JQuery :: .append Automatically Closing Html Tags?

I have a system receiving an html document as an array of lines, an am inserting this into a div using .append().

If an html tag is opened in 1 line (array element) of the string, and not closed within the same line, .append() automatically closes the tag on the same line, though there is already a corresponding close tag later in the html string.

Minimal test code:

$(document).ready(function() {
var testString = [ "<pre>Test line 1
", "line 2
", "line 3</pre>" ];

[Code]....


Is there an append alternative without this behaviour?