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Sogni d’inverno
“La ragazzina responsabile di tutto questo aveva undici anni; splendidamente brutta come lo sono le ragazzine destinate a diventare dopo qualche anno di una bellezza inesprimibile e a non porre mai fine alle pene di molti uomini. Tuttavia la scintilla si percepiva. ” Dexter ha le idee chiare: non vuole essere più un caddie, che sia qualcun altro a portare i bastoni per lui. E quando Judy, un'undicenne sgraziata, gli turba la vita, decide di mollare tutto e cercare fortuna altrove. Ma anche quando il denaro ci ha sorriso, è difficile resistere agli impulsi della passione...
Tratto da “Racconti”, pubblicato da Feltrinelli. Numero di caratteri: 47.758
Tratto da “Racconti”, pubblicato da Feltrinelli. Numero di caratteri: 47.758
38 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 1922
76 people are currently reading
2159 people want to read
About the author
F. Scott Fitzgerald
2,320 books25.5k followersFrancis 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 320 reviews
November 30, 2019
A realistic story depicting the desire and deficiency of youth.
It shows how such deficiencies are knit up with passionate energies that transcend and justify them.
A plot of a girl, Judy Jones,who resolved any affair immediately that assailed her too strongly, to a physical basis, under the magic of her physical splendor and of a guy, Dexter, who liked her since the time he was a young boy and who had the helpless ecstasy of losing himself in her, despite knowing all her interests that were not only towards him.
The helpless ecstasy which was opiate rather than tonic!
The story ends in a realistic way when Dexter finds...
The charm, passion and even the grief he could have borne was left behind in the country of illusion, of youth, of the richness of life, where his winter dreams had flourished.
A nice story written by Fitzgerald. I enjoyed it!
It shows how such deficiencies are knit up with passionate energies that transcend and justify them.
A plot of a girl, Judy Jones,who resolved any affair immediately that assailed her too strongly, to a physical basis, under the magic of her physical splendor and of a guy, Dexter, who liked her since the time he was a young boy and who had the helpless ecstasy of losing himself in her, despite knowing all her interests that were not only towards him.
The helpless ecstasy which was opiate rather than tonic!
The story ends in a realistic way when Dexter finds...
The charm, passion and even the grief he could have borne was left behind in the country of illusion, of youth, of the richness of life, where his winter dreams had flourished.
A nice story written by Fitzgerald. I enjoyed it!
September 13, 2023
Winter Dreams is a short story that was published in 1922. I found it excellent; the writing is sublime. The other novels of this book should go ahead.
January 28, 2025
The winter dreams of an ambitious young Midwesterner burn at first like fever, but then gradually mature into a serene season of disillusionment, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story “Winter Dreams,” a 1922 work that bears comparison with Fitzgerald’s novelistic masterpiece The Great Gatsby (1925). As Gatsby would do more memorably three years later, “Winter Dreams” interrogates the ideology of the American Dream as it shows its protagonist pursuing not only financial success but also a transcending of his socioeconomic class origins – all of which is tied up in his love for a beautiful and seemingly unattainable woman.
The early passages of “Winter Dreams” introduce the reader to Dexter Green, a young man whose father owns a grocery store in the lakeside resort town of Black Bear Lake, Minnesota. In the summertime, when well-to-do tourists come from the Twin Cities to golf at Black Bear, Dexter caddies for pocket money, thus gaining exposure to members of the social elite and their ways.
Fitzgerald was born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and I find that some of my favorite passages from his work are those in which he provides evocative description of his northern homeland, as when the story’s narrator describes, early in the tale, how,
In the fall, when the days became crisp and grey, and the long Minnesota winter shut down like the white lid of a box, Dexter’s skis moved over the snow that hid the fairways of the golf course. At these times, the country gave him a feeling of profound melancholy – it offended him that the links should lie in enforced fallowness, haunted by ragged sparrows for the long season. It was dreary, too, that on the tees where the gay colors fluttered in summer there were now only the desolate sandboxes knee-deep in crusted ice. When he crossed the hills, the wind blew cold as misery, and if the sun was out he tramped with his eyes squinted up against the hard dimensionless glare. (p. 2)
In his work as a caddy, the 14-year-old Dexter encounters the wealthy and well-connected Mr. Mortimer Jones, and makes a very good impression, but abruptly quits caddying because he finds that he is disturbed by Jones’s 11-year-old daughter Judy. The story’s narrator states that “There was a general ungodliness in the way her lips twisted down at the corners when she smiled, and in the…almost passionate quality of her eyes. Vitality is born early in such women” (p. 3). Dexter feels a “spark” upon meeting Judy, who says that she needs a caddy so she can learn to play golf, and the reader gets a sense that Judy will be a character of importance in Dexter’s future – that, as the narrator puts it, “As so frequently would be the case in the future, Dexter was unconsciously dictated to by his winter dreams” (p. 4).
As Fitzgerald himself did in real life, Dexter in “Winter Dreams” leaves his Midwestern home for an elite Eastern university that sounds a lot like Fitzgerald’s own alma mater of Princeton. Dexter sounds something like Jay Gatsby, in that “He wanted not association with glittering things and glittering people – he wanted the glittering things themselves” (p. 7). Unlike Gatsby, who made his money through bootlegging, Dexter makes his money legally, by developing a series of laundries in a Midwestern city. Gifted a guest card for the Sherry Island Golf Club, Dexter once again encounters Judy, and is once again impressed by her beauty and charm, as the color in her cheeks “and the mobility of her mouth gave a continual impression of flux, of intense life, of passionate vitality – balanced only partially by the sad luxury of her eyes” (pp. 8-9).
When Dexter sees Judy later that day, and they are swimming together at the lake, he hears a popular tune of the day being played on a piano on shore, and “The sound of the tune precipitated in him a sort of ecstasy, and…with that ecstasy he viewed what happened to him now. It was a mood of intense appreciation, a sense that, for once, he was magnificently attuned to life, and that everything about him was radiating a brightness and a glamour he might never know again” (pp. 9-10). Judy expresses an interest in seeing Dexter again; Dexter’s “heart turned over like the fly-wheel of the boat, and, for the second time, her casual whim gave a new direction to his life” (p. 11).
The admirer of Fitzgerald’s work, by this point, is likely to have a strong sense that Dexter’s feelings for Judy Jones are quite similar to Jay Gatsby’s feelings for Daisy Fay Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. For Dexter, Judy embodies something deliciously unattainable – a chance not to build success from his humble origins, but rather to re-make himself as someone who is upper-class and somehow always has been. She is, for Dexter, what the green light shining at the end of Daisy’s dock was for Gatsby who looked across the bay at that shining green light, night after night after night.
Dexter’s recollection of the first time he kissed Judy has that delirious, magical quality of a number of passages from The Great Gatsby:
There was a pause. Then she smiled and the corners of her mouth drooped and an almost imperceptible sway brought her closer to him, looking up into his eyes. A lump rose in Dexter’s throat, and he waited breathless for the experiment, facing the unpredictable compound that would form mysteriously from the elements of their lips. Then he saw – she communicated her excitement to him, lavishly, deeply, with kisses that were not a promise but a fulfillment. They aroused in him not hunger demanding renewal but surfeit that would demand more surfeit – kisses that were like charity, creating want by holding back nothing at all. (pp. 13-14)
At the same time, Dexter is capable of observing, quite dispassionately, that “Whatever Judy wanted, she went after with the full pressure of her charm” (p. 15). The beautiful, charming, wealthy, much-sought-after Judy can take up a new beau or drop him with equal facility – and Dexter knows that he means no more to her, in that regard, than any other beau. He reflects grimly that Judy “was entertained only by the gratification of her desires and by the direct exercise of her own charm. Perhaps from so much youthful love, so many youthful lovers, she had come, in self-defense, to nourish herself wholly from within” (p. 16).
There is a brief engagement; but then Dexter sees another man taking his place in Judy’s affections, and the engagement is broken off. He becomes engaged to another girl, who comes of a good family and is “light-haired and sweet and honorable, and a little stout” (p. 17); she does not cast a spell as Judy does, but Dexter gets the sense that she will make a good wife, and her family likes him too. But in the time between their January engagement and their plans to announce the engagement in June, “The Minnesota winter prolonged itself interminably” (p. 18), and a series of chance events brings Judy back into Dexter’s life. One sees Judy’s brittleness and fragility as she invokes their past love – “‘I’m more beautiful than anyone else,’ she said brokenly, ‘why can’t I be happy?’” (p. 21) – and one senses that things will not end well.
In some ways, as mentioned above, Dexter Green recalls Gatsby; the story’s final section recounts how, when the Great War began, “He was one of those young thousands who greeted the war with a certain amount of relief, welcoming the liberation from webs of tangled emotion” (p. 24).
In other ways, however, Dexter may remind the reader more of Nick Carraway, the narrator and choral figure of Gatsby; like Nick, Dexter is capable of beta-thinking, of looking back on and consciously questioning his earlier behaviour, as when, in the story’s concluding section, he looks back on his relationship with Judy Jones and reflects that “He loved her, and he would love her until the day he was too old for loving – but he could not have her. So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness” (p. 24). Hearing, years later, of what happened to Judy – an outcome that the reader may find surprising -- Dexter thinks with sadness that “these things were no longer in the world! They had existed, and they existed no longer” (p. 27).
Written in the sort of prose poetry that is characteristic of the work of this author whose work always seems to create a world of the brilliant and doomed, “Winter Dreams” provides a good if lesser-known example of the artistry of Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald.
The early passages of “Winter Dreams” introduce the reader to Dexter Green, a young man whose father owns a grocery store in the lakeside resort town of Black Bear Lake, Minnesota. In the summertime, when well-to-do tourists come from the Twin Cities to golf at Black Bear, Dexter caddies for pocket money, thus gaining exposure to members of the social elite and their ways.
Fitzgerald was born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and I find that some of my favorite passages from his work are those in which he provides evocative description of his northern homeland, as when the story’s narrator describes, early in the tale, how,
In the fall, when the days became crisp and grey, and the long Minnesota winter shut down like the white lid of a box, Dexter’s skis moved over the snow that hid the fairways of the golf course. At these times, the country gave him a feeling of profound melancholy – it offended him that the links should lie in enforced fallowness, haunted by ragged sparrows for the long season. It was dreary, too, that on the tees where the gay colors fluttered in summer there were now only the desolate sandboxes knee-deep in crusted ice. When he crossed the hills, the wind blew cold as misery, and if the sun was out he tramped with his eyes squinted up against the hard dimensionless glare. (p. 2)
In his work as a caddy, the 14-year-old Dexter encounters the wealthy and well-connected Mr. Mortimer Jones, and makes a very good impression, but abruptly quits caddying because he finds that he is disturbed by Jones’s 11-year-old daughter Judy. The story’s narrator states that “There was a general ungodliness in the way her lips twisted down at the corners when she smiled, and in the…almost passionate quality of her eyes. Vitality is born early in such women” (p. 3). Dexter feels a “spark” upon meeting Judy, who says that she needs a caddy so she can learn to play golf, and the reader gets a sense that Judy will be a character of importance in Dexter’s future – that, as the narrator puts it, “As so frequently would be the case in the future, Dexter was unconsciously dictated to by his winter dreams” (p. 4).
As Fitzgerald himself did in real life, Dexter in “Winter Dreams” leaves his Midwestern home for an elite Eastern university that sounds a lot like Fitzgerald’s own alma mater of Princeton. Dexter sounds something like Jay Gatsby, in that “He wanted not association with glittering things and glittering people – he wanted the glittering things themselves” (p. 7). Unlike Gatsby, who made his money through bootlegging, Dexter makes his money legally, by developing a series of laundries in a Midwestern city. Gifted a guest card for the Sherry Island Golf Club, Dexter once again encounters Judy, and is once again impressed by her beauty and charm, as the color in her cheeks “and the mobility of her mouth gave a continual impression of flux, of intense life, of passionate vitality – balanced only partially by the sad luxury of her eyes” (pp. 8-9).
When Dexter sees Judy later that day, and they are swimming together at the lake, he hears a popular tune of the day being played on a piano on shore, and “The sound of the tune precipitated in him a sort of ecstasy, and…with that ecstasy he viewed what happened to him now. It was a mood of intense appreciation, a sense that, for once, he was magnificently attuned to life, and that everything about him was radiating a brightness and a glamour he might never know again” (pp. 9-10). Judy expresses an interest in seeing Dexter again; Dexter’s “heart turned over like the fly-wheel of the boat, and, for the second time, her casual whim gave a new direction to his life” (p. 11).
The admirer of Fitzgerald’s work, by this point, is likely to have a strong sense that Dexter’s feelings for Judy Jones are quite similar to Jay Gatsby’s feelings for Daisy Fay Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. For Dexter, Judy embodies something deliciously unattainable – a chance not to build success from his humble origins, but rather to re-make himself as someone who is upper-class and somehow always has been. She is, for Dexter, what the green light shining at the end of Daisy’s dock was for Gatsby who looked across the bay at that shining green light, night after night after night.
Dexter’s recollection of the first time he kissed Judy has that delirious, magical quality of a number of passages from The Great Gatsby:
There was a pause. Then she smiled and the corners of her mouth drooped and an almost imperceptible sway brought her closer to him, looking up into his eyes. A lump rose in Dexter’s throat, and he waited breathless for the experiment, facing the unpredictable compound that would form mysteriously from the elements of their lips. Then he saw – she communicated her excitement to him, lavishly, deeply, with kisses that were not a promise but a fulfillment. They aroused in him not hunger demanding renewal but surfeit that would demand more surfeit – kisses that were like charity, creating want by holding back nothing at all. (pp. 13-14)
At the same time, Dexter is capable of observing, quite dispassionately, that “Whatever Judy wanted, she went after with the full pressure of her charm” (p. 15). The beautiful, charming, wealthy, much-sought-after Judy can take up a new beau or drop him with equal facility – and Dexter knows that he means no more to her, in that regard, than any other beau. He reflects grimly that Judy “was entertained only by the gratification of her desires and by the direct exercise of her own charm. Perhaps from so much youthful love, so many youthful lovers, she had come, in self-defense, to nourish herself wholly from within” (p. 16).
There is a brief engagement; but then Dexter sees another man taking his place in Judy’s affections, and the engagement is broken off. He becomes engaged to another girl, who comes of a good family and is “light-haired and sweet and honorable, and a little stout” (p. 17); she does not cast a spell as Judy does, but Dexter gets the sense that she will make a good wife, and her family likes him too. But in the time between their January engagement and their plans to announce the engagement in June, “The Minnesota winter prolonged itself interminably” (p. 18), and a series of chance events brings Judy back into Dexter’s life. One sees Judy’s brittleness and fragility as she invokes their past love – “‘I’m more beautiful than anyone else,’ she said brokenly, ‘why can’t I be happy?’” (p. 21) – and one senses that things will not end well.
In some ways, as mentioned above, Dexter Green recalls Gatsby; the story’s final section recounts how, when the Great War began, “He was one of those young thousands who greeted the war with a certain amount of relief, welcoming the liberation from webs of tangled emotion” (p. 24).
In other ways, however, Dexter may remind the reader more of Nick Carraway, the narrator and choral figure of Gatsby; like Nick, Dexter is capable of beta-thinking, of looking back on and consciously questioning his earlier behaviour, as when, in the story’s concluding section, he looks back on his relationship with Judy Jones and reflects that “He loved her, and he would love her until the day he was too old for loving – but he could not have her. So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness” (p. 24). Hearing, years later, of what happened to Judy – an outcome that the reader may find surprising -- Dexter thinks with sadness that “these things were no longer in the world! They had existed, and they existed no longer” (p. 27).
Written in the sort of prose poetry that is characteristic of the work of this author whose work always seems to create a world of the brilliant and doomed, “Winter Dreams” provides a good if lesser-known example of the artistry of Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald.
July 10, 2025
Para ambos a vida chegara e passara depressa, não deixando amargura mas piedade, não deixando desilusão mas sofrimento. Havia ainda bastante luar, quando apertaram as mãos, a fim de que cada um deles visse a bondade que refulgia nos olhos do outro.
Três histórias, cada uma mais infeliz que a outra.
“Sonhos de Inverno” é um “Grande Gatsby” em miniatura, com a menina rica e caprichosa e o rapaz pobre e obcecado. “Resíduos de Felicidade” é um dos contos mais deprimentes que já li, a história de um grande amor entre duas pessoas medianas que acaba em tragédia. “Regresso à Babilónia” serviu de base ao magnífico filme “A Última Vez que Vi Paris”, com Elizabeth Taylor, mas é demasiado curto para causar um verdadeiro impacto em mim.
Sonhos de Inverno – 4*
Resíduos de Felicidade – 5*
Regresso à Babilónia – 3*
As questões de família são coisas amargas. Não se desenrolam de acordo com quaisquer regras. Não são como as dores físicas ou os ferimentos; assemelham-se mais a gretas na pele que não se curam porque não há carne bastante.
Três histórias, cada uma mais infeliz que a outra.
“Sonhos de Inverno” é um “Grande Gatsby” em miniatura, com a menina rica e caprichosa e o rapaz pobre e obcecado. “Resíduos de Felicidade” é um dos contos mais deprimentes que já li, a história de um grande amor entre duas pessoas medianas que acaba em tragédia. “Regresso à Babilónia” serviu de base ao magnífico filme “A Última Vez que Vi Paris”, com Elizabeth Taylor, mas é demasiado curto para causar um verdadeiro impacto em mim.
Sonhos de Inverno – 4*
Resíduos de Felicidade – 5*
Regresso à Babilónia – 3*
As questões de família são coisas amargas. Não se desenrolam de acordo com quaisquer regras. Não são como as dores físicas ou os ferimentos; assemelham-se mais a gretas na pele que não se curam porque não há carne bastante.
July 26, 2015
In terms of the actual prose, Fitzgerald is possibly my favorite writer. He doesn't limit his writing to choosing the right words, even his commas and dashes are perfectly on point:
It was during those three days that, for the first time, he had asked her to marry him. She said "maybe some day," she said "kiss me," she said "I'd like to marry you," she said "I love you" — she said — nothing.
He always expresses so much with few words, an ability I love in any writer, but one especially important in one who writes short stories.
Unfortunately, I'm only giving this one three stars because all of Fitzgerald's genius with writing are offset by his too narrow world. I'm not talking about the much repeated criticism that he always writes about rich white Americans who live frivolous lives. It's worse than that: his female character is almost always the same person. Rosalind Connage (This Side of Paradise), Gloria Gilbert (The Beautiful and Damned), Marjorie Harvey (Bernice Bobs Her Hair) and now Judy Jones (Winter Dreams) are all perfectly indistinguishable.
They are all beautiful and athletic women who, despite being selfish assholes, are so dazzling and energetic men can't help falling in love with them. These women are very witty, but they hate every other person of their sex, considering them stupid. Because they are so ridiculously attractive to men, they always play with the hearts of those who are foolish enough to love them, and even though it amuses them in a way, deep down they're kind of depressed about it. Yawn.
From what I've heard, this was how Fitzgerald saw his own wife Zelda before they got married, and though that would explain his fascination with the character, it doesn't excuse him for overusing it. Especially aggravating is the fact that we see this girl always through the man's eyes; I would be much more forgiving of his usage of a similar character if it was with the intention of delving deeper into her psyche, but this never happens.
All in all, if you haven't read many of his other works, this is great. If you have, it can be repetitive, but the prose is still so gorgeous it's worth it.
It was during those three days that, for the first time, he had asked her to marry him. She said "maybe some day," she said "kiss me," she said "I'd like to marry you," she said "I love you" — she said — nothing.
He always expresses so much with few words, an ability I love in any writer, but one especially important in one who writes short stories.
Unfortunately, I'm only giving this one three stars because all of Fitzgerald's genius with writing are offset by his too narrow world. I'm not talking about the much repeated criticism that he always writes about rich white Americans who live frivolous lives. It's worse than that: his female character is almost always the same person. Rosalind Connage (This Side of Paradise), Gloria Gilbert (The Beautiful and Damned), Marjorie Harvey (Bernice Bobs Her Hair) and now Judy Jones (Winter Dreams) are all perfectly indistinguishable.
They are all beautiful and athletic women who, despite being selfish assholes, are so dazzling and energetic men can't help falling in love with them. These women are very witty, but they hate every other person of their sex, considering them stupid. Because they are so ridiculously attractive to men, they always play with the hearts of those who are foolish enough to love them, and even though it amuses them in a way, deep down they're kind of depressed about it. Yawn.
From what I've heard, this was how Fitzgerald saw his own wife Zelda before they got married, and though that would explain his fascination with the character, it doesn't excuse him for overusing it. Especially aggravating is the fact that we see this girl always through the man's eyes; I would be much more forgiving of his usage of a similar character if it was with the intention of delving deeper into her psyche, but this never happens.
All in all, if you haven't read many of his other works, this is great. If you have, it can be repetitive, but the prose is still so gorgeous it's worth it.
February 27, 2019
I'm starting to get the impression that Scott Fitzgerald was a better short-story writer than he was a novelist. Winter Dreams coming in at under fifty pages left more of a mark on me than some of his most famous novels. First appearing in the Metropolitan Magazine all the way back in 1922, it is considered one of his finest. During a cold winter, Dexter Green, son of the owner of the second-best grocery store in Black Bear, Minnesota, skis across the snowed-in golf course where he caddies in the warmer months to earn his pocket money. In April, the spring thaw begins and the first golfers brave the course. Unlike the dismal spring, the autumn and winter empower Dexter and stimulate his imagination. As time passes he eventually falls in love with a girl called Judy, but things don't go as planned and he ends up getting engaged to another, Irene. As the years pass, he is in New York and learns that Judy has married a friend of his, thus bringing back the sweet memories from times gone by. This charming and poignant story is ultimately about mourning the past and a lost youth, which one so dearly wishes could be reclaimed.
February 2, 2022
This is a nice sad story of unrequited love.
January 21, 2023
Lovely, lovely, lovely.
This story reminded me a bit to much of Gatsby that I liked it a lot! Anyone who has loved and lost would understand Dexter's wave of emotions... from lust, to love, to jealousy, to grief, and then on to...nothing. Fitzgerald has successfully captured the capacity of the human heart in such a bittersweet way, mostly painful, but awfully beautiful.
*************************************
رویاهای زمستان، تنها یک داستان کوتاه ساده نبود... شعری بود عاشقانه.
اعتراف میکنم: حین خواندن داستان چند بار به «گتسبی بزرگ» پرتاب شدم. داستان کوتاه بود اما با این حال یکی از داستانهای خوبیست که میتوان از ادبیات امریکا خواند و از آن لذت برد. داستان بود اما میتوان آن را مشق عشقی شاعرانه دانست که فیتزجرالد با هنرمندی آن را به شکل یک داستان درآورده. داستان در مورد شخصی جوان به نام دکستر است و در هم تنیدن جسم و روح او با شخصی به نام جودی جونز. داستانیست روایت کنندهی زندگی: عشق، سردرگمی، حسادت، رسیدن، اندوه و نهایتا پوچی.
خانمها و آقایان این شما و این کلمات جادویی آقای فیتزجرالد.
یکم بهمنماه یکهزار و چهارصد و یک
This story reminded me a bit to much of Gatsby that I liked it a lot! Anyone who has loved and lost would understand Dexter's wave of emotions... from lust, to love, to jealousy, to grief, and then on to...nothing. Fitzgerald has successfully captured the capacity of the human heart in such a bittersweet way, mostly painful, but awfully beautiful.
*************************************
رویاهای زمستان، تنها یک داستان کوتاه ساده نبود... شعری بود عاشقانه.
اعتراف میکنم: حین خواندن داستان چند بار به «گتسبی بزرگ» پرتاب شدم. داستان کوتاه بود اما با این حال یکی از داستانهای خوبیست که میتوان از ادبیات امریکا خواند و از آن لذت برد. داستان بود اما میتوان آن را مشق عشقی شاعرانه دانست که فیتزجرالد با هنرمندی آن را به شکل یک داستان درآورده. داستان در مورد شخصی جوان به نام دکستر است و در هم تنیدن جسم و روح او با شخصی به نام جودی جونز. داستانیست روایت کنندهی زندگی: عشق، سردرگمی، حسادت، رسیدن، اندوه و نهایتا پوچی.
خانمها و آقایان این شما و این کلمات جادویی آقای فیتزجرالد.
یکم بهمنماه یکهزار و چهارصد و یک
January 23, 2018
Excelente colecção de contos, escritos delicada e minuciosamente por quem,sem sombra de dúvidas,tinha uma capacidade excepcional para nos fazer submergir numa estória. Três/quatro linhas são suficientes para nos atirar para dentro de um universo onde sabe bem caminhar e ser conduzido. Americano puro,numa sociedade aburguesada,onde os dandys proliferam,e as almas se vão queimando.
Nem todos os contos têm o mesmo nível,e os dois últimos ficam aquém dos três primeiros,mas em nenhum momento o tempo parece perdido.
Nem todos os contos têm o mesmo nível,e os dois últimos ficam aquém dos três primeiros,mas em nenhum momento o tempo parece perdido.
June 5, 2010
Fitzgerald is best remembered for his spoiled and conflicted Jazz Age characters, including Dexter Green from “Winter Dreams,” who bears a distinct resemblance to Jay Gatsby, the protagonist of The Great Gatsby. Both are self-made men who are eager to rise beyond their station in life, and both find that personal fulfillment and their ideal women are ultimately elusive. “Winter Dreams” first appeared in Metropolitan Magazine in 1922 and later in the collection All the Sad Young Men (1926). The similarities between “Winter Dreams” and The Great Gatsby are not accidental, as Fitzgerald wrote the story while he was developing the ideas that would become the novel.
“Winter Dreams” has a distinct autobiographical bent, and the story traces Fitzgerald’s experiences growing up in a middle-class family in the upper Midwest. Black Bear Lake, where the glitterati spend their summers in the story, is only a partial disguise of White Bear Lake, an exclusive resort area where Saint Paul’s elite would summer. It was a place that Fitzgerald knew well. It is also arguable that Dexter Green bears a resemblance to Fitzgerald himself, a restless and talented young man desperate to advance himself in a singular pursuit of success.
The “winter dreams” of the story refer to the American Dream that Dexter comes to embody, but success brings a high cost, and social mobility restricts Dexter’s capacity for happiness. Dexter is from humble origins: his mother was an immigrant who constantly struggled with the language of her adopted homeland. The central irony of the story is that realizing the American Dream yields bleak rewards. For example, when Dexter was a young caddy, he dreamed about success and wealth and the happiness they would bring. When he finally beats T. A. Hedrick in a golf tournament, however, the triumph brings him little joy. Dexter is able to transcend middle-class inertia but, despite his tireless efforts to advance his fortunes, forced to accept that money cannot buy happiness.
Dexter has an ambiguous relationship with the bluebloods and idle rich who populate his social world. On one hand, he is proud of his self-made status and has no respect for the men for whom luxury and wealth were a given. Still, the men are emblems of a world to which Dexter wants to belong. In pursuing Judy, he is attempting to validate his claim as a bonafide member of the upper class. Dexter feels that he is a newer, stronger, and more praiseworthy version of the Mortimer Joneses of the world, but he still mimics the rich in gesture and appearance. He pays meticulous attention to his appearance, concerned with small details that only an outsider who was trying to disguise himself as a man of wealth would really notice. Dexter’s position in this world is precarious, and there is no room for error in appearance or etiquette. Through Dexter and the world of earned distinctions that he comes to represent, Fitzgerald exposes the hollowness that comes from the aggressive pursuit of the American Dream. Wealth and social status substitute for strong connections to people, eclipsing the possibility of happiness of emotional fulfillment.
Reality and fantasy prove to be constantly at odds with each other as Dexter and Judy search for stability and meaning in “Winter Dreams.” Dexter is the victim of his so-called winter dreams, adolescent fantasies that he is never able to fulfill. As he searches for happiness and love, he unwisely focuses his quest exclusively on Judy Jones, making her the sole object of his romantic projections. However, rather than provide fulfillment for Dexter, Judy and her displays of affection simply trigger more yearning. Dexter never sees Judy for who she really is; rather, he sees her as an ideal of womanhood and the embodiment of perfect love. Later, Judy reveals her self-serving nature when she confesses that she is breaking off relations with a man who has pursued her simply because he is not of adequate financial means. Dexter, still blinded by his idealistic view of Judy, cannot digest this information, because it suggests the reality of who Judy is.
Although Dexter recognizes the real threat of harm beneath Judy’s charm and beauty and tries to convince himself that he is no longer in love with her, he cannot fully divorce himself from the romantic, uncontrollable attachment he has to her. Ultimately, Dexter becomes the victim not of Judy’s fickle behavior but of his own stubborn ideals. Time and again, Dexter and Judy struggle with contradictions between reality and fantasy. On their first date, Dexter is disappointed that Judy appears in an average dress and, instead of the pomp and ritual he expected, blandly tells the maid that they are ready to eat. In their ambiguous and protracted courtship, Judy treats him with “interest . . . encouragement . . . malice . . . indifference . . . [and:] contempt.” The reality of this relationship is bleak, but the idealistic vision of what it could be enables it to limp along.
Fitzgerald uses similes throughout “Winter Dreams,” most notably at the beginning of the story, to make abstract notions, such as the frustrations of love and drive to succeed, more concrete. The similes also suggest the gulf that separates reality from the illusions the characters are subject to. In the first sentence of the story, we learn that, unlike Dexter, some of the caddies at the country club are “poor as sin.” As winter settles on Minnesota, snow covers the golf course “like the white lid of a box,” and the wind blows “cold as misery.” These similes, grimly preoccupied with gloomy notions of misery and poverty, set the tone for the unhappy tale that Fitzgerald is about to convey.
Similes help clarify the abstract idea of Dexter’s winter dreams. His visions of grandeur involve vague, half-formed hopes for success and wealth and the satisfaction he assumes will accompany them. Dexter is able to translate his dreams into reality. He becomes the self-professed richest young man in his part of the country and gets to face off in a round of golf with Mr. Hedrick, whom he easily beats. However, he is still dogged by the abstract—his struggle to find love and accept the responsibility of belonging to someone else. During his first fateful meeting with the adult Judy, his heart “turned over like the fly-wheel on the boat.” Fitzgerald’s use of simile helps provide a link between abstract and actual realms, reality and illusion, and love and its inevitable disappointments.
In the elite world of the Sherry Island Golf Club, the boat emerges not only as a symbol of luxury but also as a powerful reminder of the emptiness a life of indulgence can lead to. The boat makes a memorable entrance, with Judy at the helm, as Dexter enjoys a solitary moment on the raft anchored in the middle of the lake next to the country club. Lost in a reverie, Dexter is filled with the bliss of arrival, having finally reached the success he had long anticipated. Entertaining only the most auspicious of prospects when he looks to the future, Dexter feels at that moment a satisfaction that he may never again experience as intensely. Abruptly interrupting Dexter’s musings, the whirr of the motor overpowers Dexter’s thoughts about the rosy life ahead. Judy speeds across the lake in the boat, foreshadowing the profound ways that Dexter’s ensuing passion for Judy will impact his future happiness.
For Judy, flying behind the boat on a surfboard, the boat is an escape from reality. Her admirers learn quickly that she is too fast to catch and lives solely for her own pleasure. Dexter obeys when she tells him to drive the boat for her, the first of an ensuing string of commands he will obey. As an object of affluence, it shows how truly divorced from reality Judy is. She tells Dexter that she is running from a man she had been dating who has begun to idealize her. The boat is her way of escaping the ways in which men try to make her fit their own dreams and reflect their idealized visions of the perfect woman. Judy hides in the boat again later, when she grows tired of the man from New York who is rumored to be her fiancé. The boat becomes Judy’s haven from the oppressive affections of men who are captivated by her, an expensive toy that whisks her away from commitment or the need to accept responsibility for her actions.
Golf balls, part of the pristine world of the country club, suggest the harm that an idle life can lead to as well as the stringent requirements one must meet to belong to the upper class. Dexter, with his self-made wealth, tries desperately to blend in with this affluent world. The imagery of the golf balls emerges twice, both times reflecting the upper-class ease that the game itself embodies. First, before the spring thaw in the north country, golfers use black and red balls, which stand out better in the patches of snow that linger on the course. This reference comes early in the story, when Dexter is a young caddy, excluded from Judy Jones and her set because he is a middle-class boy of limited means. When Dexter finally gets a toehold in her world, he sacrifices his individuality for the identical white balls he uses at the club where he once caddied.
During Dexter’s once anticipated but ultimately disappointing golf outing with T. A. Hedrick, golf balls, in the hands of Judy Jones, become an emblem of aggression. Judy’s ball hits Mr. Hedrick in the stomach, and her obliviousness, whether feigned or genuine, serves only to further characterize her as a self-centered brat. Although there is little threat of real physical violence in this genteel, upper-class world, the incident suggests that aggression lurks just beneath the surface. Although Judy embodies the light, almost hedonist spirit that would eventually characterize the age, Fitzgerald reminds us in this episode that beneath the fun and leisure, real harm can be done. Judy’s errant ball foreshadows the more potent emotional damage she imparts in trifling with Dexter’s and her other admirers’ affections.
The book were smartly given us messages about The Dark Side of the American Dream and Reality versus Idealism... :D
“Winter Dreams” has a distinct autobiographical bent, and the story traces Fitzgerald’s experiences growing up in a middle-class family in the upper Midwest. Black Bear Lake, where the glitterati spend their summers in the story, is only a partial disguise of White Bear Lake, an exclusive resort area where Saint Paul’s elite would summer. It was a place that Fitzgerald knew well. It is also arguable that Dexter Green bears a resemblance to Fitzgerald himself, a restless and talented young man desperate to advance himself in a singular pursuit of success.
The “winter dreams” of the story refer to the American Dream that Dexter comes to embody, but success brings a high cost, and social mobility restricts Dexter’s capacity for happiness. Dexter is from humble origins: his mother was an immigrant who constantly struggled with the language of her adopted homeland. The central irony of the story is that realizing the American Dream yields bleak rewards. For example, when Dexter was a young caddy, he dreamed about success and wealth and the happiness they would bring. When he finally beats T. A. Hedrick in a golf tournament, however, the triumph brings him little joy. Dexter is able to transcend middle-class inertia but, despite his tireless efforts to advance his fortunes, forced to accept that money cannot buy happiness.
Dexter has an ambiguous relationship with the bluebloods and idle rich who populate his social world. On one hand, he is proud of his self-made status and has no respect for the men for whom luxury and wealth were a given. Still, the men are emblems of a world to which Dexter wants to belong. In pursuing Judy, he is attempting to validate his claim as a bonafide member of the upper class. Dexter feels that he is a newer, stronger, and more praiseworthy version of the Mortimer Joneses of the world, but he still mimics the rich in gesture and appearance. He pays meticulous attention to his appearance, concerned with small details that only an outsider who was trying to disguise himself as a man of wealth would really notice. Dexter’s position in this world is precarious, and there is no room for error in appearance or etiquette. Through Dexter and the world of earned distinctions that he comes to represent, Fitzgerald exposes the hollowness that comes from the aggressive pursuit of the American Dream. Wealth and social status substitute for strong connections to people, eclipsing the possibility of happiness of emotional fulfillment.
Reality and fantasy prove to be constantly at odds with each other as Dexter and Judy search for stability and meaning in “Winter Dreams.” Dexter is the victim of his so-called winter dreams, adolescent fantasies that he is never able to fulfill. As he searches for happiness and love, he unwisely focuses his quest exclusively on Judy Jones, making her the sole object of his romantic projections. However, rather than provide fulfillment for Dexter, Judy and her displays of affection simply trigger more yearning. Dexter never sees Judy for who she really is; rather, he sees her as an ideal of womanhood and the embodiment of perfect love. Later, Judy reveals her self-serving nature when she confesses that she is breaking off relations with a man who has pursued her simply because he is not of adequate financial means. Dexter, still blinded by his idealistic view of Judy, cannot digest this information, because it suggests the reality of who Judy is.
Although Dexter recognizes the real threat of harm beneath Judy’s charm and beauty and tries to convince himself that he is no longer in love with her, he cannot fully divorce himself from the romantic, uncontrollable attachment he has to her. Ultimately, Dexter becomes the victim not of Judy’s fickle behavior but of his own stubborn ideals. Time and again, Dexter and Judy struggle with contradictions between reality and fantasy. On their first date, Dexter is disappointed that Judy appears in an average dress and, instead of the pomp and ritual he expected, blandly tells the maid that they are ready to eat. In their ambiguous and protracted courtship, Judy treats him with “interest . . . encouragement . . . malice . . . indifference . . . [and:] contempt.” The reality of this relationship is bleak, but the idealistic vision of what it could be enables it to limp along.
Fitzgerald uses similes throughout “Winter Dreams,” most notably at the beginning of the story, to make abstract notions, such as the frustrations of love and drive to succeed, more concrete. The similes also suggest the gulf that separates reality from the illusions the characters are subject to. In the first sentence of the story, we learn that, unlike Dexter, some of the caddies at the country club are “poor as sin.” As winter settles on Minnesota, snow covers the golf course “like the white lid of a box,” and the wind blows “cold as misery.” These similes, grimly preoccupied with gloomy notions of misery and poverty, set the tone for the unhappy tale that Fitzgerald is about to convey.
Similes help clarify the abstract idea of Dexter’s winter dreams. His visions of grandeur involve vague, half-formed hopes for success and wealth and the satisfaction he assumes will accompany them. Dexter is able to translate his dreams into reality. He becomes the self-professed richest young man in his part of the country and gets to face off in a round of golf with Mr. Hedrick, whom he easily beats. However, he is still dogged by the abstract—his struggle to find love and accept the responsibility of belonging to someone else. During his first fateful meeting with the adult Judy, his heart “turned over like the fly-wheel on the boat.” Fitzgerald’s use of simile helps provide a link between abstract and actual realms, reality and illusion, and love and its inevitable disappointments.
In the elite world of the Sherry Island Golf Club, the boat emerges not only as a symbol of luxury but also as a powerful reminder of the emptiness a life of indulgence can lead to. The boat makes a memorable entrance, with Judy at the helm, as Dexter enjoys a solitary moment on the raft anchored in the middle of the lake next to the country club. Lost in a reverie, Dexter is filled with the bliss of arrival, having finally reached the success he had long anticipated. Entertaining only the most auspicious of prospects when he looks to the future, Dexter feels at that moment a satisfaction that he may never again experience as intensely. Abruptly interrupting Dexter’s musings, the whirr of the motor overpowers Dexter’s thoughts about the rosy life ahead. Judy speeds across the lake in the boat, foreshadowing the profound ways that Dexter’s ensuing passion for Judy will impact his future happiness.
For Judy, flying behind the boat on a surfboard, the boat is an escape from reality. Her admirers learn quickly that she is too fast to catch and lives solely for her own pleasure. Dexter obeys when she tells him to drive the boat for her, the first of an ensuing string of commands he will obey. As an object of affluence, it shows how truly divorced from reality Judy is. She tells Dexter that she is running from a man she had been dating who has begun to idealize her. The boat is her way of escaping the ways in which men try to make her fit their own dreams and reflect their idealized visions of the perfect woman. Judy hides in the boat again later, when she grows tired of the man from New York who is rumored to be her fiancé. The boat becomes Judy’s haven from the oppressive affections of men who are captivated by her, an expensive toy that whisks her away from commitment or the need to accept responsibility for her actions.
Golf balls, part of the pristine world of the country club, suggest the harm that an idle life can lead to as well as the stringent requirements one must meet to belong to the upper class. Dexter, with his self-made wealth, tries desperately to blend in with this affluent world. The imagery of the golf balls emerges twice, both times reflecting the upper-class ease that the game itself embodies. First, before the spring thaw in the north country, golfers use black and red balls, which stand out better in the patches of snow that linger on the course. This reference comes early in the story, when Dexter is a young caddy, excluded from Judy Jones and her set because he is a middle-class boy of limited means. When Dexter finally gets a toehold in her world, he sacrifices his individuality for the identical white balls he uses at the club where he once caddied.
During Dexter’s once anticipated but ultimately disappointing golf outing with T. A. Hedrick, golf balls, in the hands of Judy Jones, become an emblem of aggression. Judy’s ball hits Mr. Hedrick in the stomach, and her obliviousness, whether feigned or genuine, serves only to further characterize her as a self-centered brat. Although there is little threat of real physical violence in this genteel, upper-class world, the incident suggests that aggression lurks just beneath the surface. Although Judy embodies the light, almost hedonist spirit that would eventually characterize the age, Fitzgerald reminds us in this episode that beneath the fun and leisure, real harm can be done. Judy’s errant ball foreshadows the more potent emotional damage she imparts in trifling with Dexter’s and her other admirers’ affections.
The book were smartly given us messages about The Dark Side of the American Dream and Reality versus Idealism... :D
March 28, 2020
I don't know how to put into words how this made me feel so I'll leave you with my favourite passages:
- “Then he saw--she communicated her excitement to him, lavishly, deeply, with kisses that were not a promise but a fulfillment. They aroused in him not hunger demanding renewal but surfeit that would demand more surfeit . . . kisses that were like charity, creating want by holding back nothing at all.”
- “He loved her, and he would love her until the day he was too old for loving--but he could not have her. So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness.”
- “The dream was gone. Something had been taken from him. In a sort of panic he pushed the palms of his hands into his eyes and tried to bring up a picture of the waters lapping on Sherry Island and the moonlit veranda, and gingham on the golf-links and the dry sun and the gold color of her neck's soft down. And her mouth damp to his kisses and her eyes plaintive with melancholy and her freshness like new fine linen in the morning. Why, these things were no longer in the world! They had existed and they existed no longer.”
- “Then he saw--she communicated her excitement to him, lavishly, deeply, with kisses that were not a promise but a fulfillment. They aroused in him not hunger demanding renewal but surfeit that would demand more surfeit . . . kisses that were like charity, creating want by holding back nothing at all.”
- “He loved her, and he would love her until the day he was too old for loving--but he could not have her. So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness.”
- “The dream was gone. Something had been taken from him. In a sort of panic he pushed the palms of his hands into his eyes and tried to bring up a picture of the waters lapping on Sherry Island and the moonlit veranda, and gingham on the golf-links and the dry sun and the gold color of her neck's soft down. And her mouth damp to his kisses and her eyes plaintive with melancholy and her freshness like new fine linen in the morning. Why, these things were no longer in the world! They had existed and they existed no longer.”
March 26, 2019
3.5 stars for this mandatory novella.
I had to read this novella written by F. Scott Fitzgerald for a course. Let me tell you that this one is great! I haven't read anything by him before, but I really want to read "The Great Gatsby".
This book is from Dexter Green's point of view, but is narrated in third-person view, although the narrator gives us only what he/she wants, adding commentaries on the way there.
It is the story of Dexter, being in a high social class, playing golf and meeting the love of his life, Judy Jones. Despite this, she is an easy woman, now loving a man, tomorrow loving another one. But she is an interesting woman. She is kind of a tomboy girl. I didn't despised her. She is somehow likeable.
I liked Dexter. The way his feelings are described shows us how great he is. He isn't selfish nor mean. He is a calm man, a gentleman, he overthinks things, so to say.
It starts as a realism romanticism book, but in the end it shows us how life really is.
It is a beautiful book that deserves to be read. I highly recommend it! Because Fitzgerald's way of writing is purely amazing!
I had to read this novella written by F. Scott Fitzgerald for a course. Let me tell you that this one is great! I haven't read anything by him before, but I really want to read "The Great Gatsby".
This book is from Dexter Green's point of view, but is narrated in third-person view, although the narrator gives us only what he/she wants, adding commentaries on the way there.
It is the story of Dexter, being in a high social class, playing golf and meeting the love of his life, Judy Jones. Despite this, she is an easy woman, now loving a man, tomorrow loving another one. But she is an interesting woman. She is kind of a tomboy girl. I didn't despised her. She is somehow likeable.
I liked Dexter. The way his feelings are described shows us how great he is. He isn't selfish nor mean. He is a calm man, a gentleman, he overthinks things, so to say.
It starts as a realism romanticism book, but in the end it shows us how life really is.
It is a beautiful book that deserves to be read. I highly recommend it! Because Fitzgerald's way of writing is purely amazing!
May 5, 2023
Some of the caddies were "poor as sin" but not Dexter—his father "owned the second best grocery store in Black Bear"; thus we are told in the opening paragraph just how finely class and wealth are to be sliced and measured and sold by the ounce.
Dexter reaches for glittering things without even realizing why he wants them; he wants what is wanted.
He meets a girl. He is taken by the "sad luxury of her eyes." She changes his life, a couple of times. When they meet as young adults, Dexter is smitten, he has always been smitten, but "She was entertained only by the gratification of her desires and by the direct exercise of her own charm."
World War I is but an interlude in the sweep of this grandly intimate short story. 4.5 stars rounded down because F. Scott is now beyond caring about these paltry glittering stars.
Dexter reaches for glittering things without even realizing why he wants them; he wants what is wanted.
He meets a girl. He is taken by the "sad luxury of her eyes." She changes his life, a couple of times. When they meet as young adults, Dexter is smitten, he has always been smitten, but "She was entertained only by the gratification of her desires and by the direct exercise of her own charm."
World War I is but an interlude in the sweep of this grandly intimate short story. 4.5 stars rounded down because F. Scott is now beyond caring about these paltry glittering stars.
June 24, 2025
What a gorgeously written story!
November 30, 2025
"Lots of women fade just like that,"... yeah, lots of women lose their spark after they get married to awful men.
October 28, 2025
The characters are absolutely terrible people. But Fitzgerald’s writing is beautiful and this is a great text for teaching character motivations to my students.
December 13, 2023
This story broke the record of how many times I can puke in my mouth in the span of 25 pages.
August 10, 2009
Read this book in a required American Lit class with a shitty teacher. God, I hated that class. But this short story woke me up. Anyone who has been through a passionate relationship (and maybe actual love on your end rather than hers and maybe she knew that) that broke up and part of you still yearns for that person will relate (I think) to this short story on a deeper level than the outsider looking in.
August 5, 2018
I read somewhere once that Fitzgerald was incapable of writing a dull sentence. I think that's quite true, but aside from that there's always something about the themes he chooses and the way he exposes his times and his society that strikes me right where my heart is.
August 20, 2018
Ha sido una lectura interesante teniendo en cuenta que este relato fue pulido hasta dar lugar a 'El Gran Gatsby'.
Dexter es un joven que tiene grandes aspiraciones, viene de una familia humilde y desea prosperar en la vida, ser alguien importante. Se enamora siendo muy joven de Judy, una joven caprichosa y sin escrúpulos que pertenece a la alta sociedad.
'No le importaban los labios, los ojos, las manos que acariciaban. Quería que le importaran, pero no le importaban. Porque se había ido de aquel mundo, y no podría volver jamás. Las puertas se habrían cerrado, el sol se había puesto, y la única belleza que quedaba era la belleza gris del acero que resiste al tiempo. Incluso el dolor que podía haber sentido había quedado atrás, en el país de las ilusiones, de la juventud, de la plenitud de la vida, donde habían florecido sus sueños de invierno.'
Dexter es un joven que tiene grandes aspiraciones, viene de una familia humilde y desea prosperar en la vida, ser alguien importante. Se enamora siendo muy joven de Judy, una joven caprichosa y sin escrúpulos que pertenece a la alta sociedad.
'No le importaban los labios, los ojos, las manos que acariciaban. Quería que le importaran, pero no le importaban. Porque se había ido de aquel mundo, y no podría volver jamás. Las puertas se habrían cerrado, el sol se había puesto, y la única belleza que quedaba era la belleza gris del acero que resiste al tiempo. Incluso el dolor que podía haber sentido había quedado atrás, en el país de las ilusiones, de la juventud, de la plenitud de la vida, donde habían florecido sus sueños de invierno.'
December 12, 2023
Te odio, te odio, te estaría dando patadas en los huevos hasta que lloraras Fitzgerald, te falta un puñetazo para bajarte de tu nube en la que solo sabes comunicarte con 3 palabras "lips, breast y pale".
November 27, 2023
Well, if it isn’t The Great Gatsby all over again.
April 16, 2018
Vitalità e inquietudine
FSF è magistrale nel rappresentare con pochi tocchi le parabole delle vite di Dexter e Judy. Judy è una stella cometa che attraversa la vita di Dexter e infine si dissolve, lasciandolo orfano del suo sogno più bello. Di Dexter si sa che è figlio di un'immigrata dalla campagna boema che non ha mai imparato a parlare un Inglese corretto e che persegue il sogno americano di arrivare al successo, attraverso studi a Princeton e carriera imprenditoriale. Judy è una ragazza della buona società nella quale si incontrano bellezza insolita e grande fascino personale. Dexter tuttavia sembra amare più che altro la sua vitalità e l'inquietudine esistenziale, che la trascina senza posa da un amore al successivo, senza mai raggiungere la felicità. Dopo varie follie fatte per lei e l'arruolamento per dimenticare, Dexter viene a sapere da un conoscente che è sposata a un uomo che la trascura ed è considerata una donna ordinaria, sfiorita ("Ma ha solo 27 anni!"). Ciò che lo sconvolge non è non poterla avere, ma l'idea della dissoluzione dell'incanto che sprigionava. Ho impiegato molto tempo a decidere cosa penso di questo breve racconto che anticipa Il grande Gatsby. E' certamente molto poetico ed efficace, d'altra parte mi sembra che si rivolga agli adolescenti veri o virtuali che vagheggiano l'amore ma non sanno precisamente cosa farsene. Inoltre, questo è il racconto di Dexter: rimane la voglia di conoscere Judy per vedere se è davvero tanto bella e impossibile e chiederle se è infelice col marito o se invece ha trovato una strada verso una vita più appagante in compagnia dei suoi bambini, lasciando cocktail, feste e follie al marito.
FSF è magistrale nel rappresentare con pochi tocchi le parabole delle vite di Dexter e Judy. Judy è una stella cometa che attraversa la vita di Dexter e infine si dissolve, lasciandolo orfano del suo sogno più bello. Di Dexter si sa che è figlio di un'immigrata dalla campagna boema che non ha mai imparato a parlare un Inglese corretto e che persegue il sogno americano di arrivare al successo, attraverso studi a Princeton e carriera imprenditoriale. Judy è una ragazza della buona società nella quale si incontrano bellezza insolita e grande fascino personale. Dexter tuttavia sembra amare più che altro la sua vitalità e l'inquietudine esistenziale, che la trascina senza posa da un amore al successivo, senza mai raggiungere la felicità. Dopo varie follie fatte per lei e l'arruolamento per dimenticare, Dexter viene a sapere da un conoscente che è sposata a un uomo che la trascura ed è considerata una donna ordinaria, sfiorita ("Ma ha solo 27 anni!"). Ciò che lo sconvolge non è non poterla avere, ma l'idea della dissoluzione dell'incanto che sprigionava. Ho impiegato molto tempo a decidere cosa penso di questo breve racconto che anticipa Il grande Gatsby. E' certamente molto poetico ed efficace, d'altra parte mi sembra che si rivolga agli adolescenti veri o virtuali che vagheggiano l'amore ma non sanno precisamente cosa farsene. Inoltre, questo è il racconto di Dexter: rimane la voglia di conoscere Judy per vedere se è davvero tanto bella e impossibile e chiederle se è infelice col marito o se invece ha trovato una strada verso una vita più appagante in compagnia dei suoi bambini, lasciando cocktail, feste e follie al marito.
January 28, 2021
This is somewhat longer than some of Fitzgerald's other short stories, but he managed to narrate a tale in which he packed much information. It was written in 1922 and published in the Metropolitan Magazine in December of that year.
The basis for the "Dreams" in the title surrounds Dexter Green's infatuation with the lovely Judy for most of his life. Fitzgerald remarked at one point in this account that this was not a biography, yet he skillfully penned many facts of his main character's life within this story. At one point he mentioned:
It began like that-and continued, with varying shades of intensity, on such a note right up to the de`nouement.
Throughout the story there was an ebb and flow of a romance, or a potential liaison developing, along with Dexter's hopes and dreams. The story kept a sustained aura of hope for the reader to determine whether he was "building castles", or was there some reality. It was a tantalizing attempt by the author to keep the reader involved.
The basis for the "Dreams" in the title surrounds Dexter Green's infatuation with the lovely Judy for most of his life. Fitzgerald remarked at one point in this account that this was not a biography, yet he skillfully penned many facts of his main character's life within this story. At one point he mentioned:
It began like that-and continued, with varying shades of intensity, on such a note right up to the de`nouement.
Throughout the story there was an ebb and flow of a romance, or a potential liaison developing, along with Dexter's hopes and dreams. The story kept a sustained aura of hope for the reader to determine whether he was "building castles", or was there some reality. It was a tantalizing attempt by the author to keep the reader involved.
November 21, 2023
Misogynist crap. Even evil, selfish, or stupid women are more interesting than Fitzgerald's Judy Jones character. He makes no attempt to create or reveal her character. She's little more than a prop to degrade.
January 1, 2019
عن تحطم الأحلام
November 16, 2021
‣ 5/5
Malinconico e affascinante, Sogni d'inverno segue la vita di Dexter Green - un giovane imprenditore alle prese con la sua scalata sociale - irrimediabilmente innamorato di Judy Jones, una ragazza conosciuta in tenera età, tanto adulante quanto sfuggente, che salta da una relazione all’altra alla ricerca della felicità.
Questa è la classica storia del primo amore mai dimenticato, quel tipo di amore che conquista un posto nell'animo delle persone senza mai più lasciarlo andare. Dexter, infatti, per anni osserva Judy uscire e rientrare continuamente dalla sua vita, ogni volta con rinnovata intensità, senza mai fare nulla per fermarla, anche quando pensa di averla finalmente dimenticata una volta per tutte. Il suo tormento è descritto con talmente tanta gentilezza da risultare quasi rilassante e rassicurante, il che è un enorme controsenso, perché la sua costante angoscia è più che percepibile.
Malinconico e affascinante, Sogni d'inverno segue la vita di Dexter Green - un giovane imprenditore alle prese con la sua scalata sociale - irrimediabilmente innamorato di Judy Jones, una ragazza conosciuta in tenera età, tanto adulante quanto sfuggente, che salta da una relazione all’altra alla ricerca della felicità.
Questa è la classica storia del primo amore mai dimenticato, quel tipo di amore che conquista un posto nell'animo delle persone senza mai più lasciarlo andare. Dexter, infatti, per anni osserva Judy uscire e rientrare continuamente dalla sua vita, ogni volta con rinnovata intensità, senza mai fare nulla per fermarla, anche quando pensa di averla finalmente dimenticata una volta per tutte. Il suo tormento è descritto con talmente tanta gentilezza da risultare quasi rilassante e rassicurante, il che è un enorme controsenso, perché la sua costante angoscia è più che percepibile.
June 18, 2025
Prominenter Vorlauf zum Gatsby, im Vergleich zum Meisterwerk eher ein Stern. Die Jugendgeschichte des Helden als Golf-Caddy beginnt stark. Auch das Wiedersehen mit der fiesen Göre von einst, die zur zarten Schönheit erblüht ist, hat einen gewissen Zauber. Die Schilderung der Rolle des Helden im Schwarm der Verehrer hat auch noch etwas für sich. Wenn man Zeldas Liebhaber-Karussell aus ihrem Walzerroman im Kopf hat, könnte es sich sogar um ein verdecktes Portrait einer Fee handeln, die auch
sich anbahnende Ehen zeitweise vernachlässigter Verehrer sabotiert.
Als der Held über Umwege vom Verblühen der Schönen als Gattin eines nicht ganz so würdigen Mannes als Mutter seiner Kinder erfährt, fällt für ihn auch eine Tür zu. Die Jugend ist endgültig zu Ende. Aber das letzte Kapitel ist in der Ausführung ganz schwach. Das hat mich schon mit 17 gestört und tut es 45 Jahre später immer noch.
sich anbahnende Ehen zeitweise vernachlässigter Verehrer sabotiert.
Als der Held über Umwege vom Verblühen der Schönen als Gattin eines nicht ganz so würdigen Mannes als Mutter seiner Kinder erfährt, fällt für ihn auch eine Tür zu. Die Jugend ist endgültig zu Ende. Aber das letzte Kapitel ist in der Ausführung ganz schwach. Das hat mich schon mit 17 gestört und tut es 45 Jahre später immer noch.
January 30, 2022
*Kış Hayalleri
*Bernice Saçlarını kısa Kestiriyor
Jacob'un Basamakları
*Kristal Kase
*Babil'e Dönüş
Aylak
*Ritz Büyüklüğündeki Elmas
Yeni Çocuk
İlk Kan
Gibi farklı temalardaki güzel hikayeler barındırıyor eser. Ben genel anlamı ile beğendim. Öyle yoran ve belirsiz hikayeler değil, çok ironisel ve simgesel yanları ile okuyucuyu sıkmıyor. Hepsi kesitsel ve güzel. Fitzgerald'in hep bir kadın tiplemesi var ve bunu bu kısa hikayelerde bile görebilmek güzel. Tavsiye ederim ❤️
*Bernice Saçlarını kısa Kestiriyor
Jacob'un Basamakları
*Kristal Kase
*Babil'e Dönüş
Aylak
*Ritz Büyüklüğündeki Elmas
Yeni Çocuk
İlk Kan
Gibi farklı temalardaki güzel hikayeler barındırıyor eser. Ben genel anlamı ile beğendim. Öyle yoran ve belirsiz hikayeler değil, çok ironisel ve simgesel yanları ile okuyucuyu sıkmıyor. Hepsi kesitsel ve güzel. Fitzgerald'in hep bir kadın tiplemesi var ve bunu bu kısa hikayelerde bile görebilmek güzel. Tavsiye ederim ❤️
December 21, 2018
La vita è un percorso, una strada su cui troviamo svolte, cartelli, interruzioni, spesso rappresentati da persone. Altri esseri umani a cui arriviamo e da cui partiamo, sempre in movimento, sempre inseguendo, ma al contempo fuggendo, la grande e nebulosa meta.
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