Predestined: A Novel of New York Life

by Stephen French Whitman, Alden Whitman (Afterword)

Stephen French Whitman is an over­looked American literary naturalist whose Predestined compares favorably with the work of Frank Norris.   In a letter to the late Charles Scribner in 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald proposed that the firm establish a Scribner Library. In a list of eighteen books, Fitzgerald ranked Predestined second after The House of Mirth or Ethan Frome. His own This Side of Paradise was third. In the dozen years since its first pub­lication in 1910, Predestined had stirred excitement among a considerable number of other writers and journalists. Whit­man, Princeton class of 1901, had worked for several years on the New York Sun.   Predestined, Whitman’s first and most successful novel, is a remarkably con­trolled, inexorably plotted story of Felix Piers, born to wealth and misfortune, who was predestined to a life of failure. The rich, varied background of New York City’s many sides provides the compelling backdrop to this deterministic novel.

488 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1910

Reviews

[Lisa of Troy]

A Book Owned by F. Scott Fitzgerald: https://static-prod.lib.princeton.edu...

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second book I've read in my quest to read all the books on the Lost American Novels list. If I had to do it over I would have bought a copy of the book rather than getting it free from Google. Large passages are completely unreadable and while I could still get the gist of the section it was disturbing especially towards the end of the novel. The story is about an upper-class, college educated young man who is, through no fault of his own, left penniless by his dementia addled father. Throughout the course of the book the young man is given chance after chance to make it but he somehow always takes the wrong route due to his love of experience and pleasure. The basic story is okay if a bit trite but it is badly overwritten. Even so I quite enjoyed this little gem from 1910 and teared up a bit when his beloved canine dies. Unfortunately this is also where a bit of the book has gone missing.