- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Pine Street Books (June 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0812219554
- ISBN-13: 978-0812219555
- Product Dimensions: 21.7 x 14 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 599 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,563,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"The best American novel I have ever read, with the lonesome but Himalayan exception of Huckleberry Finn."-H. L. Mencken "For Dreiser, Jennie Gerhardt was a good career move. Now, with this Pennsylvania edition, we know that it is also a great novel."-New York Times
Book Description
"She was horrified, stunned, like a bird in the grasp of a cat, but somehow through it all was something terrific, inviting, urging, was speaking to her. He released her from his grasp. 'We won't do any more of this here, but you belong to me'." Jennie Gerhardt was Theodore Dreiser's second novel and his first commercial success. It is regarded as one of his three best novels, along with Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy. This edition presents the text as it was originally written, restoring the novel to its complete form.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Honest, truthful and rewarding,
By
This review is from: 20th Century Jennie Gerhardt (Paperback)
This was the first novel I ever read by Theodore Dreiser. The reason why I selected it was because in the film, American Splendor, Harvey Pekar mentions the novel and he's shown finishing it in the film. I wanted to know and feel what Mr. Pekar felt. And I believe I did. The tragedy of Jennie Gerhardt's life resonated with me. I was anguished over Jenny's loneliness and the fact that Lester could never make up his mind to marry her. I cried. Dreiser's observation of turn of the century high society and their view of the poor as pariahs still seems relevant today. We still live in a time of social and financial inequality.Dreiser's writing style is definitely not modern. And his phrasing is not structured in the active voice. It's more long-winded. You need to enjoy his descriptions and his philosophical speculations that do make the novel more meaningful. You can't take the social critic out of Dreiser. If you can make time in your life to sit down and read this novel, you will come away having been moved by Dreiser's heartfelt portrayal of the human condition. May each and everyone one of you be as lucky to love as deeply as Jennie did.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Epic Of Sacrifices,
By "colette21c" (Dallas, Tx. United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 20th Century Jennie Gerhardt (Paperback)
Most of us know the genius of Dreiser, the lyrical capabilities of this author is astonishing. He humanizes literature, the characters posess complex personalities and physical appearances. He takes the aesthetic beauty of the surreal and the honesty of harsh reality and combines these potent elements into a story of life, almost more believable than our own. This story follows Jennie Gerhardt, a young German girl living with her poor family in Ohio before the turn of the century. Honest but hard work puts her into the path of Senator Brander a benevolent mature man, but his ardent passions soon destroy Jennie, and her life is tainted with shame. She leaves her home, and life take her on many journeys, mostly unpleasant. This story chronicles how one mistake can change your life, and the domino effect takes place, constantly misplacing your life as you try to escape the past. I would also recommend "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy
5.0 out of 5 stars
A girl punished for daring to love men above her class.,
By
This review is from: 20th Century Jennie Gerhardt (Paperback)
It seems each time I finish one of Dresier's works I think it is my favorite. Such is the case with Jennie Gerhardt, at least until my next Dresier. This heart-wrenching saga takes the reader through Jennie's life from cleaning houses with her mother, bearing a child by a US Senator and living and loving a man beyond her society class. Lester (the man she loves after the Senator), for his part, is unwilling to marry Jennie and is cut-off from the family and it's millions for loving someone "below" his class in society. Jennie remains true to herself, following her heart and the dicates of a harsh scoiety. She makes amendes with her father and is the only child to nurture him through his final days and death. She takes her daughter away from Chicago and leaves Lester so he can reclaim his family fortune. Her daughter dies, leaving her alone but the strength of Jennie's character comes through when she adopts orphans, for if she isn't nurturing she isn't living. Dreiser drives home his theme of fate and how some can dictate it while others are a slave to it. But even this distinction isn't black and white. Lester seems not to care what fate has in store for him until he takes it into his onw hands and marries the society girl he arguably should have married before he hooked up with Jennie. Alas, Jennie never mastered her fate. She was punished for loving two men from the upper-crust of scoiety instead of taking the crusts that high-living classes would toss her.
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