F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels and Stories 1920-1922: This Side of Paradise / Flappers and Philosophers / The Beautiful and the Damned / Tales of the Jazz Age (Library of America) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Jackson R. Bryer (Editor) "AMORY BLAINE inherited from his mother every trait, except the stray inexpressible few, that made him worth while..." (more)
Key Phrases: flowing boots, beautiful and damned, circus ball, New York, Sally Carrol, Richard Caramel (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Young Scott Fitzgerald was not having much luck: he'd flunked out of Princeton, his hope for military glory was dashed with the signing of the armistice on the day he was due to depart for Europe, and his best girl, Zelda, didn't want to date a pauper. In 1920, however, his luck changed when Scribner bought his first manuscript, This Side of Paradise, and introduced him to the world, which welcomed him warmly. This latest Library of America volume includes that first novel plus several works written during Fitzgerald's younger and more vulnerable years: Flappers and Philosophers (short stories, 1920), The Beautiful and Damned (novel, 1922), and Tales of the Jazz Age (short stories, 1922). The short stories include such gems as "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," "The Ice Palace," and "A Diamond as Big as the Ritz." Though all this material is readily available, and, one hopes, always will be, it's wonderful having Fitzgerald's fledgling works together in a quality hardcover. Jazz up your collection with this fine volume.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

The Four Books that Defined and Chronicled the Jazz Age! Here in one eBook is the quartet of books that catapulted F. Scott Fitzgerald to literary immortality. Meet the flappers, the indolent young men, the speakeasies, the gangsters, the illegal hooch, and the easy money that characterized the Roaring Twenties. From This Side of Paradise to Flappers and Philosophers, The Beautiful and the Damned, and Tales from the Jazz Age Fitzgerald will light the way on a very special insider's tour of the Jazz Age. The age that made Fitzgerald and killed him. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1075 pages
• Publisher: Library of America; First Printing (stated) edition (August 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883011841
• ISBN-13: 978-1883011840
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #126,407 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Collection of Pre-Gatsby Work, November 12, 2000

By	Jim McKenna (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This is a very attractive packaged, comprehensive collection of Fitzgerald's early work, containing his first two novels (This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful & Damned) and his first two short story collections. Included are some classic short stories such as May Day and The Diamond As Big As The Ritz. Some of the other stories are less than classic, but all are enjoyable. As is the case with all Library of America volumes, the book is very easy to handle and read. There is a useful set of notes and chronology of Fitzergald's life in the back. All in all, this is well worth the price.

11 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Polly Parker Stories, December 27, 2005

By	Lily Bart "lilybits" (The House of Mirth) - See all my reviews

I am really shocked that this first rate Fitzgerald collection does not have the "Polly Parker" stories that originally were printed serially in THE SATURDAY EVENING POST in 1922. Apparently these uncollected stories remain unavailable anywhere in book form.

Polly Parker was a typical Fitzgerald heroine -- a blue-eyed flapper with a pert nose and golden hair bobbed very short. The reason her stories are omitted, I gather, is that they were slightly more sexual in tone and also addressed taboo subjects such as alcoholism, racial violence, incest, and insanity.

"GRANDPA'S GOLD" the first Polly story, deals with lasting echoes of the Civil War. Spoiled Polly goes to Vermont for the summer to stay with her aging grandfather -- the last remaining Union army veteran in Vermont. Ultimately she robs him of a small fortune in gold coins which he had originally intended to donate to a Negro orphanage. This story highlights Fitzgerald's ambivalence towards the young women of the day -- Polly is cruel and selfish, but also winningly spontaneous, free and independent. Fitzgerald's racism is in full flower here as well. The fact that she is "only" robbing colored people seems to make her crime an amusing prank rather than a vicious crime.

"ALLIGATOR QUEEN" is both darker and more sophisticated. Polly is a houseguest in Georgia, where she meets Eleanor Hiss, a jazz age siren who may or may not have negro blood. The two girls deliberately lead a young Harvard man out into quicksand, then go joy riding in his car while he slowly drowns. Fitzgerald later wrote that Eleanor seduced Polly in an early draft -- but in 1922 the SATURDAY EVENING POST would never have carried a story with an explicit lesbian seduction.

"HOLY MATRIMONY" is the ironic finale to the Polly Parker stories. Invited on a weekend yachting party, Polly is compromised by an Eastern Prince and forced to marry silent movie star Reginald Dashwood. Dashwood is a homosexual who needs "discreet companionship." Polly marries him, assuming he is a pushover, but instead he is cruel, domineering and controlling -- and aided by an iron-willed mother who treats Polly like a servant. Polly's "punishment" is ironic, since she now has unlimited wealth and a dazzling husband -- but no freedom and no hope of either sexual or spiritual release.

Taken together, these three stories represent Fitzgerald's darkest early work -- and they should be included in any "definitive" collection.

14 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Short Stories, September 11, 2002

By	Jimmy E Ayala (Glenview, IL, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book for the short stories. They are like small diamonds on a necklace, sparkling in a row, each one a wonder. Fitzgerald's short stories are like that.

"The Off Shore Pirate" is hilarious. The "Ice Palace" is strange and beautiful. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is about a baby born very old who gets younger every year.

"The Diamond As Big As The Ritz" is classic Fitzgerald, about the rich.

The story that is missing is "The Rich Boy." This is the story that started the famous spat between Hemingway and Fitzgerald.

In this short story, Fitzgerald writes: "The rich are very different from you and me." Hemingway responds in his short story, "The Snows Of Kilimanjaro:" "Yes, they have more money."

But you will not find "The Rich Boy" in this book. Too bad.

Included with the short stories are two novels:: This Side Of Paradise and The Beautiful And Damned. They are very adolescent novels. High school students might enjoy them.

Maybe not.

The short stories do more to describe the Jazz Age than his novels.

If you are serious about this author, his greatest novel is The Great Gatsby. His next best novel is Tender Is The Night. "The Rich Boy" is his best short story.