Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
by Anita Loos
Dear classics readers,
I am delighted to announce our March 2025 read-along — of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos. We’ll read it over two weeks, on the hundredth anniversary of its first serialisation in Harper’s Bazaar.
What is it?
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is the ‘illuminating diary of a professional lady’. The flapper Lorelei Lee describes her outrageous adventures as she hunts for a millionaire husband in 1920s New York. Her diary is riddled with spelling and grammatical mistakes: she explains that ‘kissing your hand may make you feel very very good but a diamond and safire bracelet lasts forever.’ Edith Wharton described it as ‘the great American novel’ and in 2014, Robert McCrum, in the Guardian, selected it as one of the 100 Best Novels Ever Written in English.
Why are we reading it now?
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was first serialised one hundred years ago, in the March 1925 issue of Harper’s Bazaar magazine in New York.
How will we read it?
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is just 130 pages long, with six chapters. I suggest we read it over two weeks:
We’ll start reading on Friday 7th March.
On Friday 14th March we’ll discuss Chapters 1-3.
On Friday 21st March we’ll discuss Chapters 4-6.
Our posts and conversations will all be collected here.
Which edition should I read?
Strangely, the most easily available edition in the UK is this American edition from Liveright (W. W. Norton) with Ralph Barton’s ‘intimate’ illustrations and an introduction by Jenny McPhee. This is the edition I’ll be reading.
In the US, there is more of a choice. I would recommend the Penguin Classics edition, which includes Loos’s sequel, But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, and an introduction by Regina Barreca.
I also couldn’t resist buying myself Picador’s sadly out-of-print 1982 tête-bêche edition, which prints the two backs back-to-back. You finish reading Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and turn the book upside-down to read But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes.
What if I don’t want to read it?
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Looking forward to everything I learn with this read a long
This will be fun!