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The Opening Paragraphs of
Henry James's Daisy Miller
(Novelists' Writing # 4)
 
     At the little town of Vevey, 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 travelers 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 summerhouse in the angle of the garden. One of the hotels at Vevey,

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 travelers are extremely numerous; it may be 

said, indeed, that Vevey 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.
 

Project Gutenberg
dasym10.zip 

From The KISS Approach to Grammar http://www.pct.edu/courses/evavra/KISS.htm