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Portrait of Jennie

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This lovely short novel was written in 1939, and made into a movie with Joseph Cotten and Jennifer (appropriate name!) Jones in 1948. It's an odd, very haunting book. At times it is extremely beautiful and moving, though I don't think Nathan quite manages the ending: which isn't to say I can see a better answer. It's about a young struggling artist who meets a mysterious little girl playing by herself in a park. He befriends her and learns that her parents are high wire jugglers. Then she disappears, but reappears a few more times, always a few years older. After a while the artist realizes how strange things are (Jennie always seems to know). Basically, she seems disconnected from time. The artist's sketches of Jennie give him the break he needs to make his career, but before long Jennie is all he cares about. The book moves quickly to the inevitable ending. Parts of it, as I said, are haunting: the images of the lonely girl in the park bring tears to my eyes as I type. And there are some very fine lines as well. Really a very good book.

"Portrait of Jennie" is the classic romantic fantasyabout a struggling painter, Eben, and a strange little girl, Jennie,who becomes the artist's muse and his passion. In the months following their first encounter in New York City's Central Park, the enigmatic Jennie mysteriously vanishes and reappears. With each visit, she defies time, magically growing into young womanhood before Eben's bewildered but appreciative eyes. Jennie's beauty and supportive devotion to Eben inspires him to create his masterpiece.

Written by Robert Nathan, also the author of many prose and poetry works including "The Bishop's Wife," "Portrait of Jennie" was made into the 1948 movie starring Joseph Cotton and Jennifer Jones. Possibly a bit leisurely and introspective for those with fast-paced, action-oriented tastes, "Portrait of Jennie" nevertheless is a haunting and heartwarming tale of timeless trust, patience, and affection.

This is one of the most wonderful love stories ever written. I first read this in 7th grade, and since then Robert Nathan has become my most favorite writer and "Portrait of Jennie" has become my most beloved book of all time. This is a timeless classic novelette. I am usually able to read this in one sitting, because the haunting story keeps me so hooked. The climatic, yet tearful ending only proves that love endures all things. If you ever feel depressed or hopeless, read "Portait of Jennie" and let it be your muse for inspiration as Jennie Appleton was Eben's muse during his time of hopelessness.

This book, first published in 1940, was adapted to film in 1948, which film starred Joseph Cotton and Jennifer Jones. I was sufficiently intrigued by the film so as to want to read the book upon which the film was based but was surprised to discover, however, that the book is more of a novella, as it runs a scant one hundred and twenty-five pages in length. While not lengthy, it is, nonetheless, a haunting story, although it differs is some respects from the film.

The book tells the story of a young, struggling artist in New York named Eben Adams, who is really little more than a hack. One winter night in 1938, a down and out Eben is in Central Park, having been unsuccessful in selling his paintings. There, he encounters a very young girl named Jennie Appleton, who is mysteriously in the park by herself, playing hopscotch. Thus, begins Eben's acquaintance with Jennie.

Eben sketches a picture of Jennie, which to his surprise, he is able to sell. Periodically, Jennie begins appearing in his life at odd times, always swathed in mystery as to her origins and always appearing somehow older than expected each time he sees her. Eben continues to sketch her, finding that he can sell those sketches with ease. Inspired by his muse, he paints her portrait, a masterpiece that eventually lands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

He is puzzled, nonetheless, by the anomaly and mystery that surrounds Jennie, who has an air of being from another time. Yet, an unusual bond is developing between them, one that not even the vagaries of time can break. It is also one that becomes increasingly romantic over time, as Jennie quickly grows into womanhood. The fates, however, Eben finds, can be cruel.

Those who enjoy romantic stories with supernatural portents will very much enjoy this haunting tale of two star crossed individuals. This reprint, library binding edition comes with bright blue cloth covered boards with the title embossed in gilt on the spine.

I read this book only once, when I was a teenager, and I am in my fifties now. All these years I have remembered four lines from that book...: "Where I come from nobody knows/Where I'm going everything goes/The wind that blows, the sea that flows/And nobody knows." I loved being in that story; it stayed with me 40 years!

I first came across Portrait of Jennie in a BBC "Boy Meets Girl" play in about 1969, with the utterly wonderful Anna Calder-Marshall playing Jennie, and fell in love with both her and the story on the spot. (I found out later from the BBC that "the recording of this play is no longer in existence" -- vandals!)

I found a second-hand copy of the book in 1970. I foolishly lent it (complete with pasted-in treasured press pix of Anna Calder-Marshall as Jennie) to someone a year or two later, and didn't find a replacement till twelve years later. NO ONE borrows that. The author Robert Nathan (1894-1985) normally churned out (I'm told) undistinguished romantic novels; Portrait of Jennie (published 1940) was a one-off in its strangeness, wonder and beauty.

...

Do yourself a favour: read the book, and be haunted for the rest of your life.

"Starving artist" Eben Adams (undernourished physically, spiritually and emotionally) meets a little girl in the cold winter twilight in Central Park. She is alone, dressed in old fashioned clothes. She asks Adams to: "wait for me to grow up."Thus begins a relationship that will unlock Adams' artistic vision, and lead him to greater success than he could imagine. But more than that, Adams' relationship with the evocative and mysterious Jennie Appleton frees him to explore emotional horizons beyond the esperience of our everyday lives. A beautiful love story and an uplifting statement of faith in the goodness and purpose of life.

I first read this book as a naive 14-year-old, long ago. I had never dreamed of such timelessness, such longing, such complete detachment from the real world. The misty, not-quite-real characters have haunted and enchanted me for 40 years.

It was around 1972 when I first read the paperback version of this book that was given to me by one of my father's co-workers when I was going through some difficult life experiences. After 25 years it still stays in my memory and reminds me that true love is timeless and can overcome anything. It's a wonderful book for teen and elderly alike... if you can catch the old black and white movie version of it someday it too will entrall the romantic dreamer in you. I just wish they'd republish it in paperback... I'd give it to all my female relatives and perhaps even a few male ones. ;-)

Hey, I admit -- I'm a guy, and this made me turn red-faced and cry like a schoolgirl. The stuff in here is powerful... it's simplicity is remarkable; it portrays what love is in a very beautiful way.