Before Gatsby: The First Twenty-Six Stories

by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Matthew J. Bruccoli (Editor), Judith S. Baughman (Editor)

Fitzgerald's first commercially published short stories written before and during his work on "The Great Gatsby" is collected for the first time in one volume. These stories document the development of Fitzgerald's professionalism and short-story craftsmanship during his 20s.

Contents:

Jemina, the Mountain Girl
Babes in the Woods
Tarquin of Cheapside
The Debutante (A One-Act Play)
The Four Fists
Dalyrimple Goes Wrong
The Smilers
Porcelain and Pink (A One-Act Play)
Benediction
The Cut-Glass Bowl
Head and Shoulders
Mr. Icky: The Quintessence of Quaintness in One Act
Myra Meets His Family
The Ice Palace
The Camel's Back
Bernice Bobs Her Hair
The Offshore Pirate
May Day
The Jelly-Bean
The Lees of Happiness
His Russet Witch
Two For a Cent
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz
The Popular Girl
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Winter Dreams

Genres: Classics, Short Stories

550 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2001

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

[yasmine skalli · Rating 3 out of 5]

stories most worth reading:
porcelain and pink
winter dreams
bernice bobs her hair
the curious case of benjamin button
fitzgerald is mostly eh. i expected a lot more because of how much i liked the great gatsby.

[Glenn Bronson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be recommended reading along with the Great Gatsby.
It is worth it just for the intro and background on Fitzgerald to peak your interest and look at the
man, his career, and get a feeling as to how and why he wrote what he did. This book was given to me by my girlfriend in 2000 when I was an aspiring writer, and I just reread it this month.

[Hillery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of Fitzgerald's early stories, with notes, etc. from the Fitzgerald archive at the University of South Carolina. I particularly liked The Cut Glass Bowl, Myra Meets His Family, The Ice Palace, Bernice Bobs Her Hair, The Offshore Pirate, May Day, The Diamond as Big as The Ritz, and The Popular Girl. (List is for me to remember the stories that I really liked.) :)

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

It did take me a while to read this book of short stories, but that's mostly because it was made up of short stories. It's easy to read another novel or two when you have stopped between stories in a collection.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed these stories. Sure, they aren't Fitzgerald's highest art, but they are all very well written. I think it's the fact that they have a hook of some kind that both makes me enjoy them a lot, and that reduces their level of art.

I read these over a couple of months, so I can't really point out stories I really liked or disliked. I know the first couple were funny, but not much more they that. The last ones I really would have been happy to read more. Oh, and the notes that Fitzgerald wrote about each story added a lot of illumination.

I'm going to read some more of his novels soon. This book almost seems like a program to prepare you for reading his better known works.

[Kevin Hinman · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always with Fitzgerald, these stories are a mixed bag, but what's really fantastic about this collection is the introduction, which includes excerpts from the authors organizational notebooks, and the reproductions of Fitzgerald's first print tear-sheets at the beginnings of each piece. The amount paid for each of the pieces and their movie options, as well as the author's personal attitude toward the individual stories (Not a "Four Fists" fan? Neither was I) are all noted, and make for a fascinating appendix to the collection.
All the classics, and not so classic (ehrm, "The Cut Glass Bowl") from Flappers and Philosophers and Tales of the Jazz Age are here, as well as a number of previously uncollected works, of which "The Smilers," a grim examination of the "grass is always greener" adage, and a long Deb short entitled "The Popular Girl," are the standouts. The latter, half "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," half Walla Cather's "Paul's Case," is especially noteworthy as a biting piece of social commentary, and social history, replete with misogynistic bits such as "after a certain degree of prettiness, one pretty girl is as pretty as the next," and a gold digging heroine that's entirely unsympathetic, yet still enrapturing. For readers new to Fitzgerald's Fiction, Before Gatsby isn't the best place to start, but for ardent fans who are just looking to revisit some old favorites or discover an unread gem, it's definitely worthwhile.

[Dest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so I didn't read this entire book, only "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." I saw the Brad Pitt movie recently and thought the plot was awful. I thought, "Did my old buddy Scott really write this garbage?" Upon reading the story (practically by the first paragraph) I realized that, no, what my buddy Scott wrote bears little resemblance to that bad movie. Where the movie is dull and takes itself waaaaay too seriously, the story is sly and goofy and pretty fun.

So I encourage anyone who saw that movie and hated its self-important Forest Gump-isms to read the original story. It's the antidote.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok so i didn't really read this in its entirety, but i am done with it. i read all the stories i was looking for (bernice bobs her hair, benjamin button), and a few more to get a little more of a taste of fitzgerald. I still can't decide whether or not i like him. I find that while I enjoy his style, I don't always like the stories. Some are silly, and I never liked gatsby, but others were not bad at all. I might come back to this some day...

[Buzz Borders · Rating 4 out of 5]

None of the stories are GREAT. That said, many of the stories are good, and no matter how easy it is to be critical of Fitzgerald, his beautiful choices of words and scenes cannot be denied. He is a novelist first rate and he struggles to capture the short story without making it feel like a short novel. For anyone who truly loves The Great Gatsby, though, the book is a must in Fitzgerald studies.

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not everything Fitzgerald wrote was genius. Like most good writers, he honed his craft over time and made a living hacking out short stories for magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post. But a few stories stand out. "The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button" is in here, as is the lesser known but very good "Bernice Bobs Her Hair." This book is an interesting collection for anyone who wants a little more Fitzgerald after finishing Gatsby.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked reading these stories; I found myself laughing out loud pretty often. The editor included a handwritten note by Fitzgerald dividing his own stories into "Worth Reading," "Amusing," and "Trash." He seemed to have a sense of humor about himself. My favorites were "Dalyrimple Goes Wrong," "The Cut Glass Bowl," and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

[David]

Jemina, the Mountain Girl -

Babes in the Woods -

Tarquin of Cheapside -

The Debutante (A One-Act Play) -

The Four Fists -

Dalyrimple Goes Wrong -

The Smilers -

Porcelain and Pink (A One-Act Play)

Benediction-

The Cut-Glass Bowl-

Head and Shoulders-

Mr. Icky: The Quintessence in One Act-

Myra Meets His Family-

The Ice Palace-

The Camel's Back -

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked this out from the library in order to read the short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Now I'm making my way through the rest of the short stories - not an easy task since they're some of his first works and from a very different time period. But I'm definitely enjoying them!

[Cami · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is in here as it was first published in the small paper. So interesting to note the way it was received back then and compare that with the way it is now a major motion picture! Great quick read (20 pages or so)

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. The notes at the begining of each story, and the short glossery at the end gave excellent insight into the context of when these stories were written and published. Some of the stories I loved, a couple were okay, but I enjoyed reading them all.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read The Offshore Pirate and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button before I returned it to the library. I would liked to have read more.

[tiffany linsenbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

normally i don't like short stories, but fitzgerald can do no wrong in my eyes.

[t.s. cronenberg]

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