Customer Reviews
A girl punished for daring to love men above her class. - By: , 06 Jun 1999 
It seems each time I finish one of Dresier's works I think it is my favorite. Such is the case with Jennie Gerhardt, at least until my next Dresier. This heart-wrenching saga takes the reader through Jennie's life from cleaning houses with her mother, bearing a child by a US Senator & living & loving a man beyond her society class. Lester (the man she loves after the Senator), for his part, is unwilling to marry Jennie & is cut-off from the family & it's millions for loving someone "below" his classin society. Jennie remains true to herself, following her heart & the dicates of a harsh scoiety. She makes amendes with her father & is the only child to nurture him through his final days & death. She takes her daughter away from Chicago & leaves Lester so he can reclaim his family fortune. Her daughter dies, leaving her alone but the strength of Jennie's character comes through when she adopts orphans, for if she isn't nurturing she isn't living. Dreiser drives home his theme of fate & how some can dictate it while others are a slave to it. But even this distinction isn't black & white. Lester seems not to care what fate hasin store for him until he takes it into his onw hands & marries the society girl he arguably should have married before he hooked up with Jennie. Alas, Jennie never mastered her fate. She was punished for loving two men from the upper-crust of scoiety instead of taking the crusts that high-living classes would toss her.
Grand and Lavish...I feel so spoiled - By: , 26 Feb 1999 As usual, Dreiser's writing style just amazes me. Just like SISTER CARRIE, this book is about a woman searching for a placein life. You can't but help feel her pain of how her first love dies, only to find out she's pregnant, & she's not even married! Then concealing this child from her next lover, who she lives on. Just like always, a grand & entertaining read.
A thought-provoking story... - By: , 24 Mar 1998 Dreiser's story spanning the life of Jennie is excellently written with rather "modern" topics, considering the timein which it was published. It is a bittersweet story which holds the reader & makes an impression long after it has been finished.
