The portrait of Daisy is a quintessential exploration of the social mores of her era. And her flirtatious disregard of them is simultaneously a breath of fresh air and the heart of tragedy.
The story is open to interpretation and could be viewed as either a true ghost tale or a neurotic hallucination of an unreliable narrator, a mentally unstable governess placed in charge of two remarkable children.
As The Europeans opens, Eugenia and Felix, the Europeans of the title, are in Boston. Recently her marriage to a German prince has come apart, and she and her brother Felix are visiting relatives in the countryside near Boston, looking to arrange a wealthy second marriage for Eugenia. It's a satire on a certain level -- a masterly short novel (well, short for James) that shows what Rebecca West calles James's clear sunlit charm; for good reason it's become one of James's most popular novels.