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"Daisy Miller: A Study" was Henry James' breakthrough story. It is a psychological study of a beautiful American girl, living in Europe, who engages in flirtatious behaviours that shock and scandalize her fellow expatriates. Though she is condemned as corrupt by her peers, the story ultimately leaves open the question whether Daisy is truly corrupt, or in fact naïvely innocent to the point of social oblivion.

At the little town of Vevay, in Switzerland, there is a particularly comfortable hotel. There are, indeed, many hotels; for the entertainment of tourists is the business of the place, which, as many travellers will remember, is seated upon the edge of a remarkably blue lake—a lake that it behooves every tourist to visit. The shore of the lake presents an unbroken array of establishments of this order, of every category, from the "grand hotel" of the newest fashion, with a chalk-white front, a hundred balconies, and a dozen flags flying from its roof, to the little Swiss pension of an elder day, with its name inscribed in German-looking lettering upon a pink or yellow wall, and an awkward summer-house in the angle of the garden. One of the hotels at Vevay, however, is famous, even classical, being distinguished from many of its upstart neighbors by an air both of luxury and of maturity. In this region, in the month of June, American travellers are extremely numerous; it may be said, indeed, that Vevay assumes at this period some of the characteristics of an American watering-place. There are sights and sounds which evoke a vision, an echo, of Newport and Saratoga. There is a flitting hither and thither of "stylish" young girls, a rustling of muslin flounces, a rattle of dance-music in the morning hours, a sound of high-pitched voices at all times. You receive an impression of these things at the excellent inn of the "Trois Couronnes," and are transported in fancy to the Ocean House or to Congress Hall. But at the "Trois Couronnes," it must be added, there are other features that are much at variance with these suggestions: neat German waiters, who look like secretaries of legation; Russian princesses sitting in the garden; little Polish boys walking about, held by the hand, with their governors; a view of the sunny crest of the Dent du Midi and the picturesque towers of the Castle of Chillon.

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The current Community collaboration is collecting texts related to WikiProject NARA Recent collaborations: Tenth Anniversary Contest, Disney, Domesday survey, Niccolò Machiavelli

The current Proofread of the Month is Pieces People Ask For  (1885) by George Melville Baker. Recent collaborations: The Spirit of the Nation, Character of Renaissance Architecture, Embroidery and Fancy Work, The Voyage Out, Correspondence between the Warden of St Columba's College and the Primate of Armagh, Handbook of Maritime Rights, Sketches of the History of the Church of Scotland, The First Report of the Lichfield Society, The Truth about the Transvaal, The Coffee Publichouse, Notes on the Present and Future of the Archaeological Collections of the University of Oxford, Remarks on Some Late Decisions Respecting the Colonial Church, Canterbury Papers, On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom, Why the Shoe Pinches, Navvies and Their Needs, Weather Facts and Predictions, How to Play Chess, Indoor and Outdoor Gymnastic Games, Association Football and How to Play It, Stabilizing the Dollar

The current Maintenance of the Month task is Author page connection with Wikidata items Recent collaborations: Help page improvement, Undated works, Move to the Translation namespace, Portal classification review, Works with no copyright tag

NEW TEXTS

Woman and her possibilities (1913)
 by William Ramsay Smith
Wikipedia is pushing the boundaries of scholarly practice but the gender gap must be addressed (2013)
 by Adrianne Wadewitz
Race and Nationality (1915)
 by Franz Boas
England, a Destroyer of Nations (1915)
 by Rudolf Cronau
The Spirit of the Nation (1843)
 by Various
Open Education Resources (OER) for assessment and credit for students project (2011)
 by Wayne Mackintosh
Fairy Tales: Their Origin and Meaning (1878)
 by John Thackray Bunce

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