Why gentlemen prefer blondes book

Then I said what do I write under the picture and he said you just be yourself and you will see the votes come rolling in, like I said it is very very easy. So I copied out what I wrote in my diary for today and Mr. Bryant gave it to his friend Dr. Rayner to post and they said I would be an Internet celebrity before I knew it. I said that was very very interesting but was there a place on the Internet where they could buy me an emerald bracelet since a girl doesn't want to waste her time.

But Mr. Bryant said that unfortunately he was to busy today to go shopping. I like the Internet very very much but I think I will go back to New York because the gentlemen there know how to treat a lady. View all 27 comments. Feb 21, Kelly and the Book Boar rated it it was amazing.

Every star! View all 5 comments. Feb 25, Loretta rated it it was ok Shelves: classic , myreading-challenge , february I wasn't impressed with this book at all! The movie with Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell was so funny and cute. I can't believe the movie was based on this book which wasn't funny or cute.

If you're looking for enjoyment, see the movie instead and save yourself from being bored stiff! View all 4 comments. Gerry has had quite a lot of trouble himself and he can not even get married on account of his wife.

To quote my friend Sid, Anita Loos is a comic genius. But not only does she skewer a character in a few words 'I mean he always says that there is really no place to see the latest style in buttons like Paris' but she also exposes so much about the cultural mores of early twentieth century jazz-and-prohibition-age America and its values.

It's no wonder that Edith Wharton and James Joyce both Gerry has had quite a lot of trouble himself and he can not even get married on account of his wife. It's no wonder that Edith Wharton and James Joyce both fell for this book: Loos plays in Wharton's space of gender and love vs.

This reminded me of Becky Sharp with young women forced to be on the make, with all the slippery, characterful voice mastery of Damon Runyon. Written in a diary format, Lorelei's observations are pithy, funny 'I mean Fanny is almost historical, because when a girl is cute for 50 years it really begins to get historical' and often unwittingly astute 'I always think that the most delightful thing about travelling is to always be running into Americans and to always feel at home'.

Her meeting with 'Doctor Froyde' is one mini-highlight as are her comments on London, Paris and Vienna - all seen from the champagne bar of the Ritz hotel in each city and the best jewellers.

For all its lightness, there is a darker subtext: what happened to Dorothy in the past that Lorelei is so protective about her? What, indeed, caused Mr Jennings to get himself shot?

The world for women on their own with no education, no money other than what they can cadge off married 'admirers', and no secure place in the world can be a very cold and scary place - so hurrah for Lorelei's uninhibited and good-natured exploitation of a society which sees her as no more than a blonde. View all 10 comments. Jul 02, Alex rated it it was amazing Shelves: new-york-literary-biography , unreliable-narrators , great-american-novels , , rth-lifetime.

Here is what Edith Wharton called the Great American Novel, and when it showed up on the Guardian's Top English Novels list it was suggested that perhaps she was being sarcastic. But when one nominates the Great American Novel, one is defining America at least as much as the Novel, yes? And I'm going to venture to suggest that it may not have been the Novel that Wharton was feeling sarcastic about.

There's a straight line between Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' Lorelei and Marilyn Monroe and Madonna, just as there's a line between Dorothy Parker and Sylvia Plath and Lena Dunham, and you can see why Dorothy Parker found it necessary to rebut this book with her short story Big Blonde; these are different archetypes here, and they don't go to the same parties.

But Lorelei is an archetype, one of the great characters, an American Becky Sharp, and this book makes an impact, despite its often preposterous plot.

Anita Loos her real name, surprisingly, not a dirty joke you didn't get knows exactly what she's doing. Lorelei's ditzily unreliable narration packs a ton of information in between its lines.

And it's funny. Like, super funny: one of the funniest books I've ever read. I'm writing this on Thanksgiving, and the news today is filled with breathless anticipation of tomorrow, which we call Black Friday because people are most likely going to actually die in pursuit of discounts and yes, sure: Lorelei is the Great American Hero we deserve. View all 3 comments. Dec 16, Duane rated it really liked it Shelves: american-classics , book-challenge , reviewed-books , rated-books , guardian Anita Loos was a successful playwright, screenwriter, and novelist, but she is best known for her best selling book, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

There may have been a little sarcasm in that, but I think she was impress Anita Loos was a successful playwright, screenwriter, and novelist, but she is best known for her best selling book, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

There may have been a little sarcasm in that, but I think she was impressed with what Loos accomplished. And having lived in NewYork and Paris, she probably got a laugh out of Lorelei's escapades through those cities. Don't be mislead into thinking this is a shallow book, pandering to a sex crazy, Jazz Age, male audience.

No, Anita Loos aims a little higher than that, with a parody of the female stereotypes created by the Hollywood film industry of the s. And along the way she creates Lorelei Lee from Little Rock Arkansas, one of the truly iconic characters in 20th century American literature.

Her character was later immortalized by Marylyn Monroe in the film by the same name. While I got a laugh out of the story and characters, along the way I may have learned something about human nature and single minded determination.

View all 7 comments. Sep 27, Paul Bryant rated it really liked it Shelves: novels. Driving to school to pick up Georgia only 45 minutes ago! One of the questions : Who wrote Gentlemen Prefer Blondes? Contestant ponders, then says "Henry James" Now, wouldn't that have been something? I'd buy them both. View 1 comment. Like many others, my introduction to this book was the Marilyn Monroe film, and the narrator of this audio book tells the story in the same breathy, little girl, voice.

The novel was actually written in and was inspired when the author witnessed the reaction of intellectual male friends of hers, to a fellow female traveller on a train journey. Having asked why this lady inspired such interest, she deduced it was her blonde hair that caused such slavish devotion and an idea was born.

Lorelei Like many others, my introduction to this book was the Marilyn Monroe film, and the narrator of this audio book tells the story in the same breathy, little girl, voice. Lorelei Lee tells her story as a diary; from her life in a small town and her re-naming in a courtroom after a little trouble which, later in the story, comes back to haunt her.

This is a sly look about a young woman who uses her beauty, and charm, to get the most that she can out of life. Lorelei has a very sensible idea about the world, and her place in it, and this audio book was a delight to listen to. Aug 16, Susan rated it really liked it. This book was a lot of fun. It was recently brought to my attention by a fellow goodreads pal thank you Paul I was able to find a copy in our local library that had it stored in its basement.

It included the original borrowing records showing it was 1st checked out April and completed with fabulous illustrations.

The story is one long scream and left me very intreeged to improve my brain and find more writing by Loos, providing I can talk my maid into reading it for me. Shelves: the-modernists. Wonderful, witty, linguistically experimental in all sorts of unusual ways, and way more intelligent than you may have been led to believe I mean, is this not like something from Stein? Spoffard spends all of his time looking at things that spoil peoples morals. So Mr. Spoffard really must have very strong morals or else all the things that spoil other peoples morals would spoil his morals.

But they do not seem to spoil Mr. Spoffards morals and I really t Wonderful, witty, linguistically experimental in all sorts of unusual ways, and way more intelligent than you may have been led to believe Blondes shows its readers to match Lorelei in worldly knowledge, but they likely stop short of her worldly behavior. The latter substitution is especially barbed, since it questions the difference between innocence and stupidity.

Compounding this effect is the tendency of her sentences to wander around repeated key words and phrases. The repetitive phrasing, combined with a dearth of punctuation— she can spell, but she punctuates sloppily— forces upward interesting structural variations, sometimes creating odd poetry:.

So Mr. Spoffard spends all of his time looking at things that spoil peoples morals. Spoffard really must have very strong morals or else all the things that spoil other peoples morals would spoil his morals. But they do not seem to spoil Mr. Spoffards morals and I really think it is wonderful to have such strong morals. Blondes, Loos probably owes something to Ring Lardner and something to Gertrude Stein. Loos liked to joke that the Russian authorities endorsed her book as a capitalist tragedy— a reading, as she knew, that is perfectly respectable.

The gifts of jewelry she receives improve we may suppose her looks— which attracts more gifts— which make her yet more attractive— a process that mimics the circulation of capital attracting capital. The introduction to this edition is quite good, and highly readable. It contains gems like:. Lorelei and Dorothy are able to solve both their problems at once. Loos said she was inspired to write the book after watching her friend, intellectual H.

Mencken, reduced to a character she likened to a love-struck schoolboy in the presence of a sexy blonde woman. Mencken was a good sport about it. He read her draft, loved it, and saw to its publication.

Of the particular brand of humour she displays in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , Loos said:. But I, with my infantile cruelty, have never been able to view even the most impressive human behavior as anything but foolish.

If you were to write such a book today, what would be your theme? Actually, charming is probably the best word for it. The premise of the story is this: beautiful blonde Lorelei Lee decides to try her hand at writing a diary, because a gentleman friend suggested that her thoughts would make for an interesting book. She was working in the movies in Hollywood, she tells us, when she met Mr Gus Eisman, a button manufacturer from Chicago.

What follows from these opening pages, the entire book, is a knowing wink at every woman who has ever copped a barrage of mansplaining from their boss or their boyfriend or the bloke buying their drinks in a bar.

Lorelei is flattered, naturally, but wishes to avoid the scandal of involvement in divorce proceedings, and also worries that Eisman might cancel her European cruise ticket if she takes up with another man. So, to draw her friend away from fruitless pursuits, Lorelei brings Dorothy with her on the cruise, and they set sail for Europe together with Eisman promising to meet them there. See, Lorelei once worked as a stenographer in her hometown for one Mr Jennings.

It sounds brutal, but her re-telling of these events is actually one of the funniest parts of this entire hilarious book. Anyway, after some shenanigans on board involving Bartlett and some military espionage , Lorelei and Dorothy eventually arrive in London.

They encounter several impoverished aristocrats who are selling off their jewels to wealthy Americans. Yet the longer Lorelei's sentimental education continues, the more she recognises the truth: continental men are no match for Americans. This novella it is barely pages in my battered Penguin edition falls into the category of "guilty pleasure", but I think it earns its place on this list, if only for the roll call of its distinguished contemporary fans, its lasting influence, and intensely quotable lines.

Long before Helen Fielding 's Bridget Jones, Loos hit on a young woman's diary as the perfect medium for satirical romance. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , serialised in Harper's Bazaar , became cult reading. Edith Wharton, probably tongue in cheek, hailed it as "the great American novel".

Loos, an unreliable witness, claimed that James Joyce, who was losing his sight, saved his reading for Lorelei Lee. Who knows? It's a little book with a broad smile, and a deceptively big heart.