FROM THE PAGES OF DAISY MILLER AND WASHINGTON SQUARE
Some people had told him that, after all, American girls were exceedingly innocent; and others had told him that, after all, they were not. He was inclined to think Miss Daisy Miller was a flirt—a pretty American flirt. (from Daisy Miller, page 14)
“I like a lady to be exclusive; I’m dying to be exclusive myself.”
(from Daisy Miller, page 21 )
“Whether or no being hopelessly vulgar is being ‘bad’ is a question for the metaphysicians. They are bad enough to dislike, at any rate; and for this short life that is quite enough.”
(from Daisy Miller, page 33)
They desired to express to observant Europeans the great truth that, though Daisy Miller was a young American lady, her behaviour was not representative—was regarded by her compatriots as abnormal.
(from Daisy Miller, page 54)
“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.” (from Daisy Miller, page 62)
The ideal of quiet and of genteel retirement, in 1835, was found in Washington Square, where the doctor built himself a handsome, modern, wide-fronted house, with a big balcony before the drawing-room windows, and a flight of white marble steps ascending to a portal which was also faced with white marble.
(from Washington Square, page 76)
There were portions left over, light remnants and snippets of irony, which she never knew what to do with, which seemed too delicate for her own use; and yet Catherine, lamenting the limitations of her understanding, felt that they were too valuable to waste, and had a belief that if they passed over her head they yet contributed to the general sum of human wisdom.
(from Washington Square, page 83)
“She would be enchanted to be able to prove to herself that she is persecuted.” (from Washington Square, page 101 )
“There is something I should greatly like—as a moral satisfaction. I should like to hear you say—‘He is abominably selfish!”’
(from Washington Square, page 133)
“If you see him, you will be an ungrateful, cruel child; you will have given your old father the greatest pain of his life.”
(from Washington Square, page 153)
“If he marries her, and she comes into Austin’s money, they may get on. He will be an idle, amiable, selfish, and doubtless tolerably good-natured fellow. But if she doesn’t get the money and he finds himself tied to her, Heaven have mercy on her! He will have none. He will hate her for his disappointment, and take his revenge; he will be pitiless and cruel.” (from Washington Square, page 177)
“When persons are going to be married, they oughtn’t to think so much about business.” (from Washington Square, page 204)
Catherine, meanwhile, in the parlour, picking up her morsel of fancy-work, had seated herself with it again-for life, as it were.
(from Washington Square, page 240)
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Daisy Miller was first published in 1879, and Washington Square was published the following year. The present texts are based on the New York Edition of The Novels and Tales of Henry James (1907-1917).
Published in 2004 by Barnes & Noble Classics with new Introduction, Notes, Biography, Chronology, Inspired By, Comments & Questions, and For Further Reading.
Introduction, Notes, and For Further Reading
Copyright @ 2004 by Jennie Kassanoff.
Note on Henry James, The World of Henry James and Daisy Miller and Washington Square, Inspired by Daisy Miller and Washington Square, and Comments & Questions Copyright @ 2004 by Barnes & Noble, Inc.
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Daisy Miller and Washington Square
ISBN 1-59308-105-7
eISBN : 978-1-411-43203-1
LC Control Number 2004101079
Produced and published in conjunction with: Fine Creative Media, Inc. 322 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10001 Michael J. Fine, President and Publisher
Printed in the United States of America QM 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4
HENRY JAMES
The writer Henry James was born into a wealthy family in New York City in 1843. His father, Henry, Sr., was a religious freethinker and follower of the philosopher Swedenborg, and associated with many of the literary men of his day, including Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Young Henry was educated privately in New York, Geneva, Paris, and London; the family lived alternately in Europe and the United States for much of his childhood.
He began his literary career writing for magazines. Having dropped out of Harvard Law School to pursue writing, he associated with the literary set in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was a good friend of budding novelist and critic William Dean Howells. In 1864 James’s first published piece of fiction, the story “A Tragedy of Error,” appeared in the Continental Monthly. He also wrote reviews and articles for the Atlantic Monthly and the Nation. He frequently traveled to Europe and in 1876 settled permanently in London.
James is often cited as one of literature’s great stylists; it has been said that his writing surrounds a subject and illuminates it with a flickering light, rather than pinning it down; according to Virginia Woolf in her diaries, he spoke in the same way. His style became more and more indirect as he moved from his early period, when he produced novels that considered the differences between American and European culture and character—Roderick Hudson (1876), The American (1877), The Europeans (1878), Daisy Miller (1879), Washington Square ( 1881 ), and The Portrait of a Lady (1881)—to his middle period, when he wrote two novels about social reformers and revolutionaries, The Bostonians and The Princess Casamassima, both in 1886, as well as the novellas The Aspern Papers (1888) and The Turn of the Screw ( 1898) .
In 1898 James retreated to Lamb House, a mansion he had purchased in Rye, England. There he produced the great works of his final period, in which in complex prose he subtly portrayed his characters’ inner lives: The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903), and The Golden Bowl (1904). He returned to the United States for the last time to supervise production of a twenty-six-volume edition of his most important fictional works that was published between 1907 and 1917. The American Scene ( 1907), an account of his last journey to America, is highly critical of his native land. He became a British citizen in 1915. Shortly after receiving the Order of Merit, Henry James died, on February 28, 1916, leaving behind a prodigious body of work: twenty novels, 112 stories, and twelve plays, as well as voluminous travel writing and literary journalism and criticism.
THE WORLD OF HENRY JAMES ANDDAISY MILLER AND WASHINGTON SQUARE
1789
William James, Henry’s grandfather, emigrates to the United States from Ireland.
1811
Henry James, Sr., the author’s father, is born.
1826
Washington Square is dedicated as a public place and mili tary parade ground. Originally a marsh, then a graveyard, it served as a spot for duels and executions prior to this trans formation.
1828
Construction begins on the first house on the north side of Washington Square; over the next thirty years Washington Square North will become the most expensive and fashion able street bordering Washington Square.
1832
William James dies, leaving a $3 million estate to his twelve children.
1835
Henry James’s maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Walsh, moves into a townhouse at 18 Washington Square North (now part of 2 Fifth Avenue), occupying it until 1847. James visits her often as an infant and toddler.
1836
Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his essay “Nature,” setting forth the main principles of Transcendentalism.
1837
William Dean Howells is born; he will be James’s colleague, an important editor, and a founder of American “realism.”
1842
Henry’s brother William is born.
1843
On April 15, Henry James, Jr., is born at 21 Washington Place, in New York City, around the corner from his grand mother. In October the James family relocates to Europe.
1844
The family returns to New York City.
1849
Henry, Sr.’s social circle comprises philosophers and writers, including Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emer son. Henry, Jr., is educated privately in the United States and Europe. His exposure to the Old World during his form ative years establishes in him a lifelong preference for Europe over America.
1853
The New York City Commission pays $5,000,000 for land that will become Central Park, a vast public recreation space in the European style. The first portion of the park will open in 1858; it will be complete some sixteen years hence.
1857
The Atlantic Monthly is founded by Moses Dresser Phillips and Francis H.
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