All the Sad Young Men: American Classic Short Stories

by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Ombre Bookshelf Publishing (editor)

Annotated Content
This edition has been annotated with the following unique content.Historical ContextDetailed 20th Century Analysis
“it was during those three years that Dexter acquired the concept of the 'yachting costume' and his role in the world, and of the 'ritual entrance' and the 'supercilious grace' that custom demanded."

All the Sad Young Men is a collection of short stories written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in February 1926. The title "All the Sad Young Men" encapsulates the central theme of disillusionment and the loss of innocence that runs through many of the stories, and reflects the challenges and struggles faced by the youth of the era called The Roaring Twenties, or the Jazz Age.

Sneak Peek

"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand."

Synopsis

This assortment of tales captures the disillusionment and moral complexities of the era. Fitzgerald explores the lives of the young and affluent, navigating themes of love, ambition, and the inevitable passage of time.

Among the stories, "Winter Dreams" stands out as a precursor to Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby," examining the unattainable American Dream. In "The Rich Boy," he dissects the lives of the wealthy and their emotional detachment. In "Gretchen's Forty Winks" we are introduced to Roger Buttons, the father of the famous Benjamin Buttons from Fitzgerald’s short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” written 4 years earlier.

Each narrative offers a poignant glimpse into the human condition, painted with Fitzgerald's exquisite prose creating a poignant and timeless reflection of a generation chasing fleeting dreams amid the excesses of the Roaring Twenties.

A stunning reprint
At Ombre Bookshelf Publications we take every step possible to ensure the original integrity of this book has been upheld to its highest standard. This means that the texts in this story are unedited and unchanged from the original authors publication, preserving its earliest form for your indulgence. This title at its core is classic literature, it contains words strung together with romantic precision.

Title Details Original 1922 TextClassic American literature

249 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 7, 2024

About the author

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age, a term he popularized in his short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age. During his lifetime, he published four novels, four story collections, and 164 short stories. Although he achieved temporary popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald received critical acclaim only after his death and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
Born into a middle-class family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was raised primarily in New York state. He attended Princeton University where he befriended future literary critic Edmund Wilson. Owing to a failed romantic relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King, he dropped out in 1917 to join the United States Army during World War I. While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda Sayre, a Southern debutante who belonged to Montgomery's exclusive country-club set. Although she initially rejected Fitzgerald's marriage proposal due to his lack of financial prospects, Zelda agreed to marry him after he published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920). The novel became a cultural sensation and cemented his reputation as one of the eminent writers of the decade.
His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him further into the cultural elite. To maintain his affluent lifestyle, he wrote numerous stories for popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, and Esquire. During this period, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), received generally favorable reviews but was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 23,000 copies in its first year. Despite its lackluster debut, The Great Gatsby is now hailed by some literary critics as the "Great American Novel". Following the deterioration of his wife's mental health and her placement in a mental institute for schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934).
Struggling financially because of the declining popularity of his works during the Great Depression, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood, where he embarked upon an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter. While living in Hollywood, he cohabited with columnist Sheilah Graham, his final companion before his death. After a long struggle with alcoholism, he attained sobriety only to die of a heart attack in 1940, at 44. His friend Edmund Wilson edited and published an unfinished fifth novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), after Fitzgerald's death. In 1993, a new edition was published as The Love of the Last Tycoon, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli.