Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

“Kissing your hand may make you feel very very good, but a diamond and safire bracelet lasts forever.”

Anita Loos’s comic masterpiece is a brilliant satire of the Roaring Twenties, told through the seemingly artless diary of Lorelei Lee—a blonde flapper from Little Rock, Arkansas, whose pursuit of diamonds, culture, and wealthy gentlemen conceals a shrewd and calculating mind.

Lorelei Lee is a “professional lady” with a singular philosophy: gentlemen may prefer blondes, but blondes prefer financial security. Accompanied by her cynical best friend, Dorothy Shaw, Lorelei travels from Hollywood to Manhattan, and then across Europe—collecting suitors, champagne, and square-cut diamond bracelets along the way. In Paris, she fends off a French count and a vengeful Lady Beekman. In London, she parries a lord’s romantic advances. In Vienna, she sits for an unforgettable session with “Dr. Froyd,” who concludes that her only problem is a lack of inhibitions. Through it all, Lorelei’s diary entries—filled with malapropisms, accidental wisdom, and unwavering pragmatism—reveal a woman who is never quite as foolish as she pretends to be.

This is Loos at her most subversive and hilarious: a novel that skewers the hypocrisy of Prohibition, the pretensions of the Jazz Age intelligentsia, and the men who mistake a pretty face for an empty head. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was a runaway bestseller upon publication, praised by literary giants from James Joyce to Edith Wharton, who called it “the great American novel.”

• First published in 1925, a landmark of Jazz Age literature and one of the bestselling novels of the decade

• Written by one of Hollywood’s first female screenwriters, later adapted into the classic 1953 film starring Marilyn Monroe

• A sharp, prescient satire of materialism, gender roles, and the “dumb blonde” stereotype

Available in multiple formats:

• Paperback & Hardcover: Beautifully designed print editions presenting the complete, unabridged text made to last.

• Ebook: DRM-free EPUB compatible with Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, and all major e-readers.

• Audiobook: Professionally narrated, complete and unabridged, available on all major audiobook platforms.

A beautifully crafted edition for your shelf, your device, or your ears, or the perfect gift for anyone who knows that a girl’s best friend isn’t a handshake, but something that shines a little brighter.

About the Author

Anita Loos (1893–1981) was an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, one of the most influential and prolific writers of early Hollywood. She began selling screenplays as a teenager and, at twenty-five, became the first female staff screenwriter in Hollywood. She wrote over two hundred silent films, helped launch the careers of Jean Harlow and Audrey Hepburn, and contributed to classics such as The Women (1939) and Gigi (1951). Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, her first novel, was a literary sensation, translated into multiple languages and adapted into a silent film, a Broadway musical, and the iconic 1953 film starring Marilyn Monroe. Loos wrote a sequel, But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1927), and continued writing novels, memoirs, and screenplays until her death in 1981. She is remembered for her wit, her glamour, and her pioneering role as a woman in a male-dominated industry.