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96th out of 1,347 books
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4,953 voters
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
by
Anita Loos
If any American fictional character of the twentieth century seems likely to be immortal, it is Lorelei Lee of Little Rock, Arkansas, the not-so-dumb blonde who knew that diamonds are a girl’s best friend. Outrageous, charming, and unforgettable, she’s been portrayed on stage and screen by Carol Channing and Marilyn Monroe and has become the archetype of the footloose, goo...more
Paperback, 216 pages
Published
August 17th 1998
by Liveright
(first published 1924)
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Driving to school to pick up Georgia only 45 minutes ago! (how up to the minute is this review?), on the Radio is "Brain of Britain 2013", a general knowledge contest. One of the questions :
Who wrote Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?
Contestant ponders, then says
"Henry James"
Now, wouldn't that have been something? Anita Loos gets the idea for "The Wings of the Dove" and Henry James gets the idea for "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes : The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady"... I'd buy them both.
Who wrote Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?
Contestant ponders, then says
"Henry James"
Now, wouldn't that have been something? Anita Loos gets the idea for "The Wings of the Dove" and Henry James gets the idea for "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes : The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady"... I'd buy them both.
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Anita Loos wrote Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1925 as a kind of whimsical tribute to her friend H. L. Mencken, who had a weakness for blondes.
The narrator of this volume, Lorelei Lee, is a formidable member of the species. She’s a dumb blonde who is not so dumb after all. She is in fact remarkably single-minded. Lorelei collects men the way some people collect stamps, and like a keen philatelist she is a discriminating collector. They have to be rich. They also have to be willing to part with the...more
The narrator of this volume, Lorelei Lee, is a formidable member of the species. She’s a dumb blonde who is not so dumb after all. She is in fact remarkably single-minded. Lorelei collects men the way some people collect stamps, and like a keen philatelist she is a discriminating collector. They have to be rich. They also have to be willing to part with the...more
If I hadn't read this in a class with a professor who knew Loos' backstory and is an expert in the era, I would have hated it. As it is, that's exactly the context I read it in, so I have an affection for it. Wyndham Lewis excoriated Anita Loos as a mercenary who had the audacity to write for an audience and for, gasp, money. He argued that she couldn't be taken seriously as an artist but with Faulkner and Stein was taking over modern literature with the "child cult." I guess comparing her to Fa...more
Although the plot differs quite a bit from the movie, it is impossible not to imagine Marilyn Monroe as the narrator. Packed off on a whirlwind tour of Europe by her benefactor ("The Button King of Chicago"), Lorelei seeks to become "educated." However, she notes, in London "they make a great fuss over a tower that is really not even as tall as the Hickox building in Little Rock Arkansas." The only things that can impress a world class Gold Digger with a sense of historical reverence are the Car...more
Nine decades after it was first published, one has to take a bit of 'historical perspective' to understand why GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES was such a huge sensation in the 1920s - it seemed to spoof the 'flapper' era even as it was happening. Part of the book's fun is the 'educating' of its narrator, Lorelei Lee, whose main purpose seems to be nice to gentlemen who provide her with the means for her shopping sprees. It's kind of fun reading Lorelei's accounts of trips to England and Europe, with al...more
11/15 Penguin Readers2 97minutes
Celeb-writer-trip-education-rich-party-man
I thought that the book was written about Madonna,because the cover is the photo which looks like Madonna. But it mistook. The story is one women writer.
Q.If you had beautiful face, what were you want to do? The main character met a lot of men and was gave a lot of expensive things.
A. I want to become actress, because I wanted to become it when I was junior high school student. And every time I want to see mirror to see...more
Celeb-writer-trip-education-rich-party-man
I thought that the book was written about Madonna,because the cover is the photo which looks like Madonna. But it mistook. The story is one women writer.
Q.If you had beautiful face, what were you want to do? The main character met a lot of men and was gave a lot of expensive things.
A. I want to become actress, because I wanted to become it when I was junior high school student. And every time I want to see mirror to see...more
I probably would have given this 5 stars if it wasn't for the fact it was written by Anita Loos, who from all I've read of her makes my skin crawl. I'm surprised her autobiography A Girl Like I, is rated so highly on Goodreads, because I though that was easily one of the most meanspirited books I've ever read.
I think that takes a bit of the fun from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for me. Since the entire book (supposedly) was a joke against her mentor HL Mencken (I don't like him much either actually...more
I think that takes a bit of the fun from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for me. Since the entire book (supposedly) was a joke against her mentor HL Mencken (I don't like him much either actually...more
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Jun 13, 2008
Karen Beth
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
women who need a good laugh and/or love pretty things
I have never laughed so many times in one sitting in my entire lifetime of reading than I did with this book. Nor laughed so hard. It probably helps that I have traveled a lot, and to the same places these women were traveling, but I recommend this book to EVERY female on the planet. It will tickle you pink.
A few years ago, I found a copy of this hard-cover in a little used book shop in Nevada City, California. And when I brought it to the front, the extremely nice lady at the register laughed and told me how much she liked it and was amused to see someone buying it. Most people only know it from the movie of the same name -- which really, honestly, doesn't do Loos any justice. This is a book in which the brilliant author takes on the first-person guise of a young woman, not overly educated and who...more
I had such a fabulous time reading this book. Alone at my Aunts house, I liberated it from the back of a bookcase and spent the next two hours giggling hysterically on the sofa. My family came home and thought I'd gotten into the liquor cabinet.
I really enjoyed this short story. It today's terms this is a book about a gold digger and her adventures but during the era that the story takes place, what you find is a young woman taken from small town Arkansas and placed in to the world of learning and gift giving. I found it quite funny and interesting the idea of what she expects a gentlemen to be and the ways she teach certain men the fine tactics of being a gentlemen. Mainly how to gift her expensive gifts and take her shopping because...more
I liked it. Jeff recommended it around one of my European jaunts. I think I read the play and saw the movie first and then read the book. So I knew Dorothy's POV in addition to Lorelei's.Can see your point. I think I read the play first, or saw the movie first, so I got Dorothy's pov too. The movie's worth watching. I remember identifying the guy who played Dorothy's fiancee as somebody in the Absent-Minded Professor, I think. I also read it way, way before Gilmore Girls, so the name Lorelei did...more
Anita Loos is a genius. She is a triumph, a third-wave feminist when they were only on the first-wave. If you are slightly embarrassed by the title, this book is actually for you.
Loos tells the story from the perspective of Lorelei Lee, a stupid but occasionally insightful gold digger who gets men to want to marry her then dumps them. She wraps men around her finger, in the process lampooning the very weaknesses that get them at her feet to begin with.
I literally laughed out loud with glee readi...more
Loos tells the story from the perspective of Lorelei Lee, a stupid but occasionally insightful gold digger who gets men to want to marry her then dumps them. She wraps men around her finger, in the process lampooning the very weaknesses that get them at her feet to begin with.
I literally laughed out loud with glee readi...more
Guardo un buen recuerdo de este libro porque lo asocio a uno de los veranos más felices de mi vida. En realidad se trata de dos novelas breves. Cuando se publicó Los caballeros las prefieren rubias tuvo tal éxito de público que el editor le pidió a Anita Loos que escribiera la continuación, y a partir de entonces se publicaron juntas. La complicidad entre las dos protagonistas, unidas por el objetivo común de cazar sendos millonarios, depara situaciones de lo más ocurrentes, al estilo de las mej...more
Anita Loos sparkles in writing this satire on the gold-digging flapper who usually gets what she wants with a wink and a smile. I found myself smiling and even laughing out loud several times, and was pleased when reading it to find that bits of the 1953 musical were remarkably true to the spirit of the novel.
The edition I read was "intimately illustrated" by Ralph Barton, and these added immeasurably to my enjoyment of the read. They are deliciously of their time, and very, very funny. Also in...more
The edition I read was "intimately illustrated" by Ralph Barton, and these added immeasurably to my enjoyment of the read. They are deliciously of their time, and very, very funny. Also in...more
I enjoyed the book but the writing style drove me crazy. As a former middle school and high school teacher I can say that the whole book read as one of the many notes I confiscated from teen girls. Nearly every sentence began with "So." It had numerous (albeit hilarious) misspellings. And, of course, the plot is that of a girl obsessing about material objects, parties, and moving up the social ladder. I suppose that is the brilliance in the writing - it's still just as relevant today as it was i...more
Decades before Marilyn, Madonna or Holly Golightly, the 20th century’s first Material Girl was Lorelei Lee, from Little Rock, Arkansas. Outrageous, illiterate, but utterly self-assured, Lorelei is the essence of a Roaring Twenties gold digger. Her motto has become an advertising icon: ‘Kissing your hand may make you feel very good, but a diamond bracelet lasts forever’. She records this and her other pensées – ‘I seem to be thinking practically all of the time.’ – in a diary of airy confessions...more
Fun. A very quick read. I had both Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes. I enjoyed the ridiculousness of Lorelei's adventures and the sharp criticism that wends its way through her ramblings and misspellings. I love the innocent, vague tone of things despite her utter ruthlessness in using her sex appeal and her complete self-focus couched in helping others and making friends and getting along. Her focus on getting educated, on reforming her friend Dorothy, on shopping and...more
Jan 14, 2011
Elizabeth
marked it as to-read
Anita Loos was an interesting lady. She was one of the most powerful female screenwriters of the 1930s and a big haute couture client. This book sold out completely when it was first published in 1925. Apparently, it captured the materialism of the 20s. Has much changed?
Note: I just read one of the other reviewers notes about Loos and I just wanted to say that I don't much about her beyond the two facts above. She may very well be mean-spirited and scary. Will have to investigate further...
Note: I just read one of the other reviewers notes about Loos and I just wanted to say that I don't much about her beyond the two facts above. She may very well be mean-spirited and scary. Will have to investigate further...
This was a quick and funny read. It just amazes me that anyone could be this vapid and empty headed though. All her life revolved around what the men she saw gave her or bought her or where they took her to eat, etc. She was one of those women who I would have probably smacked if I had to be around her for more than 10 minutes. But the book was funny and well written. I enjoyed spending a Sunday afternoon involved in it and would probably read it again.
Picked up a copy of the original edition (later printing, though) at a library book sale years ago. It’s somewhat amusing but almost insufferably mannered. It’s written as the diary of a genially gold-digging flapper who keeps writing things like “a girl like I can really appreciate the Eyefull Tower”. It reads as one long “Shouts and Murmurs” column from the New Yorker. The Art Deco-y line illustrations are really wonderful, though.
This book is hilarious. I read it on the recommendation of my husband. Not sure where he got wind of it, but neither of us could stop laughing at Loreli's antics, expressions, and most of all, her misspellings! Loreli and her friend Dorothy are an outstanding pair - - kind of reminded me of Lucy and Ethel in a way... you must read this book!
Enjoyable read. Rather comical. Given that it's an epistolary novel, Loos provides a lot of depth into the protagonist, Lorelei's character. I enjoyed how much information is revealed through Lorelei's ambivalence. I can see why this book became one of America's most notable cinematic moments.
Good follow up to Twain's "Tramp Abroad" as sneaky gold-digger Lorelei goes to Europe for an education but prefers the company of other Americans. Impossible to read without imagining Marilyn Monroe as the narrator or hearing "Just 2 Girls from Little Rock" on repeat in your mind's jukebox.
Very funny book, and much more interesting than the film.
Written in 1925 and originally serialized in Harper's Bazaar.
Think 'Bridget Jones' for the flapper generation.
As much a book of philosophy as humour, and a favorite of
James Joyce and Edith Wharton.
Written in 1925 and originally serialized in Harper's Bazaar.
Think 'Bridget Jones' for the flapper generation.
As much a book of philosophy as humour, and a favorite of
James Joyce and Edith Wharton.
Amusing diary of Lorelei Lee, a gold-digging flapper in 1925 who for all her wide-eyed innocence and brainless chatter (and miss-spelling) has a mind like a steel trap. One has to marvel at the way she carefully but seemingly accidentally manipulates the wealthy men around her, and her friend Dorothy is hilarious.
Margaret Mitchell read this and thought it was hilarious.
(See letter: To Mark Millikin, September 3, 1936 - Gone With The Wind Letters.)
(See letter: To Mark Millikin, September 3, 1936 - Gone With The Wind Letters.)
I had a first edition of this in college but somehow it has gotten away.. (Found at a garage sale) A funny little book and a slice of history. I recently bought a reprint.. Definitely interesting to any feminist with a taste for satire.
I wanted to like this one but didn't. I had to force myself to finish it. I know Loos is mocking Lorelei, but I would have preferred if she did it through a narration so we could have heard another voice besides her vapid heroine.
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Completely hilarious. I wish someone would make a faithful movie adaptation, because as good as the movie (based on the musical based on the book) is, actually using the scenarios and dialogue from the actual book would be even better.
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Anita Loos (April 26, 1889 – August 18, 1981) was an American screenwriter, playwright and author, best known for her blockbuster comic novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
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“...I overheard Dorothy talking to Mr Montrose and she was telling Mr Montrose that she thought that I would be great in the movies if he would write me a part that only had three expressions, Joy, Sorrow, and Indigestion.”
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“You can say what you want about the Germans being full of "kunst", but what they are really full of is delicatessen.”
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2 people liked it
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