The Love Boat and Other Stories

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

A young Harvard graduate with bright prospects, Bill Frothington is invited on board a steamer hosting a high-school dance, where he meets and falls in love with the seventeen-year-old Mae. As the match is not considered socially advantageous enough, Bill moves on, marries and has a career, but he remains painfully nostalgic for that episode on the river. A poignant tale which touches on the themes of yearning and lost youth that are central to many of Fitzgerald's novels and stories, 'The Love Boat' is here presented with other lesser-known pieces which he wrote in the 1920s and explore the many facets of his creative talents.

Genres: Short Stories, Literature, American

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2015

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.

Reviews

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather uneven collection of stories; some of them quite good, others the kind of pulpy and melodramatic stories that Scotty wrote when he needed money, and which he later bitterly regretted. But hey, even the lesser Fitzgerald is occasionally shiny and touching and always keeps you reading.

[Jess Heath · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5💙

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorieten: John Jackson’s Arcady, Presumption, the Adolescent Marriage en uiteraard the Love Boat zelf

[Susana Brijandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me emocionaba mucho leer este libro; primero que nada por ser un clásico de clásicos; en segundo lugar, porque me gusta mucho "El gran Gatsby", novela de este escritor que narra la vida de la clase social alta en los años 20, las fiestas, los excesos y una historia de amor sí correspondido pero imposible, mal timing, que de hecho es la obra que le representa, dicen que su obra maestra; y en tercer lugar, porque este libro fue uno de mis souvenirs parisinos.

Siendo muy honesta, unos cuentos o historias me gustaron, otros no, y creo que estas pequeñas historias no superan The Great Gatsby (para mí), pero tienen algunos puntos interesantes.

Las historias son distintas, la mayoría protagonistas hombres, pero a pesar de plasmar la frialdad del mundo de los negocios y de las personas ricas o que pertenecen a un status social alto, derepente se asoman escenas románticas o al menos con el tema del amor como eje. Algunas historias tienen estos elementos del manual de la vida, ya sabes, como mujer buscar al mejor hombre, el que más conviene económicamente, el más acomodado, el que quiere una familia tradicional porque es el único propósito o meta en la vida de los personajes mujeres... sí, ese tipo de contexto es el que predomina.

Es súper interesante que a través de las letras, de estas historias escritas hace 100 años, se pueda entender, leer y vivir el contexto al que pertenecía el autor. Además, en algunos fragmentos, muy pocos pero sí hay, se nota el lado poético de Fitzgerald al hablar de la vida, y especialmente del amor. 🫶🏻 Son varios los hombres enamorados en estas historias, sin hacer la narrativa realmente cursi o romántica.

Creo que si quieres conocer el estilo del autor, en estas historias podrías experimentarlo, pero mi recomendación para conectar o vivirlo mucho más, es definitivamente leerlo en una novela. ✨

Aún así, las historias son cortas, amigables, y en mi caso que quiero reforzar la lectura en inglés, me topé con un vocabulario complejo en algunas partes. Igual, por ser un clásico de clásicos, sí te lo recomiendo.

[Krisz · Rating 5 out of 5]

FSF is fantastic. Not all the stories in this book are great, but they are superbly written. A definite TBR again!
The Smilers ***** - the way this story begins is a wonder! "...he is not the hero of the story. He is the plot." And how true. The best story of the book!
Myra meets his family *** - was hopeful in the beginning, but the end was too flat, the way Myra handled the test was just flat.
Two for a Cent ***** - so true, touched my soul. How one can lose everything by losing so little...
Dice etc. ***** - fantastic story of a tender love. All romantics should read this once a year! At least.
Diamond Dick ***** - an other surprising story, love story, a bit bitter.
The Third Casket ***** - a funny business story about three aspiring business owners.
The Unspeakable Egg **** - I didn't like the plot, but the aunts were funny.
John Jackson's Arcady **** - started out fine, the old man going back to where he was born - but the ending was predictable and rang false.
The Pusher-in-The-Face **** - great idea, the ending a let-down.
One of My Oldest Friends **** - I thought the story would run out somewhere else. Altogether I'd have liked it more (deemed perfect) if towards the end the couple didn't have that fight over right and wrong.
Not in the Guidebook **** - good pun; here the build-up was lacking.
Presumption *** - I expected more, for example to get to know Noel, her motivations.
The Adolescent Marriage **** - more characterisation, more of the youngs' love would have done good to this story.
Your Way and Mine *** - this was a huddle, two stories mixed up without any real need.
The Love Boat ***** - I'm a romantic all right, I enjoyed this story of lost opportunity.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

These short stories represent Fitzgerald's classic word-weaving artistry. I adored this collection from the first story, "The Smilers", and while each story has its own unique plot, they are all imperturbably linked by the author's well-known theme of loss and longing, a feeling of 'what-went-wrong'. I highly reccomend this collection if you have dabbled in F. Scott Fitzgerald's work and want more.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably more like 2.5? The Love Boat was good; the "and other stories" not so much. I remember reading that Fitzgerald sometimes wrote stories for magazines to make ends meet - stories that he knew didn't represent his best work - and I assume these were some of those stories. Still, an interesting read for anyone interested in Fitzgerald.

[Andrew Corsini · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, finally, is the Fitzgerald everyone talks about. The guy who gets inside your head and your gin bottle and who could describe the sweat going down your neck as your read his stories. These are great paranoid twenties classics; my favourite of which would have to be, "The Smilers", a story which every budding writer should study.

[John Rossington · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am an admirer of Scott Fitzgerald's short stories. However this is not the strongest of his collections. There is more sentimentality than I usually encounter and some are very light. having said all that this author will always entertain and an hour with him will never be wasted.

[Iona Bryanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Lara Costa · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5*

[Bonjour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made me bawl my ass out. Humans can be so cute sometimes.

[Giulia Mirra]

Okay, the book is actually really good. But I gave it a zero because Zelda Fitzgerald didnt get any credit for it. So there you go!

[Abby Orso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the short stories were great, some I skipped