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4.0 out of 5 stars
A HAUNTING STORY..., Jul 19 2006
This book, first published in 1940, was adapted to film in 1948, which film starred Joseph Cotton and Jennifer Jones. I was sufficiently intrigued by the film, so as to want to read the book upon which the film was based but was surprised to discover, however, that the book is more of a novella, as it runs a scant one hundred and twenty-five pages in length. While not lengthy, it is, nonetheless, a haunting story, although it differs is some respects from the film.
The book tells the story of a young, struggling artist in New York named Eben Adams, who is really little more than a hack. One winter night in 1938, a down and out Eben is in Central Park, having been unsuccessful in selling his paintings. There, he encounters a very young girl named Jennie Appleton, who is mysteriously in the park by herself, playing hopscotch. Thus, begins Eben's acquaintance with Jennie.
Eben sketches a picture of Jennie, which to his surprise, he is able to sell. Periodically, Jennie begins appearing in his life at odd times, always swathed in mystery as to her origins and always appearing somehow older than expected each time he sees her. Eben continues to sketch her, finding that he can sell those sketches with ease. Inspired by his muse, he paints her portrait, a masterpiece that eventually lands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
He is puzzled, nonetheless, by the anomaly and mystery that surrounds Jennie, who has an air of being from another time. Yet, an unusual bond is developing between them, one that not even the vagaries of time can break. It is also one that becomes increasingly romantic over time, as Jennie quickly grows into womanhood. The fates, however, Eben finds, can be cruel.
Those who enjoy romantic stories with supernatural portents will very much enjoy this haunting tale of two star crossed individuals.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Enchanting and Magic!, Feb 3 2004
By A Customer
I read this book only once, when I was a teenager, and I am in my fifties now. All these years I have remembered four lines from that book...: "Where I come from nobody knows/Where I'm going everything goes/The wind that blows, the sea that flows/And nobody knows." I loved being in that story; it stayed with me 40 years!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Read the book -- forget the film!, Aug 5 2001
I first came across Portrait of Jennie in a BBC "Boy Meets Girl" play in about 1969, with the utterly wonderful Anna Calder-Marshall playing Jennie, and fell in love with both her and the story on the spot. (I found out later from the BBC that "the recording of this play is no longer in existence" -- vandals!)I found a second-hand copy of the book in 1970. I foolishly lent it (complete with pasted-in treasured press pix of Anna Calder-Marshall as Jennie) to someone a year or two later, and didn't find a replacement till twelve years later. NO ONE borrows that. The author Robert Nathan (1894-1985) normally churned out (I'm told) undistinguished romantic novels; Portrait of Jennie (published 1940) was a one-off in its strangeness, wonder and beauty. ... Do yourself a favour: read the book, and be haunted for the rest of your life.
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