Red-Headed Woman

by Katharine Brush

Brush's risqué novel of a red headed vamp who steels her boss from his wife served as the basis for the ever popular pre-code Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer black and white talking film directed by Jack Conway and featuring Jean Harlow and Chester Morris.

Genres: Fiction

294 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1931

About the author

After a high school education, Brush began her career as a columnist for the Boston Traveler. She published her first book, Glitter in 1926, but it was her short story Night Club which was published in Harper's Magazine in 1927 that brought her national recognition and an O. Henry Award. She became a well-known contributor to leading magazines of the 1920's and 1930's such as Cosmopolitan and Collier's Weekly. Her most successful work was Red-Headed Woman (1931), which was made into a film starring Jean Harlow in 1932.

Reviews

[Jukka]

Red-Headed Woman (1931) - Katharine Brush
I've been interested in going back and reading forgotten American (U.S. / Canada) women writers from the early part of the 20th century, hence this read. [If you are interested contact me and i'll send you a list. Or send me your ideas.:] I also read this as a lead-in to the book club's read of Tender is the Night.

This book was written as popular fiction and yet i found plenty here to make it worth giving it a look once again. I thought of other light classic books still read and enjoyed. Brush seems intent on creating a hit and selling it to Hollywood having written a best-seller and movie hit the previous year.

As popular fiction written for screen it's a simple story, with few characters, very identifiable situations, and the happy ending. The get-rich fantasy was popular in the early thirties. The prose is easy reading and very engaging. In form it's frequently a descriptive paragraph with a punch-line twist, often ironic, in the last sentence, so you fly along one paragraph to the next. Quite effective. The dialog on occasion does run a little flat, but Brush elsewhere is quite adept. I rate the book better written than most pop fiction written today.

With feminist perspectives you'll feel real conflict. For instance the contrast of Lillian and Sally regarding their ambition and money-making strategies and their dependence on men. It's interesting to consider the flow of their relationship in general. I think the book is worth reading and considering from a feminist perspective alone.

The book really gives a good slice on life in the early thirties. There is much in this book relative indirectly to attitudes of the times on things like feminism, money, social class, capitalism, life in small towns and cities, and the state then of racial relations. The book has an extraordinary amount on clothing, jewelry, make-up and beauty products (lots of detail on application), home furnishings, entertaining, food, prohibition drinking, cars, and houses all often with an edge to the superficiality of consumption. And it's astonishing to me that a book largely about sexual attraction can have absolutely no mention of actual sex! (There's two kisses on the forehead and one spot where the husband discovers baby clothes in a wrapped package and wonders. That's pretty much it!) I was also somewhat surprised with the ending, it turned in a way i had not been expecting, and contrary to norms.

As you can tell i enjoyed reading this book for a variety of reasons.

Characters: Lillian Legendre, William Legendre Jr, Sally

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Other novels by Katharine Brush:
1926 Glitter
1929 Night Club (short stories)
1930 Young Man of Manhattan
1931 Red-Headed Woman
1933 Other Women (short stories)
1935 Don't Ever Leave Me
1940 This Is On Me (mostly autobiography with unconventional structure)
1941 You Go Your Way (aka: When She Was Bad)
1942 The Boy From Maine
1943 Out of My Mind
1944 This Man and This Woman


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Some ideas for the author of my next read: Helen R. Hull, and Ellen Glasgow.

[Jane Ammeson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time favorites. If you love the Jazz Age and wicked women, this is for you.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Source novel to my favorite Jean Harlow film. A lot of fun.

[William Wehrmacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am giving Red-Headed Woman three stars because it seems to be well written, for a story that is nothing but 294 pages of depressing story. With the exception of Sally and the possible exception of Irene, every character, and the posh culture of Renwood, the players were miserable.

Speaking of Irene, from whom we have no first-hand interaction; I could not get the image of Dee Smart who plays, among other things the ex-wife of Detective Jack Robinson on Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.. Little wonder why I felt sorry for Bill's treatment of her based on the reprehensible behavior of Lillian.

For the first two hundred plus pages of the book, the wishfully arrogant Lillian got exactly what she deserved. She might have gotten the same treatment if she hadn't intentionally broken up Bill and Irene's marriage, but she did. She might have fared better if she had been humble after her marriage, but she wasn't. She took it upon herself to spend all of Bill's windfall inheritance, leaving them nearly impoverished.

To be honest, there were about 5 pages during which I almost felt some sympathy for Lillian, but that was all it lasted and it was only marginal at the time.

I am not sure if you can guess, but if not, you can read the spoiler.
Eventually, she and her old girlfriend go to New York to spend Bill's borrowed money. She meets a modern city crowd and eventually hooks another millionaire who, fortunately for her, also comes from a more humble background. Sally returns early to Renwood and finds that Bill has been seeing Irene, lucky Bill; perhaps lucky Irene. Lillian, with a promise of marriage to the new millionaire, storms back to Renwood, confronts Bill, squeezed $50,000 out of soon to be ex-father-in-law, and returns to New York.

Part of what kept me reading is the copy of the book, published in 1931, I got came from the University of Minnesota Library where it had been since March 24, 1942, making is three years older than I am. At any rate, how I would love to read book/movie (released 1932) reviews from that era.

Afterword: I found the movie of the Red-Headed Woman with Jean Harlow and decided to watch it. I am sure I can't watch it with pre-code 1932 eyes, but with 2018 eyes it is really thin. While it remotely follows the book, it makes Lillian even worse, if that is possible. Sally, however, is still likable as is Irene.

[Robert Temple]

This is a powerful psychological novel about a ruthless gold-digger. At the beginning of the novel she is 19 years old and at the end she is 21. It starts in the town of East Liverpool, Ohio, and ends in Manhattan. Brush's subtle contrast of the amoral girl with the vacuous society of the town which produced her provides a devastating realization that seen against that background perhaps her unfeeling pursuit of material things is not so different from the Country Club set in Ohio. The good time guys and gals of Manhattan are also portrayed vividly. Brush never uses an unnecessary word. Her writing style in this novel is spare, and also deadly.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The film adaptation made for one of the better (and racier) pre-Code movies I've seen, so I was excited to read the book it was based on. To my surprise, the film drastically overplayed the drama of the climax, while the book goes for a more muted, sardonic ending (unlike the movie, not a gun is in sight in the final chapter of the book).

I loved how the book wallows in Lillian's warped, petty world-view, where she can't fathom the idea that everybody isn't scheming and plotting behind her back like she is. It's a fascinating glimpse into a jealous mind preoccupied with social status and wealth. Also just a delicious read. So many fun words!

[Christine Sinclair · Rating 3 out of 5]

She's one of the original golddiggers, Lillian Andrews, a woman on the make who will stop at nothing to get what she wants: Money! This novel was adapted into a movie in 1932, starring Jean Harlow. She was a platinum blonde at the time, but dyed her hair red for the film. (I'll take their word for it; it's in black-and-white.) Lil really has no redeeming features; she is beautiful, but her beauty is used in a cold, calculating way to get ahead. I'm not a big fan of Harlow, either; great figure, but she's not what I would call a beauty. Think I'll give the movie a miss.

[smokeandmirrors · Rating 4 out of 5]

So very funny, and had some incredible turns of phrase. It was very fun to read about a character so firmly rooted in her time period and obsessed with the fashions the hairstyles the trends... A more sympathetic narrative than I expected, certainly more so than the film (which is fun & completely insane in its own way)

[Rene · Rating 5 out of 5]

The basis for the classic Jean Harlow movie of the same name. The book itself is a well-written story. Jean Harlow perfect as the lead character, though they certainly sweetened and lightened the story for Miss Harlow and her movie.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have the photoplay version with Jean Harlow on the cover - the film version is a fave film of mine and I've been wanting to read this for some time. The movie is far racier than the book but the book was good and I enjoyed reading it and envisioning Harlow thru out

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it !!

[Jaymee Woolhiser · Rating 3 out of 5]

My apologies to any and all red headed women out there. This book does not paint you well at all. And in 1937, when the book was published, I'm sure plenty of auburn tresses were glared at while husbands' arms were tightly gripped.

Beware the red-headed home wrecker.

Lillian Andrews was a stunningly beautiful, red-headed woman born on the wrong side of the tracks. Beautiful and ambitious. So ambitious, in fact, we could label her a gold digger. It didn't take long for her to target her prize in the small town and acquire him through the art of seduction and youth. Starting off as William H. Legendre's secretary, she eventually wheedles her way into his fickle mind so much so that he divorces his wife, Irene, (a charming, subtle woman) and marries Lily instead. Then he realizes his mistake. The grass looked greener on the other side only for dear William to discover he moved into a swamp.

But all is not how she thought it would be. Rather than entertaining guests in her newly furnished, lavish household the neighbors travel across town to dinner at Irene's instead. At every turn she is shunned by the community and it vexes our anti-hero terribly. Perhaps the town is just too small for her, but will moving to a big city, sans her husband, save or destroy her? Will it give William and Irene a window to rekindle what was lost?

I can only offer three stars to the book because the character of Lillian is so detestable it's disappointing. I wanted to like her, to love her for her charisma and shamelessness in standing out amongst the humdrum crowd of the little town's aristocracy. But I couldn't. She destroys a marriage between two well paired people and then runs her husband into the ground. The author puts her into situations where I think we are supposed to feel bad for her, but we can't. There is nothing inherently good about her worth pitying. Honestly, the only person I felt sorry for was William. Irene was poised and strong enough to stand alone, but William was just stupid and naive, trapped in a situation chosen by the wrong brain... if you catch my drift.

Overall, the novel is well written, the characters round and fully developed, and the portrait of Lillian wholly convincing. On technicality alone it deserves five stars, but I simply just can't give it. I didn't enjoy the book as a leisurely read by any stretch of the imagination and when things did go wrong for Lillian I couldn't even enjoy them because it usually ended up biting William instead of her.

I'd like to be able to recommend this novel to others, but I'm not sure I can risk my reputation on it. Let's just say the read is... interesting.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story.
Recommended.