Daisy Miller (1878)

a naive young American woman comes to grief visiting Rome--I first read this when I was in 5th grade, as my school principal let me use some college level English lessons to keep me from being bored.

A very short novella concerning the "outrageous" behaviour of Daisy and the judgments of the society around her. ( )

A clever and skillful portrait of a young lady, described as a coquette, who attempts to weave her way into luxury and society. Her attempts ultimately prove to be her undoing.

3.5-- Better than expected. ( )

Delightful, but bewarned the Penguin Classics edition has spoilers in the end notes (not to mention the introduction, which is disproportionately long.) ( )

This classic novel will heightened your appreciation for independence, romance and love loss by following a young man in his quest for true love. The young woman he follows is Daisy Miller, a newly rich heiress from America who wants to be acknowledged and accepted in European society. She makes all of the wrong choices and behaves badly. She eventually dies and is never really accepted in society. His feelings about her loss and acceptance come from a deeper understanding of what she did wrong and how headstrong and independent she was. Did he still love her when she died? It's hard to say whether he truly understood what she stood for and her belief and acceptance of acceptable behavior in modern society.