I'll do my best to read you Daisy Miller!

Privet Bloggeram (Hello Blogger in Russian)! Today was a really loooong day! I had to go to the university (yes, on a SATURDAY) to finish an oral presentation for next Tuesday; it still isn’t finished… However, sometimes we need to make sacrifices for our studies, even if it means sacrificing your social life completely to keep your grades up.

Anyway I am currently in the process of reading “Daisy Miller” by Henry James. This book is about a wealthy, young, American girl from upstate New York, traveling around Europe with her mother and younger brother. Daisy is a free spirited person and her spontaneity and her ignorance capture the attention of Winterbourne, an American who has lived most of his life in Europe. Winterbourne meets Daisy and spends a good amount of time getting to know her, being drawn in by her personality and way of acting. Later on in the story we learn more about Daisy’s character and start getting to some conclusions.

I am trying my best to read the book by next Monday but it is harder than I thought. I have to admit that after reading like 20 pages I barely remember what I’ve already read. That is one of my bad habits, when I read something that doesn’t capture my attention at the beginning I just go blank, which forces me to re-read it later (double the effort). From what I have read (and actually understood so far), this book focuses a bit on the Americans who go abroad, giving a little bit of perspective from a native’s point of view. This links perfectly with an explanation that the professor had given us in class about how our actions and body language creates the first impressions and act as a message we transmit to everyone around us. If the same message is being constantly transmitted to the same people then a dreaded stereotype will be born. I will try to read and analyze the book as best I can.