Jennie Gerhardt - Softcover

Dreiser, Theodore

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1604446986 ISBN 13: 9781604446982

Publisher: IndoEuropeanPublishing.com, 2012

Synopsis

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency. Jennie Gerhardt is a 1911 novel by Theodore Dreiser. Jennie Gerhardt is a destitute young woman. While working in a hotel in Columbus, Ohio, Jennie meets Senator George Brander, who becomes infatuated with her. He helps her family and declares his wish to marry her. Jennie, grateful for his benevolence, agrees to sleep with him, but ill fortune intercedes and the Senator dies, leaving her pregnant. She gives birth to a daughter, Vesta, and moves to Cleveland where she finds work as a lady's maid to a prominent family. Consequently, she meets Lester Kane, a prosperous manufacturer's son. Jennie falls in love with him, impressed by his strong will and generosity. She leaves her daughter behind and they visit New York together. Kane, unaware that Jennie has a child, wishes to marry her, but, anticipating his family's disapproval, decides instead that she shall become his mistress. They live together successfully in Chicago, even through Jennie's revelation after three years that Vesta is her daughter. Kane does not yield to his family's pressure to leave Jennie, but after his father's death discovers that he will not inherit a substantial part of the family business unless he discards her. They visit Europe together, where Kane's attention shifts from Jennie to a woman of his own class, Letty Gerald. On hearing the will's terms, it is Jennie who demands that they separate. Kane, after providing for her, marries Letty and resumes his former social status. Jennie loses her daughter to typhoid and adopts two orphans, but through it all, continues to love him. Kane becomes ill. He tells Jennie he still loves her, and she tends him until his death, mourning secretly at his funeral. (wikipedia.org)

About this title

From the Publisher:

James L. W. West III is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English at Penn State University. He is the author of many books, including American Authors and the Literary Marketplace since 1900, an expansion of his 1983 Rosenbach Lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, and The Making of This Side of Paradise, both available from the University of Pennsylvania Press. His most recent books are William Styron: A Life (1998) and The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King (2005).

From the Back Cover:

Focusing on Jennie Gerhardt, a poor young girl in Columbus, Ohio, Theodore Dreiser's novel depicts her inadvertently defying a host of conventions-of class, gender, family, and religion. Over a quarter of a century she is repeatedly victimized by circumstance, temperament, and most particularly the fact of her sex. Yet the triumph of the book lies in her incorrigibly loving nature. Cast out by society as well as by her family, she none the less fosters a far deeper understanding of relationships than anyone else. It is no surprise that she was her author's favourite heroine.

About this edition

• Publisher: IndoEuropeanPublishing.com
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1604446986
• ISBN 13: 9781604446982
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 254