Jennie Gerhardt: A Novel

In the fall of 1880 a mother and her eighteen‑year‑old daughter walk into a Columbus hotel, asking for any work they can find. Their plain clothes and humble bearing hide a desperation born of a family on the brink of ruin. The clerk, moved by their quiet dignity, offers a chance to scrub the floors, a small mercy in a harsh world. The scene opens a portrait of poverty, pride, and the quiet courage required to survive.

Jennie, the daughter, bears her mother's shy sensibility while feeling a restless pull toward a life beyond the soot‑filled streets of her glass‑blower father's home. She meets men who see her as both promise and danger, forcing her to weigh love, ambition, and family duty. The novel follows her early steps into work, education, and a forbidden romance, exposing the sharp social divides of the Gilded Age. Through her eyes we sense the fragile line between hope and resignation that defines lives on the edge of poverty.