Jennie Gerhardt is a novel by American author Theodore Dreiser.
This is a story of an innocent, caring, beautiful young girl from an extremely poor family who throughout her life is drawn into affairs with two different men from a much higher social class. How members of her family, the family of one of the wealthy men, and society in general react to her situation is the basis of this story.
“Jennie Gerhardt” is the life story of a woman who craved affection. Unselfish, sweet, trusting, she is the daughter of poor working people in a Western city. She attracts the attention of one who sits in the seat of the mighty and he plans education and marriage with this girl hungry for love and grateful for recognition. But there comes a tragedy which leaves Jennie to face the world alone, with a dominant instinct for sympathy and love, something of which she accepts at last.
Mr. Dreiser’s novel shows a woman’s heart in the midst of a broad picture of modern life which is full of contrast and of vivid characters – the life of rich and poor, the factory and the magnate, the social butterfly and the drudge, the stern fanatic and the epicurean. It is not only Jennie who lives with us, but also her brooding father and contrasting types of men and women following out a mysterious destiny.
It is a book which does not preach a moral, but makes one felt – a moral dealing with questions actively in our minds to-day. It is a book of humanity – of real men and women.
Theodore Dreiser (1871 - 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 was first published in 1911. Audiobook read by Richard Kilmer, running time 14 hours, 36 min. Unabridged full version.