INGLESE

	Introduction to Henry James	Henry James was born in 1843 in New York and he is one of the most interesting writers of the 19th century. His Puritan background influenced his reaction to Europe: in fact, also his early novels deal with the "international theme", underlining the contrast between naive, unsophisticated Americans and subtle, often corrupt Europeans.
	The story	Daisy Miller is one of Henry James's most popular works and was first published in 1878. It can be not considered neither a short story nor a novel: James called it a nouvelle, that is a "short novel" or a "long tale". Except the International theme (America versus Europe), the central subject in James's work is Daisy, the simple and innocent American girl.Daisy Miller is the story of a young and charming American girl living for a short period in Europe to visit the beautiful but corrupt country of art and history.
Daisy's innocence	Daisy Miller became soon the prototype of the typical American girl: the keynote of Daisy's character is her innocence, and in fact "innocence" and "innocent" are the therms that appear most often with reference to her. Without doubt, Daisy is socially innocent, ignorant of art and history, she is unrefined, uncoltivated, unsophisticated. In other words, she has no manners. Daisy breaks every social convention, at the beginning because she is unaware of them and later because she rejects them. When Daisy meets Winterbourne the first time, she seems to be an unscrupolous and charming coquette, but as a matter of fact, she is only an unsophisticated and uncoltivated young American girl.
Appearance and morality	However, the character of Daisy Miller teaches that appearence may be misleading and in the tale many characters, like the same Winterbourne or his aunt, think that appearence is more important than morality.
Daisy as a victim of convention	Daisy has even been interpreted as a martyr, a victim of convention and superstition, who meets first a social "death", and finally a real death through a very symbolic disease, the malaria, caused by the "bad air" of the Old World. Daisy is a typical American heroine, she can be said to have "less manners and more moral".