Jennie Gerhardt
4.1315 votes
✒ Author | Theodore Dreiser |
📖 Pages | 650 |
⏰ Reading time | 22 hours 30 minutes |
💡 Originally published | 1911 |
🌏 Original language | English |
📌 Type | Novels |
📌 Genres | Realism, Social |
Table of contents
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CHAPTER I | 1 |
CHAPTER II | 23 |
CHAPTER III | 29 |
CHAPTER IV | 49 |
CHAPTER V | 63 |
CHAPTER VI | 81 |
CHAPTER VII | 105 |
CHAPTER VIII | 118 |
CHAPTER IX | 126 |
CHAPTER X | 139 |
CHAPTER XI | 147 |
CHAPTER XII | 156 |
CHAPTER XIII | 162 |
CHAPTER XIV | 173 |
CHAPTER XV | 179 |
CHAPTER XVI | 187 |
CHAPTER XVII | 196 |
CHAPTER XVIII | 206 |
CHAPTER XIX | 216 |
CHAPTER XX | 224 |
CHAPTER XXI | 228 |
CHAPTER XXII | 238 |
CHAPTER XXIII | 249 |
CHAPTER XXIV | 262 |
CHAPTER XXV | 269 |
CHAPTER XXVI | 274 |
CHAPTER XXVII | 285 |
CHAPTER XXVIII | 297 |
CHAPTER XXIX | 311 |
CHAPTER XXX | 323 |
CHAPTER XXXI | 329 |
CHAPTER XXXII | 336 |
CHAPTER XXXIII | 346 |
CHAPTER XXXIV | 356 |
CHAPTER XXXV | 360 |
CHAPTER XXXVI | 369 |
CHAPTER XXXVII | 382 |
CHAPTER XXXVIII | 387 |
CHAPTER XXXIX | 408 |
CHAPTER XL | 419 |
CHAPTER XLI | 424 |
CHAPTER XLII | 431 |
CHAPTER XLIII | 443 |
CHAPTER XLIV | 452 |
CHAPTER XLV | 458 |
CHAPTER XLVI | 471 |
CHAPTER XLVII | 479 |
CHAPTER XLVIII | 487 |
CHAPTER XLIX | 493 |
CHAPTER L | 500 |
CHAPTER LI | 511 |
CHAPTER LII | 523 |
CHAPTER LIII | 535 |
CHAPTER LIV | 546 |
CHAPTER LV | 557 |
CHAPTER LVI | 570 |
CHAPTER LVII | 575 |
CHAPTER LVIII | 583 |
CHAPTER LIX | 593 |
CHAPTER LX | 604 |
CHAPTER LXI | 620 |
CHAPTER LXII | 638 |
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CHAPTER I
One morning, in the fall of 1880, a middle-aged woman, accompanied by a young girl of eighteen, presented herself at the clerk's desk of the principal hotel in Columbus, Ohio, and made inquiry as to whether there was anything about the place that she could do.
She was of a helpless, fleshy build, with a frank, open countenance and an innocent, diffident manner. Her eyes were large and patient, and in them dwelt such a shadow of distress as only those who have looked sympathetically into the countenances of the distraught and helpless poor know anything about.
Any one could see where the daughter behind her got the timidity and shamefacedness which now caused her to stand back and look indifferently away.
She was a product of the fancy, the feeling, the innate affection of the untutored but poetic mind of her mother combined with the gravity and poise which were characteristic of her father.
Poverty was driving them.
Together they presented so appealing a picture of honest necessity that even the clerk was affected.
"What is it you would like to do?" he said.
"Maybe you have some cleaning or scrubbing," she replied, timidly.
"I could wash the floors."
The daughter, hearing the statement, turned uneasily, not because it irritated her to work, but because she hated people to guess at the poverty that made it necessary.
The clerk, manlike, was affected by the evidence of beauty in distress.
The innocent helplessness of the daughter made their lot seem hard indeed.
"Wait a moment," he said; and, stepping into a back office, he called the head housekeeper.
There was work to be done.
The main staircase and parlor hall were unswept because of the absence of the regular scrub-woman.
"Is that her daughter with her?" asked the housekeeper, who could see them from where she was standing.
"Yes, I believe so."
"She might come this afternoon if she wants to.
The girl helps her, I suppose?"
"You go see the housekeeper," said the clerk, pleasantly, as he came back to the desk.
"Right through there" — pointing to a near-by door.
"She'll arrange with you about it."
A succession of misfortunes, of which this little scene might have been called the tragic culmination, had taken place in the life and family of William Gerhardt, a glass-blower by trade.
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