Gentlemen Prefer Blondes / But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes

the long version

Lorelei Lee is just a little girl from Little Rock who takes the world by storm to teach its gentlemen that kissing your hand may make you feel very very good but a diamond and safire bracelet lasts forever." Anita Loos first published the diaries of the gold-digging blonde in the flapper days of 1925, forging a new archetype for the modern world. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes follows Lorelei and her best friend, Dorothy, from Hollywood to Manhattan to Paris and London, pursued by eager suitors all the while. In "the Central of Europe," with a new diamond tiara in her handbag, Lorelei meets a traveling American millionaire who just might be the one. She retires her diary, but not for long, because, as she writes in the opening pages of But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, "it is bright ideas that keep the home fires burning, and prevent a divorce from taking all of the bloom off Romance." Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and its brunette sequel are present here in one volume containing the original Ralph Barton illustrations and a penetrating introduction by feminist humor maven, Regina Barreca.