Jennie Gerhardt

Jennie Gerhardt is a young woman of quiet strength and deep feeling, born into poverty in late-19th-century Columbus, Ohio. When her family's desperation forces her into the orbit of Senator Brander, a wealthy older man, she is swept into a world far beyond her own—only to be abandoned after his sudden death. Years later, she meets Lester Kane, the magnetic son of a wealthy manufacturing family, and they fall into a passionate, secret love. But Lester's family and society cannot accept a woman of Jennie's low station, and the pressures of class, obligation, and convention threaten to tear them apart. This faithful modern retelling preserves every twist of Dreiser's poignant story—the sacrifice, the longing, and the quiet courage of a woman who gives everything for love. Part of Timeless Classics.