The Persistent Image is a novel by the American writer Gladys Schmitt (1909–1972) set in a fictional version of 1950s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.A romance, John Reiber and Helen Cameron overcome the obstacles that stand between them: his resentment of her higher class, his inability to forgive her for her former marriage, and his hatred of the divorced husband. Reiber's shame lessens gradually over his own family's lower middle class pretensions, and he confronts reality.