Daisy Miller And Other Tales

'If this is improper . . . then I am all improper, and you must give me up' This collection of Henry James's short stories explores the tensions between Europe and America, innocence and experience, the old world and the new. The heroine of 'Daisy Miller' is a young, beautiful American whose uninhibited behaviour provokes scandal among her fellow expatriates in Rome. In 'Madame de Mauves', a joyless marriage between a straight-laced American woman and an adulterous Frenchman leads to tragedy. And in 'Europe', an ailing widow prevents her daughters from escaping New England for a more fulfilling life abroad. Brought together here with further tales of cultural conflict, these stories are subtle, affecting variations on the 'international theme' that would dominate James's novels. About the Author Henry James was born on 15th April 1843 in Washington Place, New York to a wealthy and intellectual family and as a youth travelled between Europe and America and studied with tutors in Geneva, London, Paris, Bologna and Bonn. He briefly and unsuccessfully studied law at Harvard but decided he preferred reading and writing fiction to studying law. His first novel, Watch and Ward, was published in 1871 after first appearing serially in Atlantic Monthly. After a brief period in Paris, James moved first to London and then later to Rye in Sussex. He became a British citizen in 1915 to declare his loyalty to his adopted country as well as to protest against America's refusal to enter the war on behalf of Britain. Henry James was a prolific writer and critic and from around 1875 until his death he maintained a strenuous schedule of publications in a variety of genres: novels, short story collections, literary criticism, travel writing, biography and autobiography. He died in 1916.