Jenny Gerhardt

Theodore Dreiser — a famous American writer and public figure. His works, addressing acute social issues, have enjoyed immense success among readers worldwide and continue to evoke the most vivid interest. The novel «Jenny Gerhardt» (1911), which tells the story of a girl from a poor family seduced by a senator, is considered the most poetic in Dreiser's oeuvre. The novel was labeled immoral, cynical, and tarnishing the American dream. However, in 1930, Sinclair Lewis, in his Nobel speech, stated, referring to «Jenny Gerhardt», that the prize rightfully should have gone to Theodore Dreiser, for he was the one who «liberated American literature from Victorian timidity and guided it on the path of bold, honest, and passionate depiction of life».