Three Lives

Published in 1909, Three Lives was Gertrude Stein's first published work. The book is made up of three stories: "The Good Anna", "Melanctha", and "The Gentle Lena". The three stories are independent of each other, but all are set in the fictional town of Bridgepoint. Stein credits Cezanne's portrait of his mother (see book cover), which hung opposite her writing table, with influencing her style of writing during the creation of this book.