“Jennie Gerhardt” was published in 1911. This novel follows more closely than the preceding the rigid standards of objectivity set by the French realists. Again it tells the tale of an abandoned woman, but of a woman who does not possess the grit of Sister Carrie. Jennie Gerhardt is a purely instinctive woman, and she pays dearly for her surrender to the male. Like most of the women heroines in Dreiser’s novels, she embodies the mysterious cravings of Nature. Poor Jennie is not a superwoman, like Carrie, and the survival of the fittest does not work in her favor. Like Sister Carrie she was born poor, an easy prey to temptation. Her first lover died and left her alone with a child. She became the chambermaid of a wealthy family and surrendered to the entreaties of a young member of the household. The two lovers were honestly fond of each other. The young man would have married Jennie if society allowed. But this is not the case and Jennie is the first to suggest that her lover give her up. He does so against his will, and marries a woman of his own caste. Jennie remains alone. Her lover dies, still faithful to her, and she keeps his memory all her life. That is all. This simple drama is none the less heart-rending in its banality. It was told by Dreiser with a sort of tragic naïveté like that of Flaubert in “Un Cœur Simple.” “Jennie Gerhardt” is a beautiful and most pathetic book. It is cleverly written in a sort of monochromatic atmosphere, a _grisaille_ admirably in keeping with the portrait in the center. Jennie’s father is, psychologically, one of the truest and most human portraits drawn by the novelist. Bio-chemistry had not yet blurred his critical sense.