Portrait of Jennie (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Robert Nathan
- First Published: 1940
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Fantasy—high fantasy
- Time of Work: 1938
- Setting: New York City and Cape Cod, Massachusetts
- Genres: Long fiction, Fantasy
- Subjects: New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Love or romance, New York City, Art or artists, 1930’s, New England, Women, Death or dying, Creative process, Fantasy, Painting or painters, Pictures, Aesthetics, Massachusetts
- Locales: New York, NY, Cape Cod, MA
The Plot
Portrait of Jennie combines the fantasy romance with the Künstlerroman in a lyrical and highly imaginative, yet poignant, celebration of humanity’s ability to triumph over time. In 1938, Eben Adams, a New York artist, is experiencing a winter of the mind, a time when nothing he paints turns out right. Walking through Central Park on a cold afternoon, he encounters a young child playing hopscotch and converses with her. She gives her name as Jennie Appleton but offers no explanation of her unusual aloneness. As they part, she asks him to wait for her to...
[The entire page is 1028 words long]
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