Gentlemen Prefer Blondes cover art

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

By: Anita Loos, Jenny McPhee - introduction
Narrated by: Patrice O’Neill
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £11.99

Buy Now for £11.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

The delirious 1925 Jazz-Age classic that no less an authority than Edith Wharton called "the great American novel".

If any American fictional character of the 20th century seems likely to be immortal, it is Lorelei Lee of Little Rock, Arkansas, the not-so-dumb blonde who knew that diamonds are a girl's best friend. Outrageous, charming, and unforgettable, she's been portrayed on stage and screen by Carol Channing and Marilyn Monroe, and has become the archetype of the footloose, good-hearted gold digger, with an insatiable appetite for orchids, champagne, and precious stones.

Here are her "diaries", created by Anita Loos in the Roaring Twenties, as Lorelei and her friend Dorothy barrel across Europe, meeting everyone from the Prince of Wales to "Doctor Froyd" - and then back home again to marry a Main Line millionaire and become a movie star. In this delightfully droll and witty book, Lorelei Lee's wild antics, unique outlook, and imaginative way with language shine.

©2014 Introduction by Jenny McPhee to the Liveright. Paperback edition copyright © 2014 by Jenny McPhee. Copyright renewed 1991 by Jay S. Harris. Copyright © 1963 by Anita Loos. Copyright renewed 1952 by Anita Loos Emerson. Copyright 1925 by Anita Loos. Copyright 1925 by The International Magazine Co, Inc. (Harper’s Bazaar) (P)2014 Audible Inc. Classics Literature & Fiction Women's Fiction Fiction Heartfelt Witty Comedy

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Good Soldier cover art
Herzog cover art
Dodsworth cover art
Kidnapped cover art
The Temple of Fortuna cover art
The Scarlet Letter cover art
Vera cover art
A Dying Breed cover art
Coming Up Trumps: A Memoir cover art
All stars
Most relevant
this is an interesting novel/diary as it's what the movie marylin Monroe and Jane Russell stared in

you can see where the movie is

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Sly and very funny humour that often caught you thinking, “Hang on, she said what?!” An excellent voice performance, almost a resurrection of Monroe, this book is recommended for all lovers of 20s wit and style.

A Classic blonde

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was a jolly telling of the book that knocked the Great Gatsby off the charts. The Monroe voice works well - it picked up pace in shopping in Europe

Not so innocents abroad

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This biting satire was an extraordinary successful book upon its publication 100 years ago, and was a continual bestseller for decades. But like so many well regarded and popular 20c works by female authors, the male dominated publishing industry chose to let it fade away from consciousness and allow it to become misremembered and misrepresented in memory. Recent efforts to rediscover such works are to be applauded and provide readers with some important insights and broader context for what we think we know about women’s place in recent history, from women’s own perspectives.
In this instance the book was eclipsed by a wonderful and much loved musical comedy version, the big screen version of which in 1953 remains as popular today as upon release and which is rightly lauded as a classic of its genre.
That said, the movie is a very different beast and the original novel is much harsher and perhaps more obvious in its descriptions of the often necessarily transactional nature of affairs between men and women. Lorelei, though as insouciant, and apparently charming and amusing as she is in Marilyn Monroes exquisite portrayal in the film, is an altogether more scheming type here in the original. And while her machinations are clearly justified by the author who details the constraints and iniquities imposed on women at the time, they (and she) look somewhat tainted compared to her friend Dorothys approach to life, which while less likely to offer her a secure future, is honest and autonomous of thought and deed.
The reality of the concentration and ownership of wealth and power in mens hands, private, industrial, social and political, is a matter for urgent debate today and this novel shows the corrosive and corrupting effects of inequality on male female relationships. It is a tawdry tale wrapped in champagne and diamonds (which may prove to be paste).
That said, Lorelei is an extraordinary character with an almost unfathomable knack of being both venal and charming. Perhaps it’s her reality that makes her the former and her natural innocence (and ignorance ) that make her the latter.
The book is always wry and often very amusing. Though for me, it is Dorothy that has the best one liners. I listened to an audio version, and Lorelei’s first person narrative means that we are immersed in a unique and peculiar voice (one that MM certainly brought to the movie) without the relief of many other voices it can take a while to get used to. But the affectation of it, is really a core part of Loos’ satire. The voice IS the character and its absurdities are a consequence of her ‘education’ at the hands of men. Patrice O’Neal was the reader of my version and she was perfect.
In some ways it reminded me of Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffanys, another example of one way women can be forced to live effectively as prostitutes, but how beauty can at least for a while conspire to hide that reality (at least on the surface) from all the conspirators (the men and the women).
Both are dark tales retold for the screen in a highly sanitized manner in extraordinarily successful films which have eclipsed their more obviously polemical literary origins.
One wonders if such polished up retellings have harmed us by allowing us to ignore the authors original intent.

Darkness at the heart of comedy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This clever book, hilarious in every way reveals the wit and charm of its author.

Hilarious!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews