Point of View

The point of view in this novel is multi-layered. On first read, the story seems to be told from Winterbourne's perspective, but in fact it appears that a third person is telling the story as though relating a story he or she has picked up secondhand. The narrator refers to himself as "I" repeatedly throughout the story and indicates that information about Winterbourne was acquired from another source: "What I should say is, simply, that when certain persons spoke of him they affirmed that the reason of his spending so much time at Geneva was that he was extremely devoted to a lady who lived there."

In this way, the narrator provides insight into Winterbourne's experiences in much the same way as a person relating gossip. The story of Winterbourne's encounters with Daisy Miller is certainly the kind to move quickly along the gossip circuit; in...