In 1938, painter Eben Adams struggles to find his muse and put food on the table until a young girl named Jennie appears to him from some two decades earlier, beseeching him to wait for her. Over the next few months of visitations in Eben’s time, Jennie grows into her twenties, and Eben falls in love with his muse.
—Michael Main
Never before had it occurred to me to ask myself why the sun should rise each morning on a new day instead of upon the old day over again; or to wonder how much of what I did was really my own to do. It may be that here on this earth we are not grateful enough for our ignorance, and our innocence. We think that there is only one road, one direction—forward; and we accept it, and press on. We think of God, we think of the mystery of the universe, but we do not think about it very much, and we do not really believe that it is a mystery, or that we could not understand it if it were explained to us.

Tags

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Variants

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  1. Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan (Alfred A. Knopf, 1940).
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert Nathan
  2. audio reading.
    Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan (Blackstone Audiobooks, December 2013).
    3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert Nathan
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . narrated by Stephen R. Thorne

Translations

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  1. French.
    Le portrait de Jennie by Robert Nathan (J’ai Lu, 1984).
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert Nathan
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Germaine Delamain
  2. German.
    Jenny by Robert Nathan (Rowahlt, 1962).
    3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert Nathan
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by unknown persons
  3. Italian.
    Ritratto di Jennie by Robert Nathan.
    4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert Nathan
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Simone Caltabellota
  4. Japanese.
    ジェニーの肖像, as by ロバート・ネイサン (偕成社, April 1977).
    5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert Nathan as by ロバート・ネイサン
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by 山室静
  5. Korean.
    제니의 초상, as by 로버트 네이선.
    6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert Nathan as by 로버트 네이선
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by 이덕희

Derived Works

(1)
  1. Portrait of Jennie by Paul Osborn et al. , directed by William Dieterle (25 December 1948).

Indexer Notes

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  1. Debut—We spotted a 1939 overseas edition for the armed forces, distributed for U.S. Army and Navy personel. It is a paperback, not for sale, published by Armed Services, Inc. It may have been released slightly earlier than the 1940 first edition from Alfred E. Knopf, but since it was not available for general distribution, we don’t list it as the debut.
  2. French Translatioin—A later French edition, published by Terrain Vague with ISBN 2852080990 in 1988, is listed at Goodreads with an apparently incorrect title of portrait de Jennie [sic]. We don’t know whether that 1988 French edition or others listed at Goodreads as Le portrait de Jennie are is the same edition as this 1984 translation by Germaine Delamain with ISBN 2277216402.