An American story taking place a hundred years into the history of EE.UU. The story of the life of a woman, Jennie Gerhardt, who lives only to love a man, Lester Kane, who doesn't really deserve her.
This book is certainly finely detailed and well-crafted.

Men are such thieves of innocent women's lives. And when they're a Senator, they are no different:
Jennie and her mother are doing men's wash out of a hotel, when they meet the junior Senator of Ohio. Jennie attracts his eye, and she starts to spend a little time in his room when she picks up and delivers his laundry.
One day he gives her a watch:
" 'that's yours,' he said. 'See that you wear it now, and don't lose it.'
Jennie took it, and seeing him looking at her so kindly, paused as she was fastening it on.
'You're so good!' she exclained.
'No,' he said, but he held her at arm's length by the waist, to study out what his reward might be. Slowly he drew her toward him until, when very close, she put her arms about his neck, and laid her cheek in gratitude against his own. This was the quintessence of pleasure for him. He felt as he had been longing to feel for years."
The watch doesn't last long; Jennie has to pawn it for money to feed the family.

When Jenny's older brother gets arrested for knocking some coal off of train car, so that his little brothers and sisters down below can steal some to take home, the senator gets him out of jail, and that's when he has his way with her:
" 'well,' he said, endeavoring to appear calm, 'I have looked after your brother. He is out.'
She rose.
'Oh!' She exclaimed, clasping her hands and stretching her arms out toward him. There were tears of gratefulness in her eyes.
He saw them and stepped close to her quickly. 'Jennie, for heaven's sake don't cry. You angel! You sister of mercy! To think you should have to add tears to your other sacrifices.'
he drew her to him and then all the caution of years deserted him. There was a sense of need and of fulfillment in his mood. At last, in spite of other losses, fate had brought him what he most desired - love, a woman whom he could love. He pulled her to him close and kissed her again and again."

Theodore Dreiser is fond of expostulating, and he did much of it in "Maggie: a Girl of the Streets." Here he laments what modern society has done to the mental health of its general population:
". . .we live in an age in which the impact of materialized forces is well-nigh irresistible; the spiritual nature is overwhelmed by the shock. The tremendous and complicated development of our modern civilization, the multiplicity and variety of our social forms, the depth, subtlety and sophistry of our mental agitations, gathered, remultiplied and fantasmagorically disseminated as they are by these other agencies - the railroad, the express and post-office, the telegraph, telephone, the newspaper and, in short, the whole art of printing and distributing - have so combined as to produce what may be termed a kaleidoscopic glitter, a dazzling and confusing showpiece which is much more apt to weary and undo than to enlighten and strengthen the observing mind. It produces a sort of intellectual fatigue by which we see the ranks of the victims of insomnia, melancholia and insanity recruited. Our modern brain-pan does not seem capable of receiving, sorting and storing the vast army of facts and impressions which present themselves daily. The white light of publicity, which is as much the flaring-out of new church dogmas and architectural forms as it is the little news-item from which the expression has been borrowed, is too white. We are weighed upon by many things. Our hearts and souls no more than our brains can stand it. It is as if the wisdom of the infinite were struggling to beat itself into finite and cup-big minds."
but they had legal cocaine!

Jennie worked as a maid in a wealthy woman's house in cleveland, when a friend of the family stopped in and was struck by Jennie's Beauty and simplicity. It wasn't long before Kane was taking Jennie for rides. As soon as he learned the money troubles of Jennie's family, he started helping. But endless troubles that Jennie's mother faced, with her husband constantly sick, and so many unplanned children (6!) tried her physical frame. Besides, in those days, people ate so badly, and they never did exercise. So their lives were cut short. This is true with Jennie's mother too, and when her mother dies it takes the heart out of the family, as it did with my own family when my mother died.
"how much the average home depends upon the mother was seen when it was feared the end was near. Bass [Jennie's older brother], who had thought of getting married and getting out of this atmosphere for good, abandoned this idea temporarily. Gerhardt, shocked and greatly depressed, hung about like one expectant of and greatly awed by the possibility of disaster. Jennie, too inexperienced in death to feel that she could possibly lose her mother, felt as if somehow her living depended on her. Hoping in spite of all opposing circumstances, she hung about, a white figure of patience, waiting and serving.
The end came one morning after a month of illness and several days of unconsciousness, during which silence reigned in the house and all the family went about on tiptoe. It was on a fine, bracing November morning, when the Flaming light on the decaying leaves and clear water of the lake would have boded a delaying return of strength, that Mrs Gerhardt breathed her last, looking at Jennie in a few minutes of consciousness that life vouchsafed her at the very end. Jennie stared into her eyes with a yearning horror. 'Oh, mama! Mama!' She cried. 'Oh, no, no!' "

Jennie moves in with Lester Kane, and they live as man and wife. When Jennie's father dies, Lester takes her on a trip to Europe, where he intends to tell her that they're going to have to split up. And when Lester runs into an old flame that travels in his social circles, it's the beginning of the end for Jennie:
"... Malcolm Gerald had been a very wealthy man, having amassed a Fortune ( which, it was rumored, ran into millions ) in banking and stock-brokering in cincinnati, and he had left Mrs Malcolm Gerald a very rich widow. She was the mother of one child, a little girl, who was safely in charge of a nurse and maid at all times and she was invariably the picturesque center of a group of admirers recruited from every capital of the civilized world. She herself was a talented woman, tall, graceful, artistic, a writer of verse, an omnivorous reader, a student of art, and a sincere and ardent admirer of Lester Kane.
in her day she had truly loved him, for she had been a wise observer of men and affairs from the beginning, and Lester had always appealed to her as a real man. He was so sane, she thought, so calm. His attitude was always so natural and frank, despite the fact that it was always tinged with a bit of what might have been called roughness by many. He was always intolerant of sham, and she liked him for it. He was always inclined to wave aside the petty little frivolities of common society conversation, and to talk of simple and homely things. Many and many a time, in years past, they had deserted a dance to sit out on a balcony somewhere, and talk while Lester smoked. He had argued philosophy with her, discussed books, described political and social conditions in other cities, discussed the fortunes and failures of their friends in a sympathetic and charitable mood, and she had hoped and hoped and hoped that he would propose to her. More than once she had looked at his big, solid head with its short growth of Hardy brown hair and wished that she could stroke it with her hand."

Jenny Gerhardt is the story of a poor girl who is so pretty and has such an innocent and endearing nature that she attracts the attention of two wealthy men. The first one is a senator and impregnates her, but promises to marry her after he wraps up his interests in Washington. However, there he gets a fever and dies, leaving her to raise the child alone.
The second one is a son of a wealthy manufacturing company, who ignores his prospects of marrying other wealth, to shack up with Jenny, and then later leaves her, because of his family's threats of disinheriting him. However, she's left with a trust that gives her $4,500 annually, which is worth $154,879.82 today.
( )

Some similarities with the novels of Thomas Hardy... poor girl done well, often with an unhappy ending..
I will continue to read his entire output. Interesting stories, great characters and so well written. A worthy five stars. ( )

A sad tale of a doomed love affair in Victorian Times. Jennie is so real as a character, as is her indecisive lover, Lester. You will be frustrated and mystified by Lester,s inability to claim his one true love. In the end, love does not conquer all.. the desire for wealth and prestige do not bring ruin, only a dull aching emptiness. ( )

Decades before he became the acclaimed author of "An American Tragedy," Theodore Dreiser wrote two controversial novels based on the lives of his older sisters, Emma and Mame. The first of these novels was "Sister Carrie" and the second was "Jennie Gerhardt." Not one to shy away from sensational social issues, in "Jennie Gerhardt" Dreiser focuses on a young, middle class German-American woman who becomes pregnant out of wedlock by one man and then lives with another in the late 19th century. The publication of "Sister Carrie" in 1900 was all but buried by its publisher, who was scandalized by the content. Dreiser wrote a draft of "Jennie Gerhardt" in 1901 and 1902, acutely aware that, like "Sister Carrie," it was likely to face publisher resistance due to the frank nature of its content. However, Dreiser suffered a nervous breakdown in late 1902 and he did not return to the manuscript until January 1911. He worked quickly to complete the novel, which was published in late 1911.

"Jennie Gerhardt" opens in 1880, when 18-year-old Jennie and her mother are forced to seek work in a posh Columbus, Ohio, hotel. Jennie is drawn into a world of wealth and influence, sex roles and class consciousness. Seduced by a U.S. senator more than 30 years her senior who promises to marry her, Jennie bears his child out of wedlock when the senator dies before they can marry. The focus of the novel soon shifts to Jennie's relationship with a wealthy Cincinnati businessman, Lester Kane, whom she meets while serving as a lady's maid in Cleveland. Lester is immediately taken with Jennie's beauty and temperament and senses that she might be persuaded to enter into a sexual relationship with him. Although he is clearly attracted to her, he has no interest in marrying anyone, let alone a young woman so obviously beneath his social station. Jennie is loath to become involved in another extra-marital sexual relationship, but her father has been seriously injured in an accident and may never be able to work again. Lester offers considerable financial assistance if Jennie will come away with him. Her father would be furious if he knew the reality of the situation, but Jennie's mother persuades her husband that Jennie and Lester are legally married. Jennie and her daughter Vesta eventually take up residence with Lester in Chicago; she begins calling herself Mrs. Kane. However, Lester's family members in Cincinnati gradually learn of the deception and his father finds a way to persuade -- or pressure -- Lester to marry Jennie or separate from her.

Dreiser skillfully portrays Jennie's dilemma and illuminates her strong character. Although she is not religious, in contrast to her Lutheran father, Jennie accepts that her behavior is wrong and that she is “bad.” It is clear that Dreiser believes in Jennie’s goodness. Jennie would like to be married, but the birth of her daughter has probably made that impossible for her. Strictly speaking Jennie can choose her course of action, but her family has few options. These were the years before health insurance and disability insurance. If the family breadwinner were sick and could not work, the family had no income until he recovered. If he could never work again, the older children had to quit school and support the younger ones by working menial jobs. Lester sees the situation and offers Jennie, who has fallen in love with him, a very attractive way out. Jennie is an extremely sympathetic character and although Lester is reprehensible in many ways, the reader wonders what would have become of the Gerhardt family without him.

Desperate for a bestseller, the manuscript of "Jennie Gerhardt" was heavily edited by Dreiser’s Harpers editor Ridley Hitchcock before its publication in 1911. More than 16,000 words were edited from Dreiser's manuscript, removing any profanity, references to sex and much of his social and philosophical commentary. Oddly, Dreiser’s straightforward prose was rewritten to be more verbose and flowery. Jennie's character was also altered, portraying her more blandly than originally conceived by Dreiser. The edition I read is the novel published in 1911, but in 1992 the University of Pennsylvania published the restored manuscript with historical commentary and a textual table showing each word change. ( )

Dreiser's stories are pretty much the same, even though using different names/cities. And they all are... somehow dramatic works, ending pretty bad. As I was young enough to spend the time... tried few, as the lecture is captivating and relaxing. Still, nothing out of ordinary or extremely interesting. ( )