recording begin okay as as i was saying um henry james is one of those
authors that is in dispute between um different literatures between the the
literature of north america and the and the literature of of british
literature um why is that so well because uh um please say nice things
about henry james i'm a big fan i'm not going to say anything bad about
henry james um he's a turncoat no i'm just joking uh he uh he's one of
those authors that is so genial that both american literature and british
literature dispute him as one of their own um in american literature it's
part of the syllaba of the syllabus but it's also part of and and and you
can ask yourself how how that can be so um and it's because um even though
henry james um was born american he nationalized a british subject and he
carried out most of his career um in british territory so um it i find it
more questionable to consider alauda cuiano or frederick douglas um british
writers but i do think that in the case of of henry james he's probably
even more british than america first of all because his view was always
very european and that makes all the difference his his uh his sensibility
was more towards a european lifestyle and the grandeur of the upper class
and um the uh the the americanness that he did have um i think that he used
it as a as a negative counterpoint so i don't i don't think he he had many
um reasons to feel or at least he didn't he didn't find many reasons to
feel proud of being american but he felt proud of sharing um a culture with
um you know um you know um you know um you know um you know um you know
with the british and he um ended up embracing a britishness and englishness
and even europeanness as opposed to um the americanness that some people at
the time found to uh involved in in the modernness of technology and um the
vibes of the of the late 19th century and the early early 20th century
where america represented the new and europe represented the old for um
people that were more conservative the old was a guardian of the values for
those that were more of a guard the old was part of the past and the new
was a fresh start that uh was meant to lead the world into the future i
think that both sides of of that uh permanent discussion uh were were right
to a certain extent and the 20th century um revolved around the events that
took place in in europe especially the first 40 or 50 years but were
extremely involved sorry we're seeing we're we're extremely uh connected uh
to this uh growing force of nature that the american economy and the
american nation was becoming it already seemed inevitable that uh um the
united states was going to be the most dominating uh country of the of the
20th century uh and um this uh this period uh marks that the the the the
the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the turning
point and in henry james um work we can see how both of these worlds
coexist and are counter-opposed um in the in the views of henry james
america represented uh many of the things that that required rethinking and
correcting and europe stood for most of those uh loss or never obtained uh
values that he missed so much in in america and and led him to uh to move
past um being an american subject because of all this um because of all
this uh pandemic uh lockdown situation um i've been forced to to uh stay in
possession of of a ton of books that i took from to prepare for the classes
for this semester but well i mean i was i was lucky enough to have um most
of the cambridge companions of the of the authors that we studied this week
i mean this term so it's given me an opportunity to spend more time in
preparing them and reading from them and i normally like to bring a brief
extracts from uh from both uh from from these works and from other works uh
to to provide you with additional information that will help you um
understand the author not only uh within um i mean in in isolation as we
normally study them here but also within a context within the context of of
the authors that coexisted and and and within their time um the preface of
of uh henry james cambridge companion at home is is the first paragraph of
the preface is interesting um it first of all it gives us the the period uh
henry james uh lifespan he he was born in 1843 and he died in 1916 right
before the the world war one where it was very clear there was that the war
was was coming but would become to know or would become the great war and
the great war and the great war and the great war and the great war and the
great war and the great war and the great war and the great war war um and
and um a this is a turning point for civilization it's uh it marks uh the
the advancement of many life-changing or civilization changing technologies
such as the automobile capacity to fly etc etc and it's a really um seminal
moment for uh for for the events of the world and i think that henry james
did a very good job in trying to portray a specific section a very thin
slice of that reality but with a great amount of detail and this is one of
the elements that we're going to talk about when we talk about henry james
um henry james is generally acknowledged to be one of america's greatest
novelists and critics um it's very important to take into consideration
james importance as a critic um and we've already talked about the
importance of other authors as critics for example edgar allen poe which is
considered one of the forefathers or or pioneers in in literary criticism
um emerson and and others uh hawthorne melville in the case of henry james
he is recognized for his critical work beyond his great role as as a
novelist um he spent most of his career in england so even though he's
considered american and he's uh he's a very important american writer um we
we have uh even stronger reasons to consider him uh a british writer
because he's um he spent most of his career in england he is the author of
some of the best known fictions of the later 19th and early 20th century
novels like portrait of a lady stories like daisy miller uh tales like the
turn of the screw his criticism moreover offers one of the most definitive
accounts of what james called the art of fiction all the more impressive
because at the time he wrote prose fiction was accorded a second secondary
place in literary judgment well behind lyric and epic in critical esteem
the American scene, James gave a uniquely perceptive account of America at
the turn of the century, forcefully registering the remarkable changes then
underway in the racial, economic, and political terrain of his native land.
It is true that as America left first the American Civil War and then the
19th century, it was a land not only of opportunity but a land of change, a
land of political change, of deep political change, deep racial change, and
also deep economic transformation. All of these elements are elements that
we have to take into consideration when we talk about Henry James. I'm not
going to read any more from this because we really have a lot of material
to cover today and our reading should take us around maybe close to half an
hour, so we're going to have to balance the time very much. These texts
from the second semester, they're richer in length and they allow us to
understand the work better, but also they're more textual. They're more
challenging in terms of length. The book From Puritanism to Postmodernism,
in the unit called Secession and Loyalty, talking about the American Civil
War and the aftermath of the American Civil War, talks about Henry James
referring to the peak moment of realism. And that's one of the things that
we're going to talk about today. The same way that we talk about the 1850s
as the most important moment for romanticism, American realism, we already
had a peek at American realism last week with Mark Twain, with Samuel
Clements, we are going to continue to see realism throughout the rest of
the course. These last three authors, Henry James can be seen as one of the
main figures in this literary peak of realism that happens towards the
1880s. And we're going to see how America, American literature has
transformed into a literature that is so powerful, not only that it
influences other literature, that it's able to export literary figures that
are embraced by proud nations, just such as the British society that took
Henry James in as one of their own. And, you know, I think that's going to
be a very, this constant dispute obviously has to do with the literary
quality that Henry James brought to the table. We're going to talk about
Henry James as a master of form and an innovator, okay? And luckily enough,
this second semester has been full of this, full of innovation. The
innovation that comes through realism has to do with form. It also has to
do with style. And I think that the next elements that we're going to see
in this unit or that I hope that you have a better understanding at the end
of the unit is how his own individual life worked as a backdrop to study
the complexity of human perception. And what we talked about in Mark Twain,
this interior monologue as one of the traits of American realism, how there
is a psychological complexity to the characters that are built in realism
and how elements, such as sensibility and the mental state or the mental
well-being of the people are one of the elements that are going to, that
are going to be in the center in this unit. As a form of criticism, there's
always been this tendency to criticize Henry James, I'm very sorry
Constance, for being a bit of a snob, for being a ruffian, for being a
writer that was aimed at the upper class. And we cannot deny that his work
was exclusively focused on analyzing and understanding and defining the
upper class. And again, we see this, what we saw with other writers, such
as Mark Twain, we'll see it with Keisha Penn, is that they opt, for a
narrowness of themes. They don't write about many different things about
which they are not experts. They specialize in one type of story about one
type of people. In the case of Henry James, the cultivated upper class. He
believed that he was a person that understood this layer of society and his
work is devoted to analyzing this piece of society and the work is centered
about, well, it's just centered on the lives and perception and the
interaction of the upper class, the cultivated people. Despite James'
cosmopolitan upbringing in America, his, his life has to do with something
that we read about in the first part of the course. We read about this with
Longfellow. We read about this with Washington Irving, how these people
would embark on trips around Europe that would take years to complete.
These sojourns in Europe and this, this experience, this vital experience
in James' own life is going to work as a source of inspiration, a source of
material for his, his work. His work can be described as being focused on
the international theme. The international theme being talking mainly about
Americans abroad or, or English people traveling to America. That would be
a very consistent combination of, of elements that, that he chooses in many
of his stories, the international theme. We're going to focus on one of his
most popular works, Daisy Miller. We're going to read the first chapter of
Daisy Miller, which is considered a novella because of its length. Normally
longer, a novella is normally considered longer than, than a short story
and shorter than a novel. And it was extremely controversial because of the
way American, Americanness is portrayed especially because of the
flirtatious character of the, of the flirtatious personality of the female
character. And there have been many studies about what the meaning of
choosing an American, an innocent American girl, innocent within American
standards that met tragedy on a European sojourn as, as a way of punishing
her own lifestyle or her own chain of thoughts or her family structure and
the, the laxitude of, of, of family, family restrictions and, and norms of,
of education. So, there's going, there's going to be some controversy that
I think you're going to understand very well, especially for, especially
from the American audience or the American readership about James' focus
on, on, on how he treated Europe and the, Europe versus America as one is
being the, the source or, or where virtue lay and the other one was all the
potential but a source of, of, of innumerable mistakes and flaws in the
case of the Americans. Okay? So, that's, that can be a very good first
approximation to the figure of, of Henry James and what we expect to
achieve in this, in this unit. Let me read you from, from this, from, from
Puritanism to Postmodernism. On page 212 they say, In the centennial year
of 1876 when Americans at the Philadelphia Exhibition were gazing in
amazement at the new technologies, the telephones, the typewriters they
would be using in quantities just a few years later and when speeches
announced the spread of American territory and the vast profusion of our
wealth James was making what he called his choice. So I think that's a,
that's an interesting word. Not only choice here but his choice. A vital
choice. The choice between being part of this American frenzy of technology
the Americans behind turning the telegraph the, the telephone the, the car
the airplane into something mainstream into something that was the driving
force of of, of a superpower the, all of this technological breakthrough or
to embrace tradition. That year he was back in Paris with the leading
novelist of his age. His, the people that he met at the age of course were
not were, weren't nobodies they were Flaubert Daudet Zola Trugeneff
admiring their fierce literary honesty while gradually coming to distrust
their aestheticism. So he, he has a dichotomy with, with the French writers
of the turn of the century. Now on the one hand he admires their their
honesty on the other hand he also had proposed aestheticism and as realism
is is a contested a contested literary force that rebels against the tenets
of romanticism of the gothic of of the aesthetic of the art for art's sake
he became opposed to that literary movement. He moved on to London and at
the end of the year decided to settle there for good. My choice is the old
world my choice my need my life his choice. Okay, so that idea of the old
world being his choice this London that he called his murky Babylon was the
the place that he he self-exiled to by by choice and live there the the
last 45 years of his life. It was in short the most strategic location for
one whose essential posture was that of watcher and observer and whose
conviction was that art arose from the texture of the culture on which he
drew it drew sorry James is interested in manners customs usages habits and
forms. So when you have to think about James or when Constance if Constance
were to write about why she is a big fan of Henry James it would be about
because it would probably she would probably give us hints in that
direction because of that way that Henry James observes things that way
that Henry James talks about the common in an extraordinary way those
privileged writers that are able to write about the ordinary and make the
description of the ordinary extraordinary are the writers that are timeless
and that's I think that's part of the beauty but also the part of the
complexity of Henry James with Henry James again we have the complex the
complex is part of our works following from later on in this same chapter
James' work is essentially a search for knowledge in a world so mass and
yes so evanescent that it demands intense self-awareness from its observer
regarding the international theme that we talked about James' international
theme concerns atlantic exchange in more than one sense the plot of the
American romance of Europe includes the intricate embraces of money so this
is basically the American wealthy trying to gain distinctness or trying to
gain culture trying to drink up some of that European knowledge of that old
world knowledge but being unsuccessful in the attempt that's mainly what
many of these stories are going to be about Daisy Miller 1876 tests a young
American girl's complex innocence in the decadence of fever invested Rome
and I'm going to leave it there because I want to write he's extremely
honest and almost cruel and without the almost I think that you can you can
remove the almost from from that sentence yes he is extremely honest he is
extremely talented and I'm answering Constance question usually the
recording afterwards you're not going to understand what I'm talking about
a Constance comment is even though he's upper class he's extremely honest
and almost cruel I would say that the almost is can be eliminated from that
sentence they would still hold Henry James is an observer and as an
observer he believes lack of sugarcoating is what Constance is calling here
an almost cruel perspective at life and and you'll see what we mean when we
read from Daisy Miller because I think many of the elements of that we want
to portray in this international theme of the world and I that's talking
about and I think that's what she's talking about in think that's a very
relevant figure in early psychology in 19th century psychology and also in
philosophy of the 19th century so it just goes to show that the upbringing
of Henry James James is within a very talented family. His education was
diverse and exposed to many influences. He established lifelong
relationships with writers that he had little in common from the cultural
perspective, but very much in common from the human perspective. His long
trips as a kid, as a teenager, were source material for his later works. He
spent long periods in Rhode Island and afterwards in London, Paris, Geneva,
and Boulogne-sur-Mer. Because of these trips, and that was very useful for
his social life, Henry James was fluent in French, which was one of those
things that happened to this distinct and light American upper class. They
were versed in more than one language, which is tremendously uncommon in
Americans. Unfortunately, even now, I would say maybe more now than before,
for non-immigrant Americans. And despite being able to speak several
languages, they were still considered culturally inferior to other
Europeans because of the air, the flamboyant air that Americans brought to
Europe. This America... was a country that was drunk in technology and
believing that they were the kings of the world was a type of society that
provoked rejection from more traditional segments of the European society,
from the upper class, homonymous European society. Henry James was 33 when
he moved to London and he never returned. Despite that, his first work
after moving was The American in 1877. But as we know, the source material
for many of his works was precisely Americans and the English interacting
and... creating that sharp contrast in ways of viewing the world. Henry
James is considered a master of form and was extremely committed to
perfecting his skills. He could... He was convinced, and we read about that
at the beginning of the preface, that fiction could be as aesthetically
fulfilling as poetry, which was a counter-cultural thought of the time. His
precise selection of words, and I think that's another thing that Henry
James fans always perceive, how well selected the words are in his work,
create the sense of a very, very well elaborate writing style, that reminds
us to a verse. The traditional traits of realism are all present in Henry
James, and in most cases, Henry James is the best American example of these
realist traits, the use of the shifting point of view, the interior
monologue, and the unreliable narrator. I think that's really interesting
because we already started to see this unreliability in, or hints of this
unreliability in, for example, Herman Melville, how the narrative voice
switches back and forth and how we could come to this conclusion that it's
not the first time we see this, but it's the first time that it's used
consistently. James contributed significantly to literary criticism,
especially through the prefaces of the New York edition of his works, and
through individual essays such as The Art of Fiction. As we already talked
about before, he shares with Edgar Allan Poe his interest in criticism that
goes beyond just criticizing the works of others, but also theorizing about
the work of a critic, in this case, through essays such as The Art of
Fiction, and in the case of Edgar Allan Poe, we have similar essays that
are very influential. The formal aspects of his work received extensive
acclaim, but the choice of themes have always received a certain amount of
criticism because of how narrow they are as a study of society, and how he
focused mainly on the wealthy and the leisurely, which was an honest thing
to do, because it's based on his first-hand experience. So it would make
sense to focus on that part, rather than on another part of society, which
he knew less. The underlying idea that the readership perceived at the end
of the day was that he seemed to be only interested in the cultivated
people, which is what has gained him this reputation of being snobbish. And
I think that's one of the things that are normally said about Henry James,
that he's very nice to read, but at the same time not for everyone, because
some people like reading about a type of society, that you normally don't
know firsthand, but other people find it a bit snobbish and self-centered.
Daisy Miller marks a turning point in his career. We already mentioned the
year of Daisy Miller. I closed the book. I don't have that anymore. 1878.
So very soon in his English period, is a turning point in his career and
we're going to see how this is probably the first I don't know how to call
it Laurel or Yanny moment something that divides society basically between
people that love Daisy Miller and people that hate Daisy Miller or those
who adore the main character and those who deemed her the typical American
classless youngster those that were in favor of Daisy Miller came to be
known as Daisy Millerites and those that were against Daisy Miller were
known as the anti-Daisy Millerites something, let's say a 19th century
version of the believers or not believers the work Daisy Miller was
initially rejected for publication because the American editor was afraid
of the readership's reaction to such a potentially offensive story against
the American protagonist and how the tragic outcome of the story describes
the flaws of American society it was very warmly welcomed in England and I
can just go to show how there's always been this a tormented relationship
especially in terms of culture between the American and the English and the
English readers were split between those that like the main character and
those who thought that she was the epitome of the classless American um...
this work is a turning point where James focuses on comparing America to
Europe and from his entire body of work it's one of the most relevant
probably with The Turn of the Screw one of the most famous works of... of
Henry James um... the story provides several layers of differentiated
opinion and we can come to different conclusions um... depending on how we
analyze or to what depth we analyze the contents of the story um... just to
focus the beginning of the unit in the book the... I think that there's a
fact that is laid out as if it was well, just another element of his
biography um... one of his works were to um... to... to create a critical
edition of his own works to critically re-evaluate or assess his um... his
works this New York edition of the Novels and Tales of Henry James spanned
26 volumes and that's why I thought it would be really interesting to um...
to uh... bring forward a... a... just the set of of the most recognizable
uh... novels and... and um... to place forward how prolific he was
throughout his entire career the... he is um... so prolific there are
different periods his... his first period is uh... is be... the... the
years that uh... that add up to his um... moving to uh... to England and
the first works that... that emerge um... after that that uh... that move
to England the second period um... are the ones that produce uh... some...
some of the uh... some of the works he is most uh... known for such as
uh... Bostonians but the third period is also prolific in in... in works
that he um... that... that gained him uh... a solid reputation such as the
Ambassadors in 1903 um... he um... embarked in um... literary experiments
similar to the ones that we read from Mark Twain last week such as a
collaborative novel with 11 other authors or um... eh... how the uh...
Ivory Tower or The Sense of the Past were two works that he was still were
two novels that he was still working on and that were published
posthumously um... and um... I guess with eh... with help from from other
writers eh... in 19 I think they were both published in 1917 uh... one year
after his death um... marking eh... the end of a of a tremendously prolific
eh... career that was very distinctive for its style talking about um...
the essay Daisy Miller um... the thing that we're going to analyze and the
I would like you to pay attention to are eh... the elements that make Henry
James so eh... easy to recognize when we read him um... how the syntax is
extremely elaborate there is a very um... methodic eh... choice of words
his texts are generally dense so um... Henry James is is not for everyone
I'm very happy to read that Constance eh... loves to read Henry James but
that's not always the case some readers find it it's just too complex and
too overwhelming to um... to find it enjoyable um... eh... we're going to
eh... run into something that we we already had um... with the initial
romantics in the second semester um... obscure prose sometimes difficult to
follow and something that is very very eh... common in in the writers of
the uh... of of this period he's extremely prolific he wrote many works
we've already talked about his 26 volume eh... edition of his works and
um... he eh... he relies on ambiguity um... providing various shades of
meaning um... allowing the the reader eh... to come to their own
conclusions um... think of him when you're in New York City Washington
Square can you extend on that Constance on that idea the buildings okay yes
I understand what you mean the style yes and the the decor yeah I I mean
when whenever you're you're in Boston uh... or in Philadelphia you do
understand the the time or or what you're saying the the older part of New
York and um the the glamour that um this this upper class had um which was
equivalent in in opulence but absolutely different in different in yeah the
every everyone every of eh Fifth Avenue was supposed to be the countryside
or provinces yeah everything off Fifth Avenue exactly yes when when you're
in the the surrounding area of Central Park and you you see the the area um
that have the big hotels uh um eh those eh magnificent buildings that um
Constance is talking about you understand what the American upper class
stands for also when you visit the older parts of eh Boston or Philadelphia
you also get the the meaning of of how opulent but how extremely different
to English wealth eh this was this was a cosmopolitan urban eh wealth eh in
contrast to the countryside eh wealth that we are used to observing in
let's say a more courtesan eh and um the nobility eh English eh tradition
um the the type of American wealth eh has to do more with eh with eh owning
very very expensive property in centric eh cosmopolitan spaces and mainly
um New York eh Boston and Philadelphia this I think that this represents eh
the centers of power of eh of the of the American upper class and yeah I
agree it's a very appropriate comment the one that that eh Constance makes
um we're going to eh refer to eh to Daisy Miller on page 429 of your
textbook um eh the first full paragraph says James referred to Daisy Miller
as a novelle which neither a novel nor a short eh short story but halfway
in betwe in between in terms of structure it is divided into four chapters
approximately equal length two of them are set in Switzerland in the summer
whereas the other two take place in Rome during the winter a device that
emphasizes a contrast between the two settings newly abroad from
Schenectady an industrial town in the state of New York Daisy arrives in
Europe cheerfully ignoring class structures and conventional codes of
behavior as she does not realize that European standards may be different
from those she has known in Schenectady she leaves a young Europeanized um
American man named Winterborn with the impression that she is just a
beautiful flirt she also provokes scandal in the Roman community of
Europeanized American ladies who are shocked by her free manners and
completely reject her when she befriends a handsome Italian fortune hunter
called Giovanelli eventually Daisy dies of malarial fever sorry for the
spoiler after exposing herself through an evening walk with Giovanelli in
the Colosseum which at that time was considered a polluted place Winterborn
had won the title innocent woman most innocent woman in the world woman to
have been an uppermost concern for the author because in a letter of 1880
he himself remarked that poor little Daisy Miller as I understand her above
all things is innocent Daisy Miller first appeared in the Cornhill Magazine
June and July 1878 and the same text was reprinted as a book in America the
same year James only introduced some minor changes in wording in his first
revised version of 1883 although the author substantially revised it again
some thirty years later for the New York edition of 1909 we're going to
read the initial chapter of his earlier version which is the most
frequently taught and widely read because according to scholarly consensus
it is the best an additional reason for this choice is a desire to draw
attention to the freshness and vividness of the young James writing by
presenting the text that his 19th century readers enjoyed one of the four
chapters of the novella sorry out of the four chapters of the novella we
will only read the first which represents about one-fourth of the whole so
you can see there's a book that can be read in basically an hour an hour
and a half or an hour very close to an hour we're going to read from page
430 as usual in these cases I've brought some assistance I've brought a
recording of this piece so I don't torture you with my voice and you have a
nicer voice to read this is from I always recommend LibriVox to all of you
as a way of reading classic material or listening to classic material in
audiobook form I think it's probably the best way to really interiorize a
work to read it and to listen to it at the same time if you have the
opportunity it's a fantastic option to add listening to reading the story
it's also going to help you if you're not very good with certain type of
English vocabulary you're not familiar with some of the vocabulary to feel
more acquainted with the way some words are pronounced or with the rhythm
of the work we're going to read the whole section if you have any questions
or if you want to add any comments I think we'll have five minutes at the
end of the audio to comment on them and to extend on the reading let me
place the microphone so it can pick up the sound in the best manner you
hear well section one part one at the little town of in Switzerland there
is a particularly comfortable hotel there are indeed many hotels for the
entertainment of tourists is the business of the place which as many
tourists to visit the shore of the lake presents an unbroken array of
establishments of this order of every category from the grand hotel of the
newest fashion with a chalk white front a hundred balconies and a dozen
flags flying from its roof to the little Swiss pension of an elder day with
its name inscribed in German looking lettering upon a pink or yellow wall
and an awkward summer house in the angle of the garden one of the hotels at
Vevey however is famous even classical being distinguished from many of its
upstart neighbors by an air both of luxury and of maturity in this region
in the months of June American travelers are extremely numerous it may be
said indeed that Vevey assumes at this period some of the characteristics
of an American watering place there are sights and sounds which evoke a
vision an echo of Newport and Saratoga there was a flitting hither and
thither of stylish young girls a rustling of muslin flounces a rattle of
dance music in the morning hours a sound of high pitched voices at all
times you receive an impression of these things at the excellent inn of the
Trois-Couronnes and are transported in fancy to the Ocean House or to
Congress Hall but at the Trois-Couronnes it must be added there are other
features that are much at variance with these suggestions neat German
waiters who look like secretaries of legation Russian princesses sitting in
the garden little Polish boys walking about held by the hand with their
governess a view of the sunny crest of the Don du Midi and the picturesque
towers of the castle of Chillon I hardly know whether it was the analogies
or the differences that were uppermost in the mind of a young American who
two or three years ago sat in the garden of the Trois-Corons looking about
him rather idly at some of the graceful objects I have mentioned it was a
beautiful summer morning and in whatever fashion the young American looked
at things they must have seemed to him charming his aunt had almost always
a headache and now she was shut up in her room smelling camphor so that he
was at liberty to wander about he was some seven and twenty years of age
when his friends spoke of him they usually said that he was at Geneva
studying when his enemies spoke of him they said but after all he had no
enemies he was an extremely amiable fellow and universally liked what I
should say is simply that when a certain person spoke of him they affirmed
that the reason of his spending so much time in Geneva was that he was
extremely devoted to a lady who lived there a foreign lady a person older
than himself very few Americans indeed I think none had ever seen this lady
about whom there were some singular stories but Winterbourne had an old
attachment for the little girl he had been put to school there as a boy and
he had afterward gone to college there circumstances which had led to his
forming the great many useful friendships many of these he had kept and
they were a source of great satisfaction to him after knocking at his
aunt's door and learning that she was indisposed he had taken a walk about
the town and then he had come into his breakfast he had now finished his
breakfast but he was drinking a small cup of coffee which had been served
to him on a little table in the garden by one of the waiters who looked
like an attache at last he finished his coffee and lit a cigarette
presently a small boy came walking along the path an urchin of nine or ten
the child who was diminutive for his years had an aged expression of
countenance a pale complexion and sharp little features he was dressed in
knickerbockers with red stockings which displayed his poor little spindle
shanks he also wore a brilliant red cravat he carried in his hand a long
alpenstock the sharp point of which he thrust into everything that he
approached the flower beds the garden benches the trains of the ladies
dresses in front of winter born he paused looking at him with a pair of
bright penetrating little eyes will you give me a lump of sugar he asked in
a sharp hard little voice a voice immature and yet somehow not young winter
born glanced at the small table near him on which his coffee service rested
and saw that several morsels of sugar remained yes you may take one he
answered but i don't think sugar is good for little boys this little boy
stepped forward and carefully selected three of the coveted fragments two
of which he buried in the pocket of his knickerbockers depositing the other
as promptly in another room he exclaimed pronouncing the adjective in a
peculiar manner winter born had immediately perceived that he might have
the honour of claiming him as a fellow countryman take care you don't hurt
your teeth he said paternally i haven't got any teeth to hurt that they
have all come out i've only got seven teeth my mother counted them last
night and one came out right afterward she said she'd slap me if any more
came out i can't help it it's this old europe it's the climate that makes
them come out in america they didn't come out it's these hotels winter born
was much amused if you eat three lumps of sugar your mother will certainly
slap you he said she's got to give me some candy then joined his young
interlocutor i can't get any candy here any american candy american candy
is the best candy and are american little boys the best little boys asked
winterborn i don't know i'm an american boy said the child i see you are
one of the best laughed winterborn are you an american man pursued this
vivacious infant then on winterborn's affirmative reply american men are
the best he declared his companion thanked him for the compliment and the
child who had now got stride of his alpenstock stood looking about him
while he attacked the second lump of sugar winterborn wondered if he
himself had been like this in his infancy for he had been brought to europe
at about this age here comes my sister cried the child in a moment she's an
american girl winterborn looked along the path and saw a beautiful young
lady advancing american girls are the best girls he said cheerfully to his
young companion my sister ain't the best the child declared she's always
blowing at me i imagine that is your fault not hers said winterborn the
young lady meanwhile had drawn near she was dressed in white muslin with a
hundred frills and flounces and knots of pale colored ribbon she was
bareheaded but she balanced in her hand a little parasol with a deep border
of embroidery and she was strikingly admirably pretty how pretty you are
thought winterborn straightening himself in his seat as if he were prepared
to rise the young lady paused in front of his bench near the parapet of the
garden which overlooked the lake the little boy had now converted his
alpenstock into a vaulting pole by the aid of which he was springing about
in the gravel and kicking it up not a little randolph said the young lady
what are you doing i'm going up the alps replied randolph this is the way
and he gave another little jump scattering the pebbles about winterborn's
ears that's the way they come down said winterborn he's an american man
cried randolph in his little hard voice the young lady gave no heed to this
announcement but looked straight at her brother well i guess you had better
be quiet she simply observed it seemed to winterborn that he had been in a
manner presented he got up and stepped slowly toward the young girl
throwing away his cigarette the little boy and i have made an acquaintance
he said with great civility in geneva as he had been perfectly aware a
young man was not at liberty to speak to a young unmarried lady except
under certain rarely occurring conditions but here at vevey what conditions
could be better than these a pretty american girl coming and standing in
front of you in a garden this pretty american girl however on hearing
winterborn's observation simply glanced at him she then turned her head and
looked over the parapet at the lake and the opposite mountains he wondered
whether he had gone too far but he decided that he must advance farther
rather than retreat while he was thinking of something else to say the
young lady turned to the little boy again i should like to know where you
got that pole she said i bought it responded randolph you don't mean to say
you're going to take it to italy yes i'm going to take it to italy the
child declared the young girl glanced over the front of her dress and
smoothed out a knot or two of ribbon then she wasted her eyes upon the
prospect again well i guess you had better leave it somewhere she said
after a moment are you going to italy winterborn inquired in a tone of
great respect the young lady glanced at him again yes sir she replied and
she said nothing more are you um going over the simplon winterborn pursued
a little embarrassed i don't know she said i suppose it's some mountain
randolph what mountain are we going over going where the child demanded to
italy winterborn explained i don't know said randolph i don't want to go to
italy i want to go to america oh italy is a beautiful place rejoined the
young man can you get candy there randolph loudly inquired i hope not said
his sister i guess you have had enough candy and mother thinks so too i
haven't had any for ever so long for a hundred weeks cried the boy still
jumping about the young lady inspected her flounces and smoothed her
ribbons again and winterborn presently risked an observation upon the
beauty of the view he was ceasing to be embarrassed for he had begun to
perceive that she was not in the least embarrassed herself there had been
not the slightest alteration in her charming complexion she was evidently
neither offended nor flattered if she looked another way when he spoke to
her and seemed not particularly to her or to hear him this was simply her
habit her manner yet as he talked a little more and pointed out some of the
objects of interest in the view with which she appeared quite unacquainted
she gradually gave him more of the benefit of her glance and then he saw
that this glance was perfectly direct and unshrinking it was not however
what would have been called an immodest glance for the young girl's eyes
were singularly honest and fresh they were wonderfully pretty eyes and
indeed winterborn had not seen for a long time anything prettier than his
fair countrywoman's various features her complexion her nose her ears her
teeth he had a great relish for feminine beauty he was addicted to
observing and analysing it and as regards this young lady's face he made
several observations it was not at all insipid but it was not exactly
expressive and though it was eminently delicate winterborn mentally accused
it very forgivingly of a want of finish he thought it very possible that
master randolph's sister was a coquette he was sure she had a spirit of her
own but in her bright sweet superficial little visage there was no mockery
no irony before long it became obvious that she was much disposed toward
conversation she told him that they were going to rome for the winter she
and her mother and randolph she asked him if he was a real american she
shouldn't have taken him for one he seemed more like a german this was said
after a little hesitation especially when he spoke winterborn laughing
answered that he had met germans who spoke like americans but that he had
not as far as he remembered met an american who spoke like a german then he
asked her if she should not be more comfortable in sitting upon the bench
which he had just quitted she answered that she liked standing up and
walking about but she presently sat down she told him she was from new york
state if you know where that is winterborn learned more about her by
catching hold of her small slippery brother and making him stand a few
minutes by his side tell me your name my boy he said randolph c miller said
the boy sharply and i'll tell you her name and he leveled his album stock
up at his sister he had better wait till you are asked said this young lady
calmly i should like very much to know your name said winterborn her name
is daisy miller cried the child but that isn't her real name that isn't her
name on her cards it's a pity you haven't got one of my cards said miss
miller her real name is annie p miller the boy went on ask him his name
said his sister indicating winterborn but on this point randolph seemed
perfectly indifferent he continued to supply information with regard to his
own family my father's name is ezra b miller he announced my father ain't
in europe my father's in a better place than europe winterborn imagined for
a moment that this was the manner in which the child had been taught to
intimate that mr miller had been removed to the sphere of celestial reward
but randolph immediately added my father's in schenectady he's got a big
business my father's rich you bet well ejaculated miss miller luring her
parasol and looking at the embroidered border winterborn presently released
the child who departed dragging his alpenstock along the path he doesn't
like europe said the young girl he wants to go back to schenectady you mean
yes he wants to go right home he hasn't got any boys here there is one boy
here but he always goes round with the teacher they won't let him play and
your brother hasn't any teacher winterborn inquired mother thought of
getting him one to travel round with us there was a lady told her of a very
good teacher an american lady perhaps you know her mrs sanders i think she
came from boston she told us of this teacher and we thought of getting him
to travel round with us but randolph said he didn't want a teacher
travelling round with us he said he wouldn't have lessons when he was in
the cars and we are in the cars about half the time there was an english
lady we met in the cars i think her name was miss featherstone perhaps you
know her she wanted to know why i didn't give randolph lessons give him
instruction she called it i guess he could give me more instruction than i
could give him he's very smart yes said winterborn he seems very smart
mother is going to get a teacher for him as soon as we get to italy can you
get good teachers in italy very good i should think said winterborn or else
she's going to find some school he ought to learn some more he's only nine
he's going to college and in this way miss miller continued to converse
upon the affairs of her family and upon other topics she sat there with her
extremely pretty hands ornamented with very brilliant rings folded in her
lap and with her very pretty eyes now resting upon those of winterborn now
wandering over the garden the people who passed by and the beautiful view
she talked to winterborn as if she had known him a long time he found it
very pleasant it was many years since he had heard a young girl talk so
much it might have been said of this unknown young lady who had come and
sat down beside him on a bench that she chattered she was very quiet she
sat in a charming tranquil attitude but her lips and her eyes were
constantly moving she had a soft slender agreeable voice and her tone was
decidedly sociable she gave winterborn a history of her movements and
intentions and those of her mother and brother in europe and enumerated in
particular the various hotels at which they had stopped that english lady
in the cars she said miss featherstone asked me if we didn't all live in
hotels in america i told her i had never been in so many hotels in my life
as since i came to europe i have never seen so many it's nothing but hotels
but miss miller did not make this remark with a querulous accent she
appeared to be in the best humour with everything she declared that the
hotels were very good even once they got used to their ways and that europe
was perfectly sweet she was not disappointed not a bit perhaps it was
because she had heard so much about it before she had ever so many intimate
friends that had been there ever so many times and then she had had ever so
many dresses and things from paris whenever she put on a paris dress she
felt as if she were in europe it was a kind of a wishing cap said
winterborn yes said miss miller without examining this analogy it always
made me wish i was here but i needn't have done that for dresses i am sure
they send all the pretty ones to america you see the most frightful things
here the only thing i don't like she proceeded is the society there isn't
any society or if there is i don't know where it keeps itself do you i
suppose there is some society somewhere but i haven't seen anything of it i
am very fond of society and i have always had a great deal of it i don't
mean only in schenectady but in new york i used to go to new york every
winter in new york i had lots of society last winter i had seventeen
dinners given me and three of them were by gentlemen added daisy miller i
have more friends in new york than in schenectady more gentleman friends
and more young lady friends too she resumed in a moment she paused again
for an instant she was looking at winterbourne with all her prettiness and
her lively eyes and in her light slightly monotonous smile i have always
had she said a great deal of gentleman society end of section one recorded
by gazina in august 2007 let me play for you section two one second i
didn't remember it was in two different files section two of oops let's see
if we get this working section two of daisy miller this is a librivox
recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more
information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by miranda
stinson daisy miller a study in two parts by henry james section two poor
winterbourne was amused perplexed and decidedly charmed he had never yet
heard a young girl express herself in just this fashion never at least save
in cases where to say such things seemed a kind of demonstrative evidence
of a certain laxity of deportment and yet was he to accuse miss daisy
miller of actual or potential inconduite as they said at geneva he felt
that he had lived at geneva so long that he had lost a good deal and had
become dishabituated to the american tone never indeed since he had grown
old enough to appreciate things had he encountered a young american girl of
so pronounced a type as this certainly she was very charming but how
ducidly sociable was she simply a pretty girl from new york state were they
all like that the pretty girls who had a good deal of gentleman society or
was she also a designing and audacious woman he was inclined to think miss
daisy miller was a flirt a pretty american flirt he had never as yet had
any relations with young ladies of this category he had known here in
europe two or three women persons older than miss daisy miller and provided
for respectability's sake with husbands who were great coquettes dangerous
terrible women with whom one's relations were liable to take a serious turn
but this young girl was not a coquette in that sense she was very
unsophisticated she was only a pretty american flirt winterbourne was
almost grateful for having found the formula that applied to miss daisy
miller he leaned back in his seat he remarked to himself that she had the
most charming nose he had ever seen he wondered what were the regular
conditions and limitations of one's intercourse with a pretty american
flirt it presently became apparent that he was on the way to learn have you
been to that old castle asked the young girl pointing with her parasol to
the far gleaming walls of the chateau de chillon yes formerly more than
once said winterbourne you too i suppose have seen it no we haven't been
there i want to go there dreadfully of course i mean to go there i wouldn't
go away from here without having seen that old castle it's a very pretty
excursion said winterbourne and very easy to make you can drive you know or
you can go by the little steamer you can go in the cars said miss miller
yes you can go in the cars winterbourne assented our courier says they take
you right up to the castle the young girl continued she suffers dreadfully
from dyspepsia she said she couldn't go randolph wouldn't go either he says
he doesn't think much of old castles but i guess we'll go this week if we
can get randolph your brother is not interested in ancient monuments
winterbourne inquired smiling he says he don't care much about old castles
he's only nine he wants to stay at the hotel mother's afraid to leave him
alone and the courier won't stay with him so we haven't been to many places
but it will be too bad if we don't go up there and miss miller pointed
again at the chateau de chillon i should think it might be arranged said
winterbourne couldn't you get someone to stay for the afternoon with
randolph miss miller looked at him a moment and then very placidly i wish
you would stay with him she said winterbourne hesitated a moment i should
much rather go to chillon with you with me asked the young girl with the
same placidity as a young girl at geneva would have done and yet
winterbourne conscious that he had been very bold thought it possible she
was offended with your mother he answered very respectfully but it seemed
that both his audacity and his respect were lost upon miss daisy miller i
guess my mother won't go after all she said she don't like to ride round in
the afternoon but did you really mean what you said just now that you would
like to go up there most earnestly winterbourne declared then we may
arrange it if mother will stay with randolph i guess eugenio will eugenio
the young man inquired eugenio's our courier he doesn't like to stay with
randolph he's the most fastidious man i ever saw but he's a splendid
courier i guess he'll stay at home with randolph if mother does and then we
can go to the castle winterbourne reflected for an instant as lucidly as
possible we could only mean miss daisy miller and himself this programme
seemed almost too agreeable for credence he felt as if he ought to kiss the
young lady's hand possibly he would have done so and quite spoiled the
project but at this moment another person presumably eugenio appeared a
tall handsome man with superb whiskers wearing a velvet morning coat and a
brilliant watch chain approached miss miller looking sharply at her
companion oh eugenio said miss miller with the friendliest accent eugenio
had looked at winterbourne he now bowed gravely to the young lady i have
the honour to inform mademoiselle that luncheon is upon the table miss
miller slowly rose see here eugenio she said i'm going to that old castle
anyway to the chateau de chillon mademoiselle the courier inquired
mademoiselle has made arrangements he added in a tone which struck
winterbourne as very impertinent eugenio's tone apparently threw even to
miss miller's own apprehension a slightly ironical light upon the young
girl's situation she turned to winterbourne blushing a little a very little
you won't back out she said i shall not be happy till we go he protested
and you are staying in this hotel she went on and are you really an
american the courier stood looking at winterbourne offensively the young
man at least thought his manner of looking an offence to miss miller it
conveyed an imputation that she picked up acquaintances i shall have the
honour of presenting you to a man who will tell you all about me he said
smiling and referring to his aunt oh well we'll go some day said miss
miller and she gave him a smile and turned away she put up her parasol and
walked back to the inn beside eugenio winterbourne stood looking after her
and as she moved away drawing her muslin fur bellows over the gravel said
to himself that she had the tournure of a princess he had however engaged
to do more than prove feasible to present his aunt mrs costello to miss
daisy miller as soon as the former lady had got better of her headache he
waited upon her in her apartment and after the proper inquiries in regard
to her health he asked if she had observed in the hotel a little american
family a mama a daughter and a little boy and a courier said mrs costello
oh yes i have observed them seen them heard them and kept out of their way
mrs costello was a widow with a fortune a person of much distinction who
frequently intimated that if she were not so dreadfully liable to sick
headaches she would probably have left a deeper impress upon her time she
had a long pale face a high nose and a great deal of very striking white
hair which she wore in large puffs and rouleaux over the top of her head
she had two sons married in new york and another was now in europe this
young man was amusing himself at hamburg and though he was on his travels
was rarely perceived to visit any particular city at the moment selected by
his mother for her own appearance there her nephew who had come up to vevey
expressly to see her was therefore more attentive than those who as she
said were nearer to her he had imbibed at geneva the idea that one must
always be attentive to one's aunt mrs costello had not seen him for many
years and she was greatly pleased with him manifesting her approbation by
initiating him into many of the secrets of that social sway which as she
gave him to understand she exerted in the american capital she admitted
that she was very exclusive but if he were acquainted with new york he
would see that one had to be and her picture of the minutely hierarchical
constitution okay we've already gone beyond the section where we were
reading um yes of course i really liked all your comments thank you very
much for we just invented a new way of enjoying these classes having a
commented edition of the read through of the work um very interesting
comments both on this conflict i've always heard that this that the version
the tv version, i think it's a tv movie of daisy miller is rather good i
haven't had the opportunity to watch it if i'm completely honest um i think
it's really interesting to see how enter eugenio we have a different type
of valet or courier that doesn't seem to hold the role of of a butler or
service and seems also inappropriate from the very beginning on the way of
evaluating um miss miller's behavior and the entire situation as if he had
some parenting authority and that goes to show how there could be another
underlying story going on in the background it's a very interesting it's a
very interesting setting and i think that all of the negative connotation
is pushed towards the american part of the story and the europeans are
perceived in this story as a role model and i think that's something that's
going to be very consistent in henry james style and that's why there are
mixed feelings for american readership when reading henry miller because it
does seem to be slightly derogatory towards the american way of behaving
and of caring about in the world i hope you found this unit of henry james
interesting i was about to say henry miller not exactly we have two authors
left both of them are fascinating authors i cannot say less than that
keisha penn is probably one of my favorite authors period and stephen crane
is a fascinating author that is in the first positions of my bucket list to
find some time to read more of his frenetic career as a writer it's going
to be our first incursion in something that seems extremely modern as a way
of mixing fictional novel with journalism and it reminds me very much i
don't know if you've read gabriel garcia marquez story about a shipwreck
that he wrote at the beginning of his career i've always found it very
interesting and very similar but it's going to be a little bit more i'm
going to exactly we're going the of yes not really okay well there is a
website let me see if I can if I can copy it very quickly okay I don't you
see if I can find this here it's in the internet let me see if I can if I
can find the link quickly to the examination website there's the well some
of you have already left the the the web conference there is a a there is a
website I am afraid that I can't find it because my okay yes is this still
the old period no I have the old calendar the the links still haven't been
um updated in the in in the internet website um i'll compile the
information about the examinations and we can talk about the examination
period in the next class um and and i'll i'll bring the uh um the exact
dates um for the exam period i don't know if you if if the the hour and day
for the for the american literature exam will already have been set i i'm
optimistic that it will be already set um i i know the the the period in
general but i don't know the specific one for for your examination yet i
think it's still waiting approval to be to be published um next week we'll
talk about the period we'll cover the case of in thank you very much for
for your attention today and and next week we'll have that small yeah
thanks a lot and we'll have that small conversation about the exams how
fantastic a week