Short but entertaining.

Daisy Miller is not only one of the great American literary heroines but she might be the quintessential American heroine.
Allow me to explain.
Henry James has a certain contempt for American society, specifically the way the American upper class DESPERATELY want the approval of European society. To the extent of alienating themselves from their American identity to make themselves more appealing to Europe and European propriety.
But into this steps Daisy Miller, a young woman who gleefully refuses to play by the rules of European decorum or American social climbing. She's here to live fearlessly as long as she can, to the chagrin of the American elite. She kind of forces them to say the quiet part out loud or get out of her way.
And James' critique isn't just cultural and class based but gendered as well. Our narrator Mr Winterbourne adores Daisy with all her quirks and charms, until she directed them at another man. At which point he switches allegiances to the rest of the Americans abroad.
Men want a spirited woman, until she makes her affection for them ambiguous, or even makes it clear her affections are for another man.

a cautionary tale to all who think they could handle a baddie

My daughters have both read "Daisy Miller," and though neither of them gave it their highest rating, before one of the copies traveled to Half-Price Books, I said "I never read it; it looks short; I probably should read it." Disappointing, but then, a book of its times and of what passed for society manners of the day. Winterbourne, the narrator, did not draw me in. Daisy was an enigma--innocent or ? The most interesting character, Daisy's brother Randolph, only appears in the beginning and near the end. Ah, well, it was short.

It's important to read this book before going, a woman unescorted, to Castle Chillion and Rome, so that you can avoid Daisy's dire fate.

Or so I was assured, drily, by my favorite uncle.

In actuality, Daisy Miller is an interesting discussion of femininity and womanhood, of societal mores, and the benefits of conforming to notions of proper behavior.

It's a quick read, an upsetting one, but well worth it.

Another "girl is too flirty with all the dudes and

Spoiler

dies

dies at the end." I swear this could be its own genre.