Abstract We study the problem of Network Embedding (NE) for content-rich networks. NE models aim to learn efficient low-dimensional dense vectors for network vertices which are crucial to many network analysis tasks. The core problem of content-rich network embedding is to learn and integrate the semantic information conveyed by network structure and node content. In this paper, we propose a general end-to-end model, Dual GEnerative Network Embedding (DGENE), to leverage the complementary information of network structure and content. In this model, each vertex is regarded as an object with two modalities: node identity and textual content. Then we formulate two dual generation tasks. One is Node Identification (NI) which recognizes nodes’ identities given their contents. Inversely, the other one is Content Generation (CG) which generates textual contents given the nodes’ identities. We develop specific Content2Node and Node2Content models for the two tasks. Under the DGENE framework, the two dual models are learned by sharing and integrating intermediate layers, with which they mutually enhance each other. Extensive experimental results show that our model yields a significant performance gain compared to the state-of-the-art NE methods. Moreover, our model has an interesting and useful byproduct, that is, a component of our model can generate texts, which is potentially useful for many tasks