Jan 1, 2010

Daisy Miller | Literary Precedents

As a novel of manners, Daisy Miller fits into the tradition of fiction that presents the prevailing modes of conduct peculiar to a specific time and place and examines how they control the characters' perceptions and behavior. This tradition reached its earliest perfection in Pride and Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen, whom James admired intensely, and is best represented in America by Edith Wharton in The Age of Innocence (1920). James's interest in the "international theme" was partly stimulated by Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Marble Faun (1860) which focuses on...