
The narrator places the events two or three years before the telling, among American travelers in Europe.
Chapter by chapter summary + why it matters
- 1
Part One: A Girl in the Garden
At the Trois Couronnes hotel in Vevey, Winterbourne is approached by nine-year-old Randolph Miller and then meets his sister Daisy. She talks freely about her family, her hotels, and her social life in New York, and he offers to take her to the Castle of Chillon. The family courier, Eugenio, arrives to call her to luncheon.
Why it mattersWinterbourne tries to file Daisy under a label, settling on a pretty American flirt, and the rest of the book tests whether that label fits.
- 2
The Trip to Chillon
Mrs. Costello declares the Millers common and refuses to meet Daisy. That evening Daisy guesses the snub, introduces Winterbourne to her mother, and teases him about a late boat ride before dropping the idea. Two days later they visit Chillon alone, and when he says he must leave for Geneva she calls him horrid and makes him promise to come to Rome.
Why it mattersDaisy’s freedom shocks the aunt and puzzles the nephew, but her teasing at Chillon is the first sign that his opinion matters to her.
- 3
Part Two: The Walk on the Pincio
In Rome, Winterbourne hears that Daisy goes about with Italian men. He meets the Millers at Mrs. Walker’s, walks Daisy to the Pincio, and meets her friend Mr. Giovanelli. Mrs. Walker drives up and begs Daisy to get into her carriage, and Daisy refuses even when Winterbourne agrees with Mrs. Walker. Winterbourne rides off with Mrs. Walker, who asks him to leave Daisy alone; when he gets down, he sees Daisy and Giovanelli hidden behind her parasol and walks away to his aunt’s.
Why it mattersThe carriage scene turns a private puzzle into a public test, and Winterbourne, for all his liking, takes the side of the rules.
- 4
The Colosseum by Moonlight
Mrs. Walker snubs Daisy at her party, and the American colony stops inviting her. Daisy tells Winterbourne she is engaged, then takes it back. He finds her with Giovanelli in the Colosseum late at night and warns her of Roman fever; she falls ill, sends word that she was never engaged, and dies. At her grave Giovanelli calls her the most innocent of young ladies, and Winterbourne later admits he did her an injustice.
Why it mattersThe ending leaves Daisy’s inner life unresolved and shifts the weight onto Winterbourne, who understands her only when it is too late to matter.
Characters and how they connect
Daisy Miller
Title character
Annie P. Miller, a rich, pretty, talkative girl from Schenectady whose easy manners puzzle Winterbourne and scandalize the Americans in Rome.
Winterbourne
Point-of-view character
A twenty-seven-year-old American raised in Geneva, whom his aunt calls Frederick. He is drawn to Daisy but cannot decide whether she is innocent or reckless.
Mrs. Costello
Winterbourne’s aunt
A wealthy widow with frequent headaches and strict ideas about society, who calls the Millers common and refuses to meet Daisy.
Mrs. Miller
Daisy’s mother
A nervous, dyspeptic woman who barely supervises her daughter, then proves a calm and capable nurse when Daisy falls ill.
Randolph
Daisy’s brother
Randolph C. Miller, a sharp-voiced nine-year-old who wants candy, dislikes Europe, and would rather go home to America.
Mrs. Walker
American hostess in Rome
A friend of Winterbourne’s from Geneva who tries to rescue Daisy’s reputation on the Pincio and later snubs her at her own party.
Mr. Giovanelli
Daisy’s Roman companion
A handsome, charming Italian who sings well and escorts Daisy everywhere. Winterbourne learns he is respectable but outside the first circles of society.
Eugenio
The Millers’ courier
A tall, handsome, well-dressed guide whom the Millers treat almost as a friend, to Mrs. Costello’s disgust.
Character Relationships who connects to whom, and the themes that bind them
Family
Duty / service
Friendship / ally
Connection
Themes in Daisy Miller what the novel is really about
Innocence and judgment
Winterbourne keeps asking whether Daisy is innocent or reckless, and the novella turns on how badly the people around her read her.
Americans abroad
The American colony in Rome judges Daisy partly out of worry about how she makes Americans look, and its members want observant Europeans to know she is not typical.
Class and exclusion
The Millers are rich but new, and the word common is enough for polite society to shut them out.
Freedom for young women
Daisy insists on walking, talking, and choosing her friends as she likes, and the story shows what that freedom costs a girl in her world.
Gossip and reputation
Servants, hostesses, and tourists all talk about Daisy, and their talk does more to define her than anything she does.
Symbols & motifs
Daisy’s name
A daisy is a fresh, common flower, which fits a girl called both pretty and common. At her funeral Winterbourne stares at the fresh grave among April daisies.
Roman fever
The fever Daisy catches is literal, but many readers also see it as a figure for the danger of a society that punishes her freedom.
The Colosseum
Daisy jokes about Christian martyrs there, and the old arena becomes the place where she is finally condemned in Winterbourne’s eyes.
Winterbourne’s name
His name suggests winter and coldness, a reading supported by Daisy’s repeated complaint that he is stiff.
The parasol
On the Pincio, Giovanelli holds Daisy’s parasol so that it hides both their heads, leaving Winterbourne to imagine what he cannot see.
Recurring motifs
Stiffness. Daisy calls Winterbourne stiff again and again, naming the caution that keeps him from understanding her.
Illness. Mrs. Costello’s headaches, Mrs. Miller’s dyspepsia, and the repeated warnings about fever lead toward Daisy’s death.
Being talked about. From the courier’s glance at Vevey to the whispers at St. Peter’s, the story keeps returning to what people say about Daisy.
Important quotes
“But this young girl was not a coquette in that sense; she was very unsophisticated; she was only a pretty American flirt.”
“They are the sort of Americans that one does one’s duty by not—not accepting.”
“I have never allowed a gentleman to dictate to me, or to interfere with anything I do.”
“I’m a fearful, frightful flirt! Did you ever hear of a nice girl that was not?”
“She was a young lady whom a gentleman need no longer be at pains to respect.”
“She sent me a message before her death which I didn’t understand at the time; but I have understood it since. She would have appreciated one’s esteem.”
The ending of Daisy Miller, explained
The ending begins in the Colosseum. Walking home at eleven o’clock one night, Winterbourne finds Daisy and Giovanelli at the foot of the great cross in the arena. For a moment he decides the riddle is solved and that she is a girl a gentleman need not respect, yet he still warns her that the night air brings Roman fever. As she leaves, Daisy says she does not care whether she catches it. Within days she is dangerously ill. Her mother, now a calm and capable nurse, passes on Daisy’s message: she was never engaged to Giovanelli, she wanted Winterbourne to know it, and she asked whether he remembered their trip to the castle in Switzerland. About a week later Daisy dies of what the narrator calls a terrible case of the fever. At the grave Giovanelli calls her the most innocent young lady he ever saw and admits she would never have married him. The next summer Winterbourne tells his aunt that he did Daisy an injustice and that she would have valued his esteem. When Mrs. Costello asks whether he means Daisy would have returned his affection, he does not answer. He says he has lived too long in foreign parts, then goes back to Geneva, where the old rumors about a clever foreign lady start again. Readers disagree about what this adds up to. Many see Daisy as an innocent girl destroyed by a narrow expatriate society that judged her by appearances, and some read the fever as a figure for its coldness. Others point to the subtitle, A Study, and argue that James examines Daisy as a type, careless as well as brave, rather than simply mourning a victim. A third reading makes Winterbourne the real subject: a cautious man who understands too late and returns to the same life unchanged. The text never says whether Daisy loved him.
Common misreadings
MythDaisy is secretly engaged to Giovanelli.
ActuallyShe tells Winterbourne she is engaged and takes it back almost at once. Her message from her sickbed says she never was, and Giovanelli says she would never have married him.
MythEuropeans are the ones who condemn Daisy.
ActuallyHer harshest judges are Americans in Europe, such as Mrs. Costello and Mrs. Walker. Giovanelli, a Roman, calls her the most innocent young lady he ever saw.
MythWinterbourne narrates the story.
ActuallyAn unnamed narrator tells it and occasionally speaks as I, though the story follows Winterbourne’s point of view closely.
Test yourself
1. Where does Winterbourne first meet Daisy?
Randolph introduces himself in the garden of the hotel at Vevey, and his sister soon follows.
2. Why does Mrs. Costello refuse to meet Daisy?
She calls the Millers very common and disapproves of their friendly treatment of their courier.
3. Who begs Daisy to get into a carriage on the Pincio?
Mrs. Walker drives up to save Daisy’s reputation, and Daisy refuses.
4. Where does Winterbourne find Daisy and Giovanelli late at night?
He finds them in the moonlit Colosseum and warns Daisy about Roman fever.
5. What message does Daisy send Winterbourne while she is ill?
Mrs. Miller reports that Daisy asked three times that Winterbourne be told she was not engaged.
Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know
Nice work.
Daisy Miller is a rich American girl traveling in Europe with her mother and little brother. She is friendly and says whatever she thinks. A young man named Winterbourne likes her but can’t figure out if she is sweet or just a flirt. The older Americans in Rome think she is behaving badly because she walks around with an Italian man, so they stop inviting her to parties. One night she visits the Colosseum, and soon after she falls ill with a fever and dies. Afterward, Winterbourne realizes he judged her unfairly.
Compare & connect the story universe
The Awakening
Another American woman defies the social rules of her class, and the novel ends with her death.
The Beast in the Jungle
A later James story about a man who understands too late what a woman offered him.
The Turn of the Screw
Another James novella in which everything depends on how one observer reads a young person’s innocence.
The Sun Also Rises
Americans in Europe test their manners and freedoms against a foreign setting, nearly fifty years later.
Adaptations. Daisy Miller (1974, Film directed by Peter Bogdanovich).
Discussion & essay prompts for class, or your next paper
💬 Discussion questions
- Why does Daisy Miller die
- Is Daisy Miller innocent
- What does Daisy’s message to Winterbourne mean
- How does Daisy Miller explore the theme of innocence and judgment?
- How does Daisy Miller explore the theme of americans abroad?
- What is the central conflict in Daisy Miller, and how does it shape the ending?
✎ Essay prompts
- Analyze how Henry James develops the theme of innocence and judgment in Daisy Miller. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
- Examine the significance of daisy’s name in Daisy Miller. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
- How does Henry James use limited point of view to shape the reader’s experience of Daisy Miller?
- Some readers assume that daisy is secretly engaged to Giovanelli. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.
Key questions students ask
- Why does Daisy Miller die
- Is Daisy Miller innocent
- What does Daisy’s message to Winterbourne mean
- Why does Mrs. Costello refuse to meet Daisy Miller
- What does Roman fever symbolize in Daisy Miller
- Is Daisy Miller engaged to Giovanelli
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. Quotations and the full text are from Henry James’s Daisy Miller: A Study in the text of the first American book edition (Harper, 1879; Project Gutenberg eBook #208), which is in the public domain.
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