Messina by Liz Galvano

Messina is a historical romance novel with a very unique setting:  the aftermath of the destruction of the Sicilian city of Messina in 1908 from natural disasters.  The author makes her protagonist doctors, Lucy and Giovanni, part of the relief effort.  We are put on the ground with them to be eyewitnesses to the tragedy.  This story is rich with Italian culture, romance, medicine, faith and some very moving melodramatic touches.

In many ways Messina is an old-fashioned novel with the monumental setting, characters writ large, the force of history ever present, belief in God central to the characters' story, and a pure romance between a saintly man and a virginal woman.  The author makes the most of these elements to create a ripping good yarn, to use old-fashioned language.

Just so you know...

The Messina (and Reggio) earthquake hit on December 18, 1908, at 5:20 a.m. and was quickly followed by multiple tsunamis.  Fire then hit the ravaged city.  Ninety percent of all buildings in Messina were destroyed.  Because of the timing of the disaster, most of the city's 200,000 inhabitants were in bed when the quake hit, so they were buried in the ruble.

The unprecedented disaster prompted an impressive international rescue and relief effort.  Mass emigration of survivors occurred to other cities in Italy and abroad.  New Messina was built over the ruble of the old city, making it several feet higher than the old city.  The few buildings to survive the disaster are clear to see, sitting several feet lower than their surrounding buildings.

Many of Messina's survivors refused to return to the reconstructed city.  They did not want to live over the unmarked tombs of their compatriots who were never dug out.

Dr. Lucille James is a young American surgeon who has a severe case of daddy-worship along with a chip on her shoulder and a dent in her self-esteem.  Her relationship with Dr. Giovanni Castello, a driven, ascetic surgeon who is damaged from traumatic loss, is the central emotional story in Messina.  However, the ravaged city's story is told too, with heartrending details that can make the reader feel like they were there on the ground.

The total devastation surrounding our heroes creates a war-zone feeling, and their tented hospital quickly takes on a M.A.S.H. feeling with emotionally and physically exhausted personnel struggling to maintain their humanity and sanity.  Giovanni quickly forms a tight bond with Lucy so he can protect her from a place where she insists on being.  Their relationship grows into friendship and beyond.

To have someone befriend and accept her made even the ragged mess tent seem a beautiful place.

The narrative style is 3rd person limited, letting us in only one character's mind.  But the point-of-view of the narration alternates generally between Lucy and Giovanni, but we also get to see into the minds of a few of the supporting cast.  The characters grow though the events related, each blossoming into a better person by the end.

There are some medical scenes that may be a bit much for the squeamish, but they are quick and the author does not revel in gore.  By the mid-point of the novel, the medical story and the disaster of Messina takes a back seat to the growing love story.  The romance language flows then.

Every time he held her, she felt the same way, as though she had always been a part of him.

Lucy and Giovanni are an attractive couple, each becoming a better person through their love for each other.  Theirs is a chaste courtship, however, in this clean romance novel, since both of them embrace their religious convictions and the proscription of intimacy before marriage.  Their faith is integral to the story, just as peoples' faith was generally much more integral to their lives in those days.

One of the supporting cast is Lucy's father, Henry James.  Yes, I know, it is an unfortunate choice to name him after the famous author.  It distracted me throughout the tale, to be honest.  Dr. Henry James is a bigot and a father who created a much too intimate relationship with his daughter. 

 

The author includes much about Italy in the story, and many Italian words and phases.  To help the reader, she provides an Index with translations of the Italian used in the book.  The peasants in Sicily at the time are shown, as well as the landed aristocracy, of which Giovanni is a member.  The customs and traditions of the aristocracy, which are closely linked to Catholicism, are touched on in interesting detail.

Messina is an old-fashioned romantic drama in the style of The Painted Veil.  

From the book's description:

Ominous words from the stone-faced physician at the temporary hospital greet her: “Welcome to hell, Miss James.” No description could be more accurate. Earthquake, tsunami, and fire have razed Messina, Sicily. In a single night in 1909, one hundred thousand people never wake up.

Physician Lucille James is determined to help despite horrendous conditions, almost non-existent medical supplies, and the opposition of the medical community she worked so hard to join.

Giovanni Castello, the man facing her now, stands as her biggest opponent. Surrounded by blood and death and pushed to the edge of exhaustion, Lucille relies on God as her only option. When God gives a gift, after all, a person must use it.

Will she have the strength, courage, and faith to do so?

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Understanding Italian Opera by Tim Carter

Opera, "an exotic and irrational entertainment", was born in Italy, and grew up and died there.  The author takes a microscope to Italian opera in this book, which is really for serious students of the art form.

What is the art form?  It is verse and music made by a team, a librettist and a composer, used to create either musical drama or musical comedy for the stage.  All the arts of stage entertainment are used to create the emotion that is opera:  music, staging, costumes, choreography, singers, lyrics.

Fascinatingly, the author points out that early opera was an attempt to recreate the entertainments of Ancient Greece during a Humanist revival era in Florence, Italy.  The Ancient Greeks combined recitation and music on stage, so the earliest operas were recited verse delivered by actors accompanied by music.

The author covers a history that spans Monteverdi's Orfeo (1607) to Puccini's La Boheme (1896).  These are the chapters of the book:

1  - What is Opera

2  - Giovanni Francesco Busenello and Claudio Monteverdi

3  - Nicola Francesco Haym and George Frideric Handel

4  - Lorenzo da Ponte and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

5  - Francesco maria Piave and Giuseppe Verdi

6  - Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica and Giacomo Puccini

Operatic love stories, with their seriously flawed characters and exotic settings were high poetical drama set to music.  While the music changed over time from early Baroque declamation to late Romantic lyricism, the words were Italian poetry.  The librettist was always a poet, using meter, rhyme and form, because the words in opera are poetical, not prose.

The standard subjects were historical, mythological, pastoral, sacred lives of saints, buffa domestic comedy, or based on popular plays.  The author offers a close reading of five operas.  (The Italian texts are translated for the reader, but a fluency in the language of music would be helpful.)

2 Baroque operas:

• Incoronazione di Poppea by Busenello and Monteverdi 1643
• Giulio Cesare in Egitto 1724 by Haym and Handel

1 Classical opera:

• Le Nozze di Figaro 1786 by da Ponte and Mozart

2 Romantic operas

• Rigoletto 1851 by Piave and Verdi
• La Boheme 1896 by Giacosa and Puccini

The dissection of the operas are done to discover the basic workings of opera, such as the subjects, how to stage then, and to learn to look at opera as drama.  The author looks at the cast, the history, a summary of the plot, early performances, and the lyrics for each.

Meter, rhyme, and form are studied in detail for various examples from the operas, including folksongs, prayer songs, toasts, and intro songs (I-songs for the protagonist to introduce him/herself to the audience).

There may be a bit more than most readers would want to know in this book.  I found that the dissection of the operas destroyed something, as dissection always does.  You come to understand the operas technically which can lessen the emotional impact of the beauty of the performance. 

This is a book for aficionados, and would-be librettist and composers, and for serious students of the art form.  At times it read like a talk to a university class or an opera club.  There is an extensive Further Reading section for those who wish to continue their study of opera.

I can't post a review of a book about opera without including a video clip from an opera!  Here is Placido Domingo singing (with subtitles in English) a scene from Rigoletto.

From the book's description:

Opera is often regarded as the pinnacle of high art. A "Western" genre with global reach, it is where music and drama come together in unique ways, supported by stellar singers and spectacular scenic effects. Yet it is also patently absurd -- why should anyone break into song on the dramatic stage? -- and shrouded in mystique. In this engaging and entertaining guide, renowned music scholar Tim Carter unravels its many layers to offer a thorough introduction to Italian opera from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries.

Eschewing the technical musical detail that all too often dominates writing on opera, Carter begins instead where the composers themselves did: with the text. Walking readers through the relationship between music and poetry that lies at the heart of any opera, Carter then offers explorations of five of the most enduring and emblematic Italian operas: Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea; Handel's Julius Caesar in Egypt; Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro; Verdi's Rigoletto; and Puccini's La Bohème. Shedding light on the creative collusions and collisions involved in bringing opera to the stage, the various, and varying, demands of the text and music, and the nature of its musical drama, Carter also shows how Italian opera has developed over the course of music history. Complete with synopses, cast lists, and suggested further reading for each work discussed, Understanding Italian Opera is a must-read for anyone with an interest in and love for this glorious art.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, the author of the crime-romance novel THE HAGUE, the romance novel ROSE AND SINGING BAGELS, a traditional murder mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

A Song for Bellafortuna by Vincent LoCoco

The subtitle of this book is An Inspirational Italian Historical Fiction Novel, and it is that, as well as being a clean fiction coming-of-age novel suitable for tweens, teens and adults.  It is also a celebration of Italian opera.

In 1898, the world of opera was at its height of glory with new operas written regularly.

The story pauses at times to provide the reader with small histories of operas that appear in the book.  Even some of the librettos are reproduced for the reader.  And a choral work plays an important part in the story, just as it did in Italy's history.

The story begins in Sicily in 1897 and follows a young man along his life's path that is filled with love for his village, his father, and for opera.

Giuseppe's early years were filled with music, love and happiness.  He enjoyed a carefree life living in Bellafortuna raised by a loving family:  his father, Antonio, and his grandmother, Mamma Lucia.

Like all good coming-of-age novels, the protagonist, Giuseppe, discovers love and life and makes a momentous decision that changes his life forever, but in this novel Giuseppe does it all to a subtle accompaniment of operatic music.

The author brings to life a time when opera was part of every Italian's daily life.  As the author says:

Musica, and especially opera, can touch a person's soul in a way that nothing else can.  ...  It can bind the listening audience together.

The author paints a picture of the era before motorcars, when agriculture provided the most employment.  One gets the feeling of the slower pace of life.  Journeys take longer.  Distances feel greater.

Giuseppe's father, Antonio, treats his son to many trips, having the boy join him on business trips all over Italy, to places like Milan, Florence, Rome, Palermo.

...father and son would make their way back home to Sicily.  Giuseppe would be filled with the sights and sounds of Italy and his father's wisdom, and Antonio's wine store filled with the purchases he made while away.

Through his journeys Giuseppe gets an education that is greater than the other villagers.  He sees a bigger world where things change or are better than where he lives.  This inspires him to try to help his fellow villagers.

The author has a stylized voice, giving the book a fairytale feeling.  He uses very formal dialog, perhaps trying to better convey the era to the reader.  There are Italian words in the text to remind the reader that everything they are reading is actually happening in Italy and in Italian.

There is a strong moral message in the book.

Never be afraid to stand up to the powerful.  The alternative is fear and degradation.

The only thing I missed was an Afterword to explain what in the novel was history and what was invention.  Some of this was explained in the book itself, but a little more at the end would have been lovely.

This is a gentle coming-of-age story with a happy ending.  A young boy grows up to be an inspiration to his friends and family, and even his enemies.  He discovers love and a purpose for his life.  This is a clean novel suitable for tweens, teens and adults.  If you enjoy Italian opera, or are curious about it, this book will have a special appeal for you. 

From the book's description:

SHORT LIST FINALIST IN THE WILLIAM FAULKNER-WILLIAM WISDOM WRITING COMPETITION

A Song for Bellafortuna is an inspirational Italian Historical Fiction novel concerning a young man’s desire to free his Sicilian village from the domination of one family’s long reign.

For years, the beautiful, yet secluded, hilltop village of Bellafortuna, Sicily, was a great producer of wine and olive oil. The entire village prospered. However, after the arrival of the Vasaio family, production dwindles and the villagers soon find themselves in crushing debt to the Vasaios.

Only one family in the village remains outside the control of the Vasaios, but the reason haunts Antonio Sanguinetti every day of his life. Antonio is determined to erase this legacy by offering financial and emotional support to his fellow villagers.

He introduces them to the choral song from Verdi’s opera, Nabucco, which becomes the rallying cry for the villagers and offers them hope for a better life.

When Antonio’s only son, Giuseppe, discovers his family’s past, he becomes determined to take on the Vasaios and remove them from power. Led by the young Giuseppe, a plan is hatched that could result in either complete freedom for the villagers, or if it fails, forever solidifying the Vasaios’ control.

Find out what happens in A Song for Bellafortuna, a sweeping epic historical fiction tale of love, drama, sacrifice, and redemption, set among the beautiful landscape of Sicily.

The book's trailer:

Here are links to the book and to another novel by this author (reviewed on this site) at Amazon.com:

  

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, the author of the crime-romance novel THE HAGUE, a traditional murder mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Violet's Problem (Violet Strange Mysteries) by Candida Martinelli

The Violet Strange Mysteries 

 

The Violet Strange Mysteries are nine detective stories for tweens, teeens and adults, each story a major case for Violet Strange, a debutante and secret high-society detective, living and working in New York City in 1899, The Gilded-Age.

The protagonist is Violet Strange. Violet is seventeen years old when the first book begins, in March of the year 1899, and Violet is set to debut into New York City's high-society.  The nine books in the series follow Violet's detecting career and life through the rest of the year, ending on New Year's Day 1900. 

Book 1:  Violet's Problem 

Violet Strange, a Gilded Age debutante, searches for her disgraced sister, risking losing everything, in the hope of saving her sister from a life of poverty and despair.  Why was her sister disgraced and disowned by their father?  She married an Italian immigrant.  That was all it took back then!  The first book in the series is offered at a special low price of .99 cents, a $2.00 discount.

There is a short flashback to Violet's childhood at the beginning of the first book in the series.  There we see Violet as a child in March of the year 1889, when her beautiful older sister, Theresa Strange, is set to debut into New York City's high-society.  The events that take place on that fateful day will change the lives of all three Strange children forever.

Never Enough Books

 

Darling adventures!  --  This is a wonderful beginning to a charming mystery series.  It's set in a time period that doesn't get covered too much, The Gilded Age, a little later than the Regency but a time when women were still hedged about with stringent societal expectations.  

Tiny Violet Strange defies convention to find her missing sister and shows extraordinary perseverance in the face of multiple setbacks.  Like all good mysteries, this one ends well, but not for long as Violet's just beginning on her detective career!

Amazon Reader 

 

A scent of Violet.  --  Delightful is the best way to describe this book. Written in a simple and precise voice it starts out slowly then steadily builds, and I found myself getting sucked into little Violet's life and struggles.

This would make a perfect gift for a young girl. And as a plus, you'll learn about languages and Italian culture...give it a try, you'll love it and will end up buying the next, and the next...

A 1-minute Book Series Trailer

Jonna Turek (J.B. Hawker author of The Bunny Elder Adventures) 

 

Lively glimpse into the lives of young ladies of an earlier era  --  This first book in the series gives a seemingly authentic view into historical New York.  Promoted as a young adult series, the story was entertaining to this not-so-young adult, as well.

Written in the present tense, with descriptions similar to stage directions, it is easy for the reader to picture the action and atmosphere as spunky, diminutive Violet goes about her many adventures, pushing the boundaries of her social class.  I can easily imagine this series becoming a favorite with a whole generation of readers.

Julie L. Sarff (Author of the Sweet Delicious Madness Series) 

 

Pleased to meet you, Violet Strange  --  This story is set in a very charming time period of the Gilded Age in New York.  Debutante Violet Strange has a problem, her father has disowned her sister for marrying the man she loved.  Ten years later, Violet decides to track down sister Theresa, only problem is Theresa does not want to be found.

A beguiling glimpse into the world of the very wealthy as well as the very poor, I have to admit I am a fan and will be reading more.

The Complete Series

The Violet Strange Mysteries are available as individual paperback books and as Kindle e-books via Amazon.com.  The complete e-book bundle is available for $8.99, offering a savings of nearly $16.00.

The stories are based on A.K. Green's 1914 short stories, but Candida Martinelli has completely re-imagined and re-written the stories for tweens, teens and adults today.  The original stories were less fleshed-out, and were written in stilted, Victorian English.  Candida Martinelli's series of tween length novels, or adult novellas, is written in simple, clear prose that is accessible to all readers, young and old.

The nine books in the series are about the highlights of Violet's detecting career, but it is not only Violet's life-experience that grows during the course of her work. Violet's heart grows too, to encompass friends she never imagined she would have befriended, and to discover the love of her life in a man she could never have imagined would return that love.

Links to the Series' Website and to the Books

The Violet Strange Mysteries Website for LOTS more info, history and goodies

Book 1 - Violet's Problem at Amazon.com

Complete Series E-Book Bundle at Amazon.com

Author's Page at Amazon.com

A 5-Minute Book Premise Trailer

 

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

The Jesuits by John W. O'Malley, S.J.

A History from Ignatius to the Present is the subtitle of this book, a brief but entertaining and informative history of the Roman Catholic religious order most people know via their schools, retreats, lectures and scholarly works, and now via Pope Francis:  The Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.

Here is the book's Table of Contents, to give you an idea of what's covered:

1. Important Dates in the History of the Society of Jesus
2. Foundations
3. The First Hundred Years
4. Consolidation, controversy, Calamity
5. The Modern and Postmodern Era
6. Epilogue:  Looking Back and Looking Ahead
7. Further Reading
8. Index

Here are some of the things the book explains in strong, spare prose...

Born during Europe's Renaissance (1540), this Roman Catholic religious order was founded by Ignatius of Loyola, as a missionary and an educational order.  From the beginning, the order has valued the educational achievement of their order and of their followers, more so than any other Catholic religious order.  They also cultivated a close relationship with lay church members, encouraging those with extraordinary talents.

The Jesuits, through Ignatius of Loyola's guidance, developed a teaching manner that seeks:

...to lead an individual along a spiritual path consonant with the person's gifts and personality...

This is how they train their novitiates and how they educate lay persons.  The believer's relationship with God is not to be a rote, unthinking relationship; it is to be a committed, informed relationship that can better withstand life's adversities.

Examen Conscientiae, Illustration from 'Exercitia Spiritualia' by St. Ignatius De Loyola

The schools founded and run by the Jesuits link, and always have linked, them to society, gaining them followers in their churches.  Until recently, the schools were also a source of vocations to the Society that allowed the Jesuits to grow faster than the other Catholic religious orders. 

The schools' goals, through a humanistic-classical education, were/are to:

...produce men of integrity, dedicated to the common good of church and society, and skilled in persuading others to similar dedication.

Music School at the Jesuit Mission, San Jose De Chiquitos, Bolivia, South America

Music and theater have always been a part of the Jesuit teaching method. 

Retreats and lectures have been as much a part of the Jesuit ministry as the schools.  Aimed at adults, they were/are aimed at developing a person's knowledge and spiritual self-knowledge, with the conviction that Catholic laymen should be devout and well-educated.

The stories of the Jesuits' foreign missions that the author includes in his book are fascinating, and will quite likely encourage the reader to seek out more detailed accounts of the talented men who lead those famous missions.  The Further Reading section of the book is a wonderful place to start that search.

Behind the successful missions was the idea, respectful of local customs, that:

...to become a Christian one did not have to become a European.

Portrait of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) Italian Missionary, Founder of the Jesuit Mission in China

When I watched the announcement of the new pope on television, two things struck me:

1. The television reporters attending the Vatican event were thoroughly unqualified to be commenting on the event.  Besides knowing next to nothing about the Catholic Church and the history of the papacy, none except the AP reporter was fluent in Latin, the language of the Vatican.
2. All of the reporters were fixated on the fact that a Cardinal from Latin America had been elected pope.  None of them, that I heard, realized that the real novelty, the truly momentous news, was the fact that a Jesuit had been elected pope.

The author clearly understood the enormity of the event:

On march 13, 2013, the cardinals of the roman Catholic Church stunned the world by electing as pope the Argentinean Jorge Mario Bergoglio--a Jesuit, the first Jesuit pope in history!  Upon his election the members of the Society were as utterly surprised by the choice as was everybody else and perhaps more so.  They in no way anticipated that one of their own number might be chosen.  Whether that event will have any direct impact on the Society remains to be seen.  Nonetheless, having a Jesuit as pope, an eventuality that through the centuries seemed almost unthinkable, might somehow open a new page in the history of the Society of Jesus.

The Eclipse of the Sun in Siam in 1688, Viewed by the Jesuit Missionaries

From the book's description:

As Pope Francis continues to make his mark on the church, there is increased interest in his Jesuit background—what is the Society of Jesus, how is it different from other religious orders, and how has it shaped the world? In The Jesuits acclaimed historian John W. O’Malley, SJ, provides essential historical background from the founder Ignatius of Loyola through the present.

The book tells the story of the Jesuits’ great successes as missionaries, educators, scientists, cartographers, polemicists, theologians, poets, patrons of the arts, and confessors to kings. It tells the story of their failures and of the calamity that struck them in 1773 when Pope Clement XIV suppressed them worldwide. It tells how a subsequent pope restored them to life and how they have fared to this day in virtually every country in the world. Along the way it introduces readers to key figures in Jesuit history, such as Matteo Ricci and Pedro Arrupe, and important Jesuit writings, such as the Spiritual Exercises.

Concise and compelling, The Jesuits is an accessible introduction for anyone interested in world or church history. In addition to the narrative, the book provides a timeline, a list of significant figures, photos of important figures and locations, recommendations for additional reading, and more.

A Jesuit Priest, Inscribed in Persian: "Jahangir Shahi Amal-E-Mansur," Mughal, 1610

The Jesuits is published by Sheed & Ward an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield.

Direct link to the book's page at R&L

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Here are links to other book by the same author at Amazon.com, including two that are specifically about the Jesuits:

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Daisy Miller by Henry James

This classic novella from 1879, roughly fifty pages long, is by America's foremost novelist, Henry James (b.1843-d.1916), a master of the psychological novel.  The novella is in the public domain, so it is free to download as an e-book from a source I provide below.

You may know Henry James as a writer of heavy, dense prose, but this novella is closer in style to writer Edith Wharton:  conversational, gossipy, often humorous description of relations between men and women of a certain class during the Belle Epoch, with a serious ending.

 

Illustration of a woman offering her help to Daisy, from an illustrated book version of Daisy Miller, free PDF link below

The novella is written in two parts.  The first part of the novella is set in Vevey, Switzerland, a favorite resort location for travelers on the Grand Tour of Europe, next to Lake Geneva, and a stopover before taking the journey through the Alpine passes into Italy.  The second part of the novel is set in Rome, Italy, which was generally the stop before Naples and Pompeii for the Grand Tour tourist.

Rome, Italy, in 1879 is unlike Rome of today.  The Roman sights were open to the public without any fee, and without any closing times.  But it was also home to malaria, in that time before D.D.T. spraying.  A visit to Rome could be deadly.

Illustration of the narrator, from an illustrated book version of Daisy Miller, free PDF link below 

The narrator of the novella is Winterbourne, a spoiled, rich, indulgent, lazy young man, who spends most of him time courting older women in Switzerland.  Winterbourne tells the story of his acquaintance with Annie P. Miller (Daisy Miller), a poorly educated, spoiled, wealthy American woman with an unpolished character and a coquettish demeanor, and an Aspergers-like incomprehension of social niceties and acceptable social behavior.

Daisy is rather brainless.  To her, Europe means hotels, trains, new dresses in Paris.

...Europe was perfectly sweet.  She was not disappointed--not a bit.  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.

Here is a clip from a 1974 film-adaptation with a truly awful performance by Cybil Shepard, but it does stick very faithfully to the book, and it was filled on location, this scene at Vevey, Switzerland.

 Illustration of an Italian fan of Daisy's, from an illustrated book version of Daisy Miller, free PDF link below

Winterbourne meets Daisy at Vevey and writes her off as a pretty American flirt with low morals, or at least rather dense, thick, unsophisticated in the way of the world, and the in the rules of propriety. 

...an extraordinary mixture of innocence and crudity...

...continued to present herself as an inscrutable combination of audacity and innocence...

...naturally indelicate...

...audacity and puerility...

 Illustration of a critic of Daisy's, from an illustrated book version of Daisy Miller, free PDF link below

Daisy's mother and young brother are equally dense and inappropriate.  Daisy's mother is like a doormat for her strong-willed, spoiled daughter.  Daisy's beauty and wealth has insulated her from much of the criticism that her behavior causes.  But we learn that fashionable New York City society has deemed Daisy uncouth, the product of new money from the girl's businessman father.  She is the like the daughters on MTV's Sweet Sixteen show, raging idiots untamed by their cowed, new-money mothers.

Henry James's story of Daisy Miller's dangerous folly was a common theme at the time.  Other books warned new-money mothers and young women and their fathers of the dangers they ran trying to fit into high-society without understanding the rules of behavior:  The Hazards of New Wealth by W. D. Howells, The Sword of Damocles by A. K. Green, The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, to name a few.

 Illustration depicting the dangers of malaria in Rome, from an illustrated book version of Daisy Miller, free PDF link below

Daisy Miller, as described by Henry James, is a classic Aspergers.  She has an attractive face, an expensive wardrobe, a limited range of emotions, and she is clueless about societal norms and accepted behaviors.  She cannot understand social clues or cues.  But her wealth and beauty have given her an arrogance and self-assurance that takes blows when her poor decisions have serious consequences. 

It is an interesting and even entertaining read, written in a lighter style than usual for Henry James.  The depictions of people and their psychology always rings true.  The portraits of expatriate life in Switzerland and Rome in the late 1800s are drawn by a man who knew the locales well.  If you enjoy Edith Wharton, you will enjoy Daisy Miller.

Daisy Miller,...

Buy This at Allposters.com

A still-image from a 1974 film adaptation of Daisy Miller

The novella Daisy Miller is in the public domain and available to download for free in various e-book formats from Project Gutenberg, the grand-daddy of free e-books on the Internet.

Direct link to the Daisy Miller e-book download page

If you wish to see the book as it was originally published, with beautiful illustrations, and download a PDF book made from the scanned paged for free, here is the link at the Internet Archive, a wonderful resource for free e-book on-line.

Direct link to the Daisy Miller viewer page and e-book download page

Henry James adapted the novella for the stage, changing the sad ending for a happy one, in an attempt to pander to theatre-goers.  If you are interested in this version, here is a direct link to the un-produced play as it was printed in a book, available for free as in various e-book formats, including a PDF of the scanned pages of the original book, at the Internet Archive.

Direct link to the play Daisy Miller viewer page and e-book download page

If you are interested, here is a link to the Wikipedia page for Daisy Miller, but I suggest you read the novella first, form your own opinion, then read the page, or other critical articles about the story.

Direct link to the Daisy Miller Page

If you wish to purchase a print version of Daisy Miller, or the 1974 film adaptation, here are direct links to the products at Amazon.com.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.