Other editions of book Three Lives

How is this book unique? Font adjustments & biography included Unabridged (100% Original content) Illustrated About Three Lives by Gertrude Stein Three Lives was American writer Gertrude Stein's first published book. The book is separated into three stories, "The Good Anna", "Melanctha", and "The Gentle Lena". The three stories are independent of each other, but all are set in Bridgepoint, a fictional town based on Baltimore. "The Good Anna", the first of Gertrude Stein’s Three Lives, is a novella set in "Bridgepoint" about Anna Federner, a servant of "solid lower middle-class south german stock". Part I describes Anna’s happy life as housekeeper for Miss Mathilda and her difficulties with unreliable under servants and "stray dogs and cats". She loves her "regular dogs": Baby, an old, blind, terrier; "bad Peter," loud and cowardly; and "the fluffy little Rags." Anna is the undisputed authority in the household, and in her five years with Miss Mathilda she oversees in turn four under servants: Lizzie, Molly, Katy, and Sallie. Sometimes even the lazy and benign Miss Mathilda feels rebellious under Anna’s iron hand; she is also concerned because Anna is always giving away money, and tries to protect her from her many poor friends. "Melanctha", the longest of the Three Lives stories, is an unconventional novella that focuses upon the distinctions and blending of race, sex, gender, and female health. Stein uses a unique form of repetition to portray characters in a new way. "Melanctha", as Mark Schorer on Gale's Contemporary Authors Online depicts it, "attempts to trace the curve of a passion, its rise, its climax, its collapse, with all the shifts and modulations between dissension and reconciliation along the way". But "Melanctha" is more than one woman’s bitter experience with love; it is the representation of the internal struggles and emotional battles in finding meanin

First published in 1909, the great American version of Flaubert's Trois Contes recounts the lives of three plain and humble women, two working as household servants and the third, a Black woman, involved in an unhappy love affair. But to express these revelatory fictions in this manner is to miss everything, for Stein's language of the first decade of the 20th century is still as fresh today as if her characters had just created the American tongue. Poet Lyn Hejinian adds new perceptions about this work in her stunning introduction.Also available by Gertrude SteinHistory or Messages from HistoryPB $5.95, 1-55713-354-9 • CUSA

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

How is this book unique? Font adjustments & biography included Unabridged (100% Original content) Illustrated About Three Lives by Gertrude Stein Three Lives was American writer Gertrude Stein's first published book. The book is separated into three stories, "The Good Anna", "Melanctha", and "The Gentle Lena". The three stories are independent of each other, but all are set in Bridgepoint, a fictional town based on Baltimore. "The Good Anna", the first of Gertrude Stein’s Three Lives, is a novella set in "Bridgepoint" about Anna Federner, a servant of "solid lower middle-class south german stock". Part I describes Anna’s happy life as housekeeper for Miss Mathilda and her difficulties with unreliable under servants and "stray dogs and cats". She loves her "regular dogs": Baby, an old, blind, terrier; "bad Peter," loud and cowardly; and "the fluffy little Rags." Anna is the undisputed authority in the household, and in her five years with Miss Mathilda she oversees in turn four under servants: Lizzie, Molly, Katy, and Sallie. Sometimes even the lazy and benign Miss Mathilda feels rebellious under Anna’s iron hand; she is also concerned because Anna is always giving away money, and tries to protect her from her many poor friends."Melanctha", the longest of the Three Lives stories, is an unconventional novella that focuses upon the distinctions and blending of race, sex, gender, and female health. Stein uses a unique form of repetition to portray characters in a new way. "Melanctha", as Mark Schorer on Gale's Contemporary Authors Online depicts it, "attempts to trace the curve of a passion, its rise, its climax, its collapse, with all the shifts and modulations between dissension and reconciliation along the way". But "Melanctha" is more than one woman’s bitter experience with love; it is the representation of the internal struggles and emotional battles in finding meaning and acceptance in a tumultuous world. "The Gentle Lena", the third of Stein's Three Lives, follows the life and death of the titular Lena, a German girl brought to Bridgepoint by a cousin. Lena begins her life in America as a servant girl, but is eventually married to Herman Kreder, the son of German immigrants. Both Herman and Lena are marked by extraordinary passivity, and the marriage is essentially made in deference to the desires of their elders. During her married life, Lena bears Herman three children, all the while growing increasingly passive and distant. Neither Lena nor the baby survives her fourth pregnancy, leaving Herman "very well content now...with his three good, gentle children".

Three Lives (1909) was Gertrude Stein's first published work of fiction.Anna is a German immigrant who keeps house for Miss Mathilda and falls in love with another woman, Mrs. Lehntman. Lena is also a German woman who marries badly and dies in childbirth. Melanctha is a mulatto woman with unhappy love affairs. All three, however, face their various disappointments and their lots in life with resignation and acceptance. Two quotes from Gertrude Stein's works have become widely known: "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" and "there is no there there", with the latter often taken to be a reference to her childhood home of Oakland, California.

Three Lives (1909) was Gertrude Stein's first published work of fiction.Anna is a German immigrant who keeps house for Miss Mathilda and falls in love with another woman, Mrs. Lehntman. Lena is also a German woman who marries badly and dies in childbirth. Melanctha is a mulatto woman with unhappy love affairs. All three, however, face their various disappointments and their lots in life with resignation and acceptance. Two quotes from Gertrude Stein's works have become widely known: "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" and "there is no there there", with the latter often taken to be a reference to her childhood home of Oakland, California.