Biblio Library

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - The Diary of a Professional Lady is a novel by American author Anita Loos.

In this comic novel written by American author Anita Loos, we follow the adventures of the fictional character Lorelei Lee who is a young blonde flapper. This story takes place in the hedonistic Jazz Age and is written in the form of a diary from Lorelei's viewpoint as she shares stories of the men she entertains in New York City and Europe. “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” was an instant bestseller and has been declared as “the great American novel” by Edith Wharton. - Summary by Jenn Broda

The heroine of the stories, Lorelei Lee, is a bold, ambitious flapper, who is much more concerned with collecting expensive baubles from her conquests than any marriage licenses, in addition to being a shrewd woman of loose morals and high self-esteem. She is a practical young woman who had internalized the materialism of the United States in the 1920s and equated culture with cold cash and tangible assets.

Published the same year as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Carl Van Vechten's Firecrackers, the work is one of several famous 1925 American novels which focus upon the insouciant hedonism of the Jazz Age. The book garnered the praise of many writers including F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, William Faulkner, and H. G. Wells. The book would see 85 editions in the years to come and eventually be translated into 14 languages, including Chinese.

Loos' lighthearted book became the second-best selling title of 1926 in the United States and a runaway international bestseller. It was printed throughout the world in over thirteen different languages, including Russian and Chinese. By the time Loos died of a heart attack in 1981 at the age of 93, the work had been printed in over 85 editions and adapted into a 1926 comic strip, a 1928 silent comedy, a 1949 Broadway musical, and a 1953 film adaptation of the latter musical.

Corinne Anita Loos (1893-1981) was an American actress, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Audiobook read by Jenn Broda, running time 3 hours, 44 min. Unabridged full version.