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Jennie Gerhardt
Jennie Gerhardt was Theodore Dreiser's second novel and his first true commercial success. Today it is generally regarded as one of his three best novels, along with Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy. But the text of Jennie Gerhardt heretofore known to readers is quite different from the text as Dreiser originally wrote it. In the tradition of the University of Pennsyl...more
Paperback, 452 pages
Published
May 1st 2006
by Pine Street Books
(first published 1911)
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There is something so delicious about scandalous lit from 1911. To wit: The beginning of “Jennie Gerhardt” by Theodore Dresier had me cackling like a 14-year-old boy.
The Gerhardt’s are in the muck. Pa Gerhardt has been sick and unable to work. There are a handful of kids that need shoes and bacon. Mrs. Gerhardt and her eldest daughter, the 18-year-old Jennie who is coming into her peak fresh-faced years, take a job cleaning a fancy hotel. This puts them in the path of an older senator, who live...more
The Gerhardt’s are in the muck. Pa Gerhardt has been sick and unable to work. There are a handful of kids that need shoes and bacon. Mrs. Gerhardt and her eldest daughter, the 18-year-old Jennie who is coming into her peak fresh-faced years, take a job cleaning a fancy hotel. This puts them in the path of an older senator, who live...more
My loins were girded. I've read Sister Carrie and books by Frank Norris and William Dean Howells, books and authors of the Realism/Naturalism schools. In other words, authors who show you that life is crap, people are crap and all you can expect is crap. Not that the books are crap - they can be very good.
So in this uncharitable (but realistic!) frame of mind I was very surprised by the curve ball Dreiser throws in "Jennie Gerhardt". There is not one ogre in the book nor is it a tale of a spiral...more
So in this uncharitable (but realistic!) frame of mind I was very surprised by the curve ball Dreiser throws in "Jennie Gerhardt". There is not one ogre in the book nor is it a tale of a spiral...more
Having read Dreiser’s An American Tragedy and Sister Carrie from the Modern Library List, I wanted more, yet feared I might be disappointed this time around. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded and once again, Dreiser delivered masterfully. He may be one whose complete works I’d like to read.
A poor young woman meets a rich senator while working at a hotel in Columbus, Ohio. A relationship develops and the senator is very generous to the woman and her near destitute family. Things don’t turn out...more
A poor young woman meets a rich senator while working at a hotel in Columbus, Ohio. A relationship develops and the senator is very generous to the woman and her near destitute family. Things don’t turn out...more
Sep 24, 2011
Lisa
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Lisa by:
C19th Yahoo reading group
Eleven years after Theodore Dreiser’s first novel, the ground-breaking Sister Carrie had failed to sell well because of its ‘morally dubious’ central character (see my review). When Jennie Gerhardt was published in 1911, this time the heroine was a noble, self-sacrificing soul, an innocent who stumbles into the sort of folly that respectable people who’ve never known the depredations of poverty deplored. She is naturally attractive to men, who don’t intend to treat her badly, but her social situ...more
I think Dreiser is at his best when he writes about the decisions that people make and subtly shows how their lives are affected by their decisions. This is also when Jennie Gerhardt is at its best.
I think Dreiser is at his worst when he begins, out of nowhere, pontificating and philosophizing about these decisions. This is also when Jennie Gerhardt is at its worst. Another aspect of the novel that bothered me was Jennie's relationship with her daughter, Vesta. I have to believe that Dreiser jus...more
I think Dreiser is at his worst when he begins, out of nowhere, pontificating and philosophizing about these decisions. This is also when Jennie Gerhardt is at its worst. Another aspect of the novel that bothered me was Jennie's relationship with her daughter, Vesta. I have to believe that Dreiser jus...more
One of the key elements of the naturalist movement in literature was pessimism. I would say that pessimism just about sums up this book. I can't think when I've been more depressed by a story. I wanted to reach out and slap almost every character in it. I had read both An American Tragedy and Sister Carrie and liked both of those Dreiser books. Maybe I am just worn out with Dreiser's continuing theme of naive pretty poor girls falling for rich men of the upper class who will never 'do right' by...more
Naturalism isn't really my thing, but I decided to give this a whirl because I haven't read anything from the early 20th century in a while.
Well written and engaging, I couldn't put it down until the last page at which time I would have thrown it if I wasn't reading on a Kindle.
Overall, I liked it. Even if part of me - the 21st Century woman part - wants to go kick the tombstone of the author. That's just how dead people get through. Having things thrust upon them by fate rather than have cont...more
Well written and engaging, I couldn't put it down until the last page at which time I would have thrown it if I wasn't reading on a Kindle.
Overall, I liked it. Even if part of me - the 21st Century woman part - wants to go kick the tombstone of the author. That's just how dead people get through. Having things thrust upon them by fate rather than have cont...more
Although I read "Sister Carrie" and "An American Tragedy" years ago, I had never heard of this book by Dreiser until just recently. I think I now know why this one has kind of been lost to time. I can't remember when a book has made me so angry as I was reading it. Nevertheless, I kept at it until I finished.
Because the title is "Jennie Gerhardt", you would think that the book is about Jennie Gerhardt, that she would be the most important person in it. But she doesn't seem to really exist witho...more
Because the title is "Jennie Gerhardt", you would think that the book is about Jennie Gerhardt, that she would be the most important person in it. But she doesn't seem to really exist witho...more
I came to Dreiser's work a few years ago and quickly read almost all of his major novels. His books are very easy to read and extremely engaging. His prose is not purple but very clear and direct, and he can paint any imaginable scene, and evoke tremendous passion, spirit, and pathos in the telling. He is very close to the Greek tragedians in that respect.
After you've read Sister Carrie, his first novel, it might seem impossible to think that Dreiser could top that great book. But Jennie Gerhar...more
After you've read Sister Carrie, his first novel, it might seem impossible to think that Dreiser could top that great book. But Jennie Gerhar...more
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One of the more powerful novels I have ever read. Dreiser's characters are extremely well drawn--and that is the strongest aspect of the novel. Jennie and Lester, the main protagonists, are especially real, sympathetic, and deep. Many of the secondary characters are equally engaging, especially Jennie's crusty German father.
A magnificent meditation on the vagaries of fate and the inescapable limits upon human freedom, due to society and birth. Highly recommended.
A magnificent meditation on the vagaries of fate and the inescapable limits upon human freedom, due to society and birth. Highly recommended.
Самая любимая книга у Драйзера (которого вообще сильно люблю). Хрупкая, местами пронзительно грустная, очень нежная история о беззащитности открытой любящей души, и вместе с тем - целая история жизни, написанная глубоко, правдиво и сильно. Интересно и дорого то, что персонажи "второго плана", - такие, как отец Дженни, его личная драма, - не остаются в тени, набросанными кое-как, второпях. Книга, от которой щемит сердце. В конце плакала!.. Считаю Драйзера по-настоящему великим! Читайте классику!...more
Believe it or not I became interested in this book when I heard the title in the movie American Splendor, and I'm glad for that. It's a powerful look at class division and destruction of innocence, though I don't think the main character in fact loses hers. Jennie Gerhardt's anguish, loneliness and capacity to love even those who hurt her, will rend your heart into pieces.
I got bored. You know this novel, the one with the girl who is sent to her own destruction inch by inch by the tightening walls of Victorian propriety. By the time Dreiser's feet arrived on this road it was very well-trod. This genre should have been hung in the rafters after Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
I really like Dreiser--have read Sister Carrie and The Financier. This book is a thoughtful, sensitive portrayal of a working-class young woman who gets involved with powerful men: a story of class, aspiration, frustration, injustice, social conventions, and human relationships. Very readable and touching.
I picked up this book because I enjoyed An American Tragedy and Sister Carrie. Jennie Gerhardt is by no means a masterpiece and it can be too obvious and sympathetic at times, but the characters and their situations kept me hooked until the end. Jennie is an all-around good girl who is so naive she "gets into trouble" before she even knows what's going on. As she gets caught in messy situation after messy situation, her earnestness, kindness, and sincerity make you root for her the whole way thr...more
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Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist. He pioneered the naturalist school and is known for portraying characters whose value lies not in their moral code, but in their persistence against all obstacles, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency.
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May 19, 2013 07:41pm