Jennie Gerhardt - Paperback

by Theodore Dreiser (Author), III (Editor), Thomas P. Riggio (Editor)

"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.

Back Jacket

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.

Author Biography

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, 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).