Customer Reviews

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You could say that author/screenwriter Anita Loos invented the chick-lit genre. Her entertainingly fluffy satire "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" certainly fits the bill, with its love-seeking heroine and amusing jokes. It never dips far below the surface, but its lightness is part of its appeal.

"A gentleman friend and I were dining at the Ritz last evening and he said that if I took a pencil and a paper and put down all of my thoughts it would make a book." Meet Lorelei Lee, a pretty blonde socialite with a love of jewels, men, and luxury. She has a married boyfriend, but is convinced to go abroad so her name won't be "smirched."

So Lorelei and her pal Dorothy head off to Europe, bumping into exalted people (like "Dr. Froyd") and winning the hearts of wealthy men, in between days-long parties. Gold-digging, millionaires, money and love all get wrapped up in the tangle of Lorelei's everyday life...

Lorelei first appeared in Harper's Bazaar, and a short story stretched out into a full-length novel that appeared in serials. A first edition sold out almost instantly. Now Lorelei has countless descendents -- sure, those determined gals have been updated for the twenty-first century, with jobs and Web access. But light women's fiction could be seen to stem from Loos's novel.

A satirical edge runs through "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," poking fun at the jazzy gals whom Loos had to deal with regularly. Loos doesn't spare anything -- the book is riddled with intentional typos, like "encyclopediacs," "safires" and "maskerades" (yet she can spell "champagne"). The shallowness of the flappers is best shown in straight-faced jokes about the latest Parisian styles of buttons. Loos's satire doesn't bite down to the bone, but it does scratch lightly in a deliciously catty way.

Lorelei has an entertaining mix of determination, idiocy, and a constant belief in her own towering intellect. She's so much fun it's hard not to like her, in spite of the fact that she's an utter airhead. She talks matter-of-factly about how she has "almost one of everything" (diamond-wise), and tries to reform the entire world (without success, needless to say).

Gentlemen may prefer blondes, and people seeking a fun light read may prefer "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." If you are in the mood for vintage chick-lit, Loos's witty little novel is a fun diversion.

Anita Loos's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" is a comic masterpiece. Loos tells the story of Lorelei Lee, a blond, money-seeker, opportunist girl on a trip through Europe. From Now York to London, to Paries and all the way through Vienna Lorelei meets lots of gentlemen, charms them, gets money and jewels from them and then light-heartedly leaves them with a short note in which she promises she will meet them somewhere else, perhaps. A real strumpet, Lorelei Lee emerges as a delicius crature from Loos genial prose, and by the end of the book, we have learned to love her.

What a fun, funny little book. Lorelei's thoughts and interpretations of her life as she effortlessly moves from one gentleman to another are very amusing. There is never a dull moment as she sweeps across America and Europe, leaving a trail of used up gentlemen behind her. Fascinating and wickedly funny. I'm very glad I read this. (And I can't wait to see the movie with Marilyn Monroe.)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes has long been one of my favorite movies, so I was tickled to discover that it was a magazine serial first. Until I stumbled across the book, I had just assumed that Loos wrote it for the screen.

Lorelei is a beautiful blonde with a conflicting amount of predatory logic, downright dumbness and a deep conviction of her own intelligence. The book is the journal she kept during the few months she was traveling abroad (Mr. Eisman is "educating" her) with her friend Dorothy, who "really does not care about her mind and I always scold her because she does nothing but waste her time by going around with gentlemen who do not have anything".

Mr. Eisman (never called Gus, because "when a gentleman who is as important as Mr. Eisman, spends quite a lot of money education a girl, it really does not show reverence to call a gentleman by his first name") makes the mistake of not going with Lorelei, and so with just Dorothy to chaperone, she makes conquests of kind rich men all across Europe.

Loos has written an amusing story, and though at times I got tired of the purposeful misspellings and grammatical errors, I enjoyed it from beginning to end. The few not-as-interesting parts were completely forgotten as soon as I read another one of Loos' little gems such as "Well, it's been three days since my debut party started but I finally got tired and left the party last night and went to bed because I always seem to lose all of my interest in a party after a few days" or "So, she found a box of liqueur candies that are full of liqueurs and she was really very delighted. So I finally got dressed and she threw the empty box away and I helped her down stairs to the Dining room."

If you've seen the movie, you should definitely read this as it gives a little more depth to Lorelei. If you've not, the book will still be a fun trip back to the 20's where bootleggers, gold diggers and millionaires party side by side.

This is a very funny little book about exploits of a "professional lady" Lorelei Lee, her profitable relationships with men of all social strata, her skillful handling of their wives, mothers, friends and all other inhabitants of Jazz Age world.

The author, Anita Loos, was a celebrity in the first half of the Twentieth century, and she definitely deserves to be much better known today, if only because of this single book, where Loos demonstrates style, taste, and great satirical talent. In addition to all that, there's a lot of interesting details in this book, giving the reader a very vivid picture of life in the 1920's.

The book is written in a form of Lorelei Lee's diary. Loos uses her heroine's bad spelling skills to create delightful word play throughout the text, and she does is with great taste and sense of humor.

Lots of phrases and passages in the book are so funny and smart they just beg to be quoted:

. When a girl really enjoys being with a gentleman it puts her to quite a disadvantage and no real good can come of it.

. Kissing your hand may make you feel very very good but a diamond and sapphire bracelet lasts forever.

And here's one a bit longer:

May 20th:

Well today Mr. Spoffard is going to take me all around to all of the museums in Munchen, which are full of kunst which I really ought to look at, but Dorothy said she had been punished for all of her sins last night, so now she is going to begin life all over again by going out with her German gentleman friend, who is going to take her to a house called the Half Brow house which is the world largest size of a Beer Hall. So Dorothy said I could be a high brow and get full of kunst, but she is satisfide to be a Half brow and get full of beer. But Dorothy will really never be full of anything else but unrefinement.

Certain phrases, like "There is a limit to almost everything.", being repeated again and again by the heroine, are especially funny only in context, but they'd stay with the reader of this book forever.

Anita Loos takes no prisoners, her satire spares nobody, from the wealthy Jewish merchants to rich Pennsylvania Presbyterian families. She has no sympathy to the men pursuing and being deceived by Lorelei's charms, nor to their greedy, hypocritical, jealous and stupid wives, mothers and other family members.

This is the first book in years I was laughing out loud while reading.

I am surprised to find reviews dipping below the appropriate 5 star. I guess many people in our era look from 'politically correct' viewpoints. Any book you read comes from a specific point in time and social view point. Boring advice aside:

This is one of the best comedy books around, so deliciously light and speedy, the reader needs a few reads to really understand the depth of Loos' genius. But, upfront, this is a laugh a minute and should be read in bed on a rainy Sunday morning with phones off.

"Dorothy looked at me and looked at me and she really said she thought my brains were a miracle. I mean she said my brains reminded her of a radio because you listen to it for days and days and you get discouradged and just when you are getting ready to smash it, something comes out that is a masterpiece."

Read, enjoy, repeat. But try to get an edition with Ralph Barton's intimate illustrations.

This book is on my list of all-time favorites, not because of what it may or may not say to or about society (I think if you're going to get that deep about it you're missing out), but because I've read it four or five times and it still makes me laugh out loud. I, too, saw the movie first, and liked it, but the book is fantastic. I love the irony, the misspelled words, the subtle humour that sometimes makes me do a double-take before cracking up (even after four readings I still do this). It's a great book to read if you want to kick off your shoes, hang out on the deck in the sun, and just lose yourself for a few hours in Lorelei's adventures. Gentlemen: it was a male friend who recommended it - I think you guys would get a kick out of it too. Enjoy!

Words of wisdom to the world's most notorious gold digger. Lorelei Lee is as fresh today as she was 86 years ago when Anita Loos first gathered a series of articles and made them into a book. Everyone from H.L. Mencken to Edith Wharton raved about it, as did the press, and the cheers have not stopped yet. Possibly the sliest novel ever, Loos simply wrote about what she saw and the times in which she saw it. The 1920's were perfect for the Lorelei's of the world and, rather inadvertently, they sat for this written study for their lack of character, their "gentlemen friends" their clothes and their escapades. No one is more than passingly concerned with morals, although Gus "The Button King" Eisman would prefer few people knew he was "educating" Lorelei and her best pal Dorothy by sending them to Europe. The one thing she didn't do was sit on that rock in the Rhine and it's entirely possible to say that Europe learned from Lorelei and Dorothy as much, if not more, than the girls in their travels. The plot is as simple as one girls pursuit of, well, anything she can get her hands on. But that's too easy, in the skilled and knowledgeable hands of Miss Loos, it's a lot more than that and we all have the fun of learning how to educate the already all knowing.

For those who have only seem the film, the book will be something of a surprize. Based loosely on the enormously successful Broadway musical and the book itself, the plot will seem vaguely familiar. But only vaguely. However even Miss Loos commented that few authors had the luck of two actresses (Carol Channing on stage and Marilyn Monroe on film) who perfectly played her heroine. Oddly the trick to playing Lorelei is to believe she's as innocent as she believes herself to be. There's no wink, wink, nod, nod in the book, the play or the film. Lorelei is goggle eyed with wonder whilst wandering through that which lesser women would have found distasteful. That nastiness in Little Rock (from which she came as just a girl), the trial, meeting the prosecuting attorney again, a film made on the sex life of Dolly Madison....all seem perfectly normal to her. And we agree, although we're strangled with laughter.

In the end, there's no better version than the book, amusing as the play and the movie are. Here is where the nuggets of innuendo grow branches and Lorelei surveys the damage of her "Coming Out Party". Pick her up-millions already have-and give her a good reading. You'll thank Anita Loos for writing it and yourself for reading it.

I've read "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" more times than I can recall. It's taken me through good and bad times, and it's never stopped making me laugh. Next to "Pride and Prejudice," it's the definition of "chick lit."

As her friend, Dorothy, says, Lorelei is a like a radio. You listen to end for days on end and just when you want to throw it out the window, something smart comes out.

Giggles and diamonds all around!

I thought Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was a great book. Most books that are made into movies are not as good as the movie version, but I actually thought this book was a little bit better. I thought the book had great details to let you see what was going on. This book is set in a diary form and is narrated by Lorelie, a beautiful woman who loves diamonds and can trick men into buying them for her. I liked the diary form because this helped you know when everything was taking place. You can also really tell what kind of person Lorelei is just by the way the book is written. This book is like a big soap opera; Lorelei and Dorothy are always trying to trick someone into buying them something. They charm one man and then make him promises that they will come back and go on to the next. That is what makes you want to keep on reading, the fact that you don't know who they are going to trick next. This book is one of the best books I've read. Anita Loos does a wonderful job throughout the whole book describing Lorelei and Dorothy's adventures. It's just like watching a movie in your head. If anyone wants to learn how to get what you want from a man I suggest taking some tips from Lorelei and reading this book.