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The Lonely Lady
“Harold Robbins is a master.” —Playboy
“Robbins grabs the reader and doesn’t let go…” —Publishers Weekly
A young schoolgirl with dreams of being an actress, JeriLee Randall, is at the dawn of discovering her own sexuality when she meets Walter Thornton, Jr., the son of the world-famous playwright, Walter Thornton, Sr., whom she idolizes. After a humiliating “near” sexual encounter with JeriLee, Walt Jr. participates in a graphically brutal assault that traumatizes JeriLee, triggering unfettered chaos in their small, gossipy town.
Walt’s father Walter Sr. befriends JeriLee and tries to make amends for the deplorable behavior of his son. Over time, despite their age difference, the two become quite close and eventually marry—resulting in yet another town scandal.
But it is JeriLee’s ambition—not the rumors—that drives the couple from this tiny town to New York City, setting her on a collision course with an unexpected future.
Inevitably, their marriage unravels and JeriLee embarks on a path of sexual liberation in her pursuit of success—from stints in sleazy strip clubs to rendezvous on the casting couches of Hollywood moguls, from the searing lights of Broadway to the twilight world of drugs—as JeriLee moves restlessly from man to man and woman to woman.
Can she find success in a brutal world while retaining her dignity, honesty, and the self-respect developed in her youth? As she struggles to retain her dreams of stardom, can her strength and cunning save her from Hollywood’s death grip, allowing her to beat the smooth-talking power players at their own game?
When it was published, The Lonely Lady spent 24 weeks on the best-seller list, turning Hollywood on its ear and, yet again, showing the world that Harold Robbins stood alone in his ability to redefine erotic fiction. Robbins, author of The New York Times #1 best-selling novel The Carpetbaggers, proves that his books still have the power to keep readers turning pages.
“Robbins grabs the reader and doesn’t let go…” —Publishers Weekly
A young schoolgirl with dreams of being an actress, JeriLee Randall, is at the dawn of discovering her own sexuality when she meets Walter Thornton, Jr., the son of the world-famous playwright, Walter Thornton, Sr., whom she idolizes. After a humiliating “near” sexual encounter with JeriLee, Walt Jr. participates in a graphically brutal assault that traumatizes JeriLee, triggering unfettered chaos in their small, gossipy town.
Walt’s father Walter Sr. befriends JeriLee and tries to make amends for the deplorable behavior of his son. Over time, despite their age difference, the two become quite close and eventually marry—resulting in yet another town scandal.
But it is JeriLee’s ambition—not the rumors—that drives the couple from this tiny town to New York City, setting her on a collision course with an unexpected future.
Inevitably, their marriage unravels and JeriLee embarks on a path of sexual liberation in her pursuit of success—from stints in sleazy strip clubs to rendezvous on the casting couches of Hollywood moguls, from the searing lights of Broadway to the twilight world of drugs—as JeriLee moves restlessly from man to man and woman to woman.
Can she find success in a brutal world while retaining her dignity, honesty, and the self-respect developed in her youth? As she struggles to retain her dreams of stardom, can her strength and cunning save her from Hollywood’s death grip, allowing her to beat the smooth-talking power players at their own game?
When it was published, The Lonely Lady spent 24 weeks on the best-seller list, turning Hollywood on its ear and, yet again, showing the world that Harold Robbins stood alone in his ability to redefine erotic fiction. Robbins, author of The New York Times #1 best-selling novel The Carpetbaggers, proves that his books still have the power to keep readers turning pages.
421 pages, Mass Market
First published May 24, 1976
191 people are currently reading
727 people want to read
About the author
Harold Robbins
319 books437 followersBorn as Harold Rubin in New York City, he later claimed to be a Jewish orphan who had been raised in a Catholic boys home. In reality he was the son of well-educated Russian and Polish immigrants. He was reared by his pharmacist father and stepmother in Brooklyn.
His first book, Never Love a Stranger (1948), caused controversy with its graphic sexuality. Publisher Pat Knopf reportedly bought Never Love a Stranger because "it was the first time he had ever read a book where on one page you'd have tears and on the next page you'd have a hard-on".
His 1952 novel, A Stone for Danny Fisher, was adapted into a 1958 motion picture King Creole, which starred Elvis Presley.
He would become arguably the world's bestselling author, publishing over 20 books which were translated into 32 languages and sold over 750 million copies. Among his best-known books is The Carpetbaggers, loosely based on the life of Howard Hughes, taking the reader from New York to California, from the prosperity of the aeronautical industry to the glamour of Hollywood.
His first book, Never Love a Stranger (1948), caused controversy with its graphic sexuality. Publisher Pat Knopf reportedly bought Never Love a Stranger because "it was the first time he had ever read a book where on one page you'd have tears and on the next page you'd have a hard-on".
His 1952 novel, A Stone for Danny Fisher, was adapted into a 1958 motion picture King Creole, which starred Elvis Presley.
He would become arguably the world's bestselling author, publishing over 20 books which were translated into 32 languages and sold over 750 million copies. Among his best-known books is The Carpetbaggers, loosely based on the life of Howard Hughes, taking the reader from New York to California, from the prosperity of the aeronautical industry to the glamour of Hollywood.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
June 28, 2014
THE LONELY LADY by Harold Robbins is another paperback I’d picked up from a library sale. It’s, I think, the 5th novel of his I've read in the past year or two and for sheer guilty pleasure it ranks second to The Carpetbaggers in enjoyment. Absent from this novel are the long passages of endless talk that marred THE BETSY and THE INHERITORS. This novel is just as dialog driven as those novels are, but where this novel edges them out is that the dialog drives the story instead of just talk filling pages. If I were teaching a class in Commercial Fiction, I think I’d put THE CARPETBAGGERS, or THE LONELY LADY, on the syllabus and force all those earnest young English majors out there to check their lit-soaked baggage at the door and learn how a master did it. Not how to write well, but how to write something that sells well.
Take this little nugget of dialog:
“What’s she look like?” he echoed. “She’s sensational. Stacked like you would not believe, but very classy. Sort of a combination Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly. She’s the kind who when she comes into your office you want to bend down and kiss her pussy out of sheer reverence. So send me the script and I’ll get on it right away.”
And that's a PG-13 sample of what's in store for the forgiving reader!
Yes, the novel is loaded with literary sins like shifting POVs and awkward transitions in time, characters introduced to be dropped without explanation. But if you’re reading a book like this, you’re not looking for something deep to sink your teeth into, you’re looking for something that has no more nutritional value then edible underwear.
This novel is proof that the reading public in the 1970s must have been one collective kinky headcase.
Lucky for me, and the rest of us who like this stuff, there is plenty more where this came from.
Take this little nugget of dialog:
“What’s she look like?” he echoed. “She’s sensational. Stacked like you would not believe, but very classy. Sort of a combination Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly. She’s the kind who when she comes into your office you want to bend down and kiss her pussy out of sheer reverence. So send me the script and I’ll get on it right away.”
And that's a PG-13 sample of what's in store for the forgiving reader!
Yes, the novel is loaded with literary sins like shifting POVs and awkward transitions in time, characters introduced to be dropped without explanation. But if you’re reading a book like this, you’re not looking for something deep to sink your teeth into, you’re looking for something that has no more nutritional value then edible underwear.
This novel is proof that the reading public in the 1970s must have been one collective kinky headcase.
Lucky for me, and the rest of us who like this stuff, there is plenty more where this came from.
May 29, 2017
A lot of the reviews don't do this book justice and write it off as trashy or confusing. I suppose the jumps in time and nonlinear chapters can make it an adjustment but I'm reluctant to consider this the kind of glitter trash in the ranks of Scruples or The Crowd Pleasers. It has plenty of sex, drugs, and drama but a bleak sense of hopelessness and isolation grounded it beyond obligatory or beach read status. JeriLee is doomed from the beginning to have the mind,senses, and independent drive of a man, but the beauty and natural feminine charm of a seductive woman. To make things worse, she is ahead of her time and desires an equality and respect that isn't possible for women in the 1960s, particularly if you are trying to make it in Hollywood. The result is that she is imprisoned by her own body and lives in a constant state of painful loneliness and disconnect that no relationship can resolve. She's stuck with the inevitable strain of being in the wrong time, the wrong place, and even being the wrong kind of person for her particular goals and worldview. The ending gives her a tiny amount of satisfaction when she forces Hollywood to face its own two-faced nature but even that moment of honesty and redemption is short lived as she is left to live with herself and her regrets. Obviously, I wouldn't call this a fun story or the frothy, summer read you would expect it to be, but it has a brave story to tell. I really admire Harold Robbins for writing such a brutal portrayal of the injust divide between the sexes in Hollywood.
February 21, 2025
5-STAR TRASH!! The kind of gloriously unhinged book they just don’t publish anymore, in the same family as Valley of the Dolls and Myra Breckinridge. A world where women have big breasts, men have big dicks, and both have huge ambitions, and everyone is using what they’ve got to get what they want.
Objectively it isn’t a five-star book. But it’s so bad it’s spectacular and outrageous it was impossible for me not to love every single page.
Objectively it isn’t a five-star book. But it’s so bad it’s spectacular and outrageous it was impossible for me not to love every single page.
May 24, 2020
Read this a long time back,and it was good.Kept me turning the pages.One reviewer suggests that this is based on Marilyn Monroe's relationship with Arthur Miller.
Makes me wonder if Robbins was really depicting Marilyn Monroe,her loneliness and her struggles.
It is a PG kind of book,but it's an entertaining one.One of his better books.
Makes me wonder if Robbins was really depicting Marilyn Monroe,her loneliness and her struggles.
It is a PG kind of book,but it's an entertaining one.One of his better books.
August 11, 2019
After randomly picking this book up from my mother's library, I had no idea what to expect but I sure found the title amusing. I must say a lot of the reviews on here don't do this book much justice.
Robbins maintains his excellent reputation as a storyteller in this novel and I must credit him for taking us on an endless journey of mixed emotions through the eyes of JeriLee. The title definitely serves the book right. We encounter JeriLee lost and alone in her thoughts as a young teen and even through her womanhood, her highs and lows, she struggles to understand herself, constantly pushing people away. Despite her triumphant ending, we leave her in tears, probably still unsatisfied and even lonely. Every page brought a myriad of emotions. At times I'd be hopeful and excited for JeriLee, other times I shed a tear. Robbins' brilliant writing will keep you engaged throughout with smart character development and keen attention to dialogue. Some of the few things that really stood out to me in this novel. I must add though, a lot of the sex scenes were lacking in detail and were often times rushed or merely mentioned. A bit of consistency would spice up the book and add some sexual tension especially with a character like JeriLee.
Fantastic read nonetheless. I'm eager to venture deeper into Harold Robbins' library!
Robbins maintains his excellent reputation as a storyteller in this novel and I must credit him for taking us on an endless journey of mixed emotions through the eyes of JeriLee. The title definitely serves the book right. We encounter JeriLee lost and alone in her thoughts as a young teen and even through her womanhood, her highs and lows, she struggles to understand herself, constantly pushing people away. Despite her triumphant ending, we leave her in tears, probably still unsatisfied and even lonely. Every page brought a myriad of emotions. At times I'd be hopeful and excited for JeriLee, other times I shed a tear. Robbins' brilliant writing will keep you engaged throughout with smart character development and keen attention to dialogue. Some of the few things that really stood out to me in this novel. I must add though, a lot of the sex scenes were lacking in detail and were often times rushed or merely mentioned. A bit of consistency would spice up the book and add some sexual tension especially with a character like JeriLee.
Fantastic read nonetheless. I'm eager to venture deeper into Harold Robbins' library!
September 21, 2015
I think that if you like one Robbins' book, you'll like them all. I've read most of them during the high school, and I enjoyed them very much. Maybe because his characters were always so defined; and he had interesting plots. He kept you awake and turning pages. I loved his male characters, always a strong persona, who have had difficult and scary upbringing, they were balancing on a wire between the shades of a good fella – bad fella, but they still ended up being good people. Females, on the other hand, were really battling for their right to be equal to man. They were always little bit lonely, because you can't have it all. Personal success is not connected with professional life, and vice versa.
He found a gold mine with his stories and he knew how to develop them and make them readable.
He found a gold mine with his stories and he knew how to develop them and make them readable.
June 19, 2016
This book made me think and just reflect on the story that way presented to me. The book was unreal, amazing, and left me in awe! This seems like a story that can actually happen in a person's life so easily. JerriLee was a character with real substance that shows how the world really is. I saw something in the character that I rarely find in other stories. Her story was one of dreams, pain, rejection, danger, and feminist quality that really puts my mind in a new perspective like a switch of a dial on a machine!!!! I found a piece of myself in JerriLee that makes me wonder about how I think and feel. This book is....indescribable.
March 17, 2010
Not just total trash, but reactionary and moralizing trash. For all the attention it got for being so shocking, it's no surprise it was a best seller with the conservative housewife crowd.
Read
October 8, 2013I read this book years ago and I recently re-read this book last winter ,,, Harold Robbins has some imagation ,, a book you must read,,,,
March 31, 2015
Great book clearly based in part on the Marilyn Monroe relationship with Arthur Miller... which then morphs into a heart-wrenching tale. Sooooooo much better than the movie, which was terrible!
September 8, 2012
Trashy
April 13, 2022
The trashy novel that got away. . .
Years ago, when curating my trash chart fiction list I attempted this sombre tale. It starts with an abortion and all this grey matter about why she's a lonely lady. Lace also starts with an abortion (which made it on the list), however that book covered such a scene more warmly, more delicately.
I'd like to say this book can be summarised by the four words sprawled on JeriLee's childhood fence, two of which are JeriLee and the other two words, which both rhyme with ducks. However, it would be amiss not to mention the bizarre scene where JeriLee debates whether it's odd that she's having conversations with her vibrator (it was) and the finale, not to be spoiled, is so wild and outrageous that I left satisfied that the book had gained its third star with aplomb.
I feel Robbins' appeal will forever be firmly rooted in the 20th Century, although it's not to say that his attempt at matching the indelible style of Susann should relegate him to musty bookstores in backwater towns. He teaches us (emphasised by the flop film) that effing everyone to make it will indeed make us all lonely ladies in the end.
Years ago, when curating my trash chart fiction list I attempted this sombre tale. It starts with an abortion and all this grey matter about why she's a lonely lady. Lace also starts with an abortion (which made it on the list), however that book covered such a scene more warmly, more delicately.
I'd like to say this book can be summarised by the four words sprawled on JeriLee's childhood fence, two of which are JeriLee and the other two words, which both rhyme with ducks. However, it would be amiss not to mention the bizarre scene where JeriLee debates whether it's odd that she's having conversations with her vibrator (it was) and the finale, not to be spoiled, is so wild and outrageous that I left satisfied that the book had gained its third star with aplomb.
I feel Robbins' appeal will forever be firmly rooted in the 20th Century, although it's not to say that his attempt at matching the indelible style of Susann should relegate him to musty bookstores in backwater towns. He teaches us (emphasised by the flop film) that effing everyone to make it will indeed make us all lonely ladies in the end.
August 12, 2018
Read this in grade school. I underlined the dirty parts as a kid lol. Good sleazy read. 😈
September 30, 2025
The story of a writer who goes through hell, sleeping with lots of people, doing lots of drugs, and trying to stay “free.”
This was all over the place, with two parts written in third person and one in first, lots of head-hopping, time jumping, and occasional flashes of over the top sex and salaciousness. It often felt deliberately trying too hard to be in your face and veered into soap opera levels of drama. That said, it lived up to the potboiler moniker it has. Trashy but readable.
This was all over the place, with two parts written in third person and one in first, lots of head-hopping, time jumping, and occasional flashes of over the top sex and salaciousness. It often felt deliberately trying too hard to be in your face and veered into soap opera levels of drama. That said, it lived up to the potboiler moniker it has. Trashy but readable.
July 16, 2016
Cuenta la leyenda que este libro está basado Jaquelin Susann (autora del Valle de las Muñecas), en sí el libro está dedicado a ella y fue publicado dos años después de la muerte de Jaquelin (1976).
Después de los datos curiosos ahí va mi reseña. El libro cuenta la historia de JeriLee desde su adolescencia hasta su madurez y obtención del éxito como escritora. El libro está dividido en 4 partes; la primera es la adolescencia de JeriLee es la mejor parte del libro, conforme la historia avanza vas descubriendo como ella pierde el rumbo de su vida y el autor perdiendo el rumbo de la historia del libro. El libro para de una novela comercial, muy comercial a una novela que quiso ser como la bisabuelita del estilo de novela romántica-erótica dejando todo a la imaginación pero tomando en cuenta que la dama solo está en el título del libro.
Es tan malo el libro que se vuelve adictivo como placer culposo hasta que cuando termina te quedas con cara de “WTF”
Pd. En Youtube encontré la película basada en este libro y es peor, increíble pero lo lograron….
Después de los datos curiosos ahí va mi reseña. El libro cuenta la historia de JeriLee desde su adolescencia hasta su madurez y obtención del éxito como escritora. El libro está dividido en 4 partes; la primera es la adolescencia de JeriLee es la mejor parte del libro, conforme la historia avanza vas descubriendo como ella pierde el rumbo de su vida y el autor perdiendo el rumbo de la historia del libro. El libro para de una novela comercial, muy comercial a una novela que quiso ser como la bisabuelita del estilo de novela romántica-erótica dejando todo a la imaginación pero tomando en cuenta que la dama solo está en el título del libro.
Es tan malo el libro que se vuelve adictivo como placer culposo hasta que cuando termina te quedas con cara de “WTF”
Pd. En Youtube encontré la película basada en este libro y es peor, increíble pero lo lograron….
September 20, 2011
What a Debbie Downer of a book. I've heard of going to the School of Hard Knocks, but this woman never graduates! Even to the last page, JeriLee is in misery, and frankly, so was I. From the beginning there's a big chunk of the book where nothing really happens. Just JeriLee trying to understand and deal with her raging hormones. (We've all been there, eh?) When something finally does happen, it's all downhill from there. JeriLee just bounces around from one failure to another. I don't think she knows what she wants, or at least I don't know what she wants. She thinks she wants to be a writer, but does she really? I never connected with the lead character. She wasn't a likeable person, yet had all these people falling in love with her. Towards the end of the book it became a chore for me to keep reading her story.
June 19, 2014
First part has some rapey-shamey content, then it went downhill. For the tl;dr folks: it's about a girl who aspires to be a famous writer and apparently has to have sex with everybody and his wife in order to get famous. Maybe that's why I'm not famous - I keep it in my pants.
I had trouble, also, believing that writers have that much power in Hollywood. JeriLee's husband is supposedly this super-famous playwright/screenwriter who appears to have enough clout in the business that people treat him like a producer. Maybe if the guy produced his own work I'd believe the characterization better. I'd read that Robbins based JeriLee on Jackie Susann (actress turned writer), but I doubted Jackie had to blow half of Cali to get Valley of the Dolls onscreen.
Trash, and not even good trash.
I had trouble, also, believing that writers have that much power in Hollywood. JeriLee's husband is supposedly this super-famous playwright/screenwriter who appears to have enough clout in the business that people treat him like a producer. Maybe if the guy produced his own work I'd believe the characterization better. I'd read that Robbins based JeriLee on Jackie Susann (actress turned writer), but I doubted Jackie had to blow half of Cali to get Valley of the Dolls onscreen.
Trash, and not even good trash.
January 20, 2019
This novel was first published in 1976 as I understand it. The times were different. Super realism was the word of the day for writers and movie makers. Descriptions of wild sex were vulgar and graphic, without any redeeming value in most ways. This book was written in that fashion, but had a whole different purpose than the times would have dictated. It presented a woman in a man's world, fighting against the constraints she dealt with, including having to give sex to anyone that might help her publish or go further as an actress. A really interesting book, with a moral but not one I accept, that being everyone is a whore. Read it for yourself, and if you have read it before, read it again. The story is worth another look. I read it years ago, forgot about it, enjoyed it a second time.
December 5, 2015
This book was the first of Harold Robbins' that I've read and I did so because my mother loved it in her youth. Jerilee's character for me was an instant like. It wasn't far fetched realities that she dealt with, neither was it unreal emotions she was expressing... It was just right.
Her struggles bring the reader that much closer with her character itself; making the reader empathize on more than one occasion with her reality.
I can't say much without giving the story away, but do read this one. It'll make you smile. Honest.
Her struggles bring the reader that much closer with her character itself; making the reader empathize on more than one occasion with her reality.
I can't say much without giving the story away, but do read this one. It'll make you smile. Honest.
June 27, 2015
Wow. I dont know If I want to give this a 2 or 4. Parts of it were confusing so that knocks the rating down. This main character in some ways reminds me of myself buts in other ways NO WAY! She drove me nuts. I dont know if this would make a good book club book but I think it would make great discussion. I would probably read something by this author again.
November 9, 2021
My girlfriend had read this book when it first came out in 1976 and I remember seeing it on the family room table but never picked it up. All these years later I finally read it and loved it. Great storyline and message…!
July 25, 2007
I'ts very sad that one's mother's inacceptance may lead to disasterous results
November 4, 2013
OMG how trashy! fun!
October 9, 2012
Trash nothing else.. POOR READ..
Read
February 24, 2013Light lecture.
March 5, 2013
Lots of sex scenes. But not very imaginative ones.
April 4, 2013
Contemporary romance that wasn't the greatest, poorly written, & don't get me started on the characters OMG!
April 11, 2016
It's trash. What do you expect? Full review: http://sleaze-factor.blogspot.ca/2016...
February 25, 2015
Purely delicious
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 26, 2020
JerryLee was my first love <3
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews