Jennie Gerhardt

"Jennie Gerhardt", published in 1911, was Theodore Dreiser's second novel and his first true commercial success. Today it is generally regarded as one of his three best novels, along with "Sister Carrie" and "An American Tragedy".

"Jennie Gerhardt" exemplifies the naturalism of which Dreiser was a proponent, telling the unhappy story of a working-class woman who accepts all the adversity life visits on her and becomes the mistress of two wealthy and powerful men in order to help her impoverished family.