Three of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novels of the Jazz Age in one volume.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s stories are emblematic of the Lost Generation, which came of age in the years following World War I. Along with The Great Gatsby—Fitzgerald’s most well-known novel—this luxurious leather-bound volume also includes his earlier works, This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned. Each novel presents the aura of the Jazz Age in a different context, painting a wide-ranging picture of the uncertainty and upheaval faced by Americans at the time. This classic collection also includes a scholarly introduction about Fitzgerald’s life and work, offering insights into his creative genius.
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.
Ok, this deserves my first review cause it's three really good books in one volume. All three are well worth the read - don't just skip This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned to get to The Great Gatsby. All of these novels are semi-autobiographical; they share certain tropes, character types, and overall themes.
This Side of Paradise - 4/5. An interesting look into the workings of early-twentieth century Ivy League schools and their social networks. A good depiction of young disillusionment, though I admit the ending was a little... anti-climatic? strange?
The Beautiful and Damned - 5/5. Personally, this might be my favorite, but maybe that's just because I was reading it for the first time and I already knew the story of Gatsby so well. The characters in this book are not likeable, but they are real and complex. The ending is also appropriately suspenseful and purposeful, and the writing throughout is beautiful.
The Great Gatsby - 5/5. A classic for a reason, though I'll admit after reading The Beautiful and Damned I thought the writing wasn't quite as good - then again, I was rereading Gatsby so I knew what to expect. The plot is the most grand and, although there are similarities across all three novels, the writing style is markedly different. This is the easiest read of the three as well, which makes it the most likely to get a reread.
Este libro lo compré como regalo a mi mejor amiga porque era la edición perfecta, su libro favorito con la portada más bonita, eso sí está en inglés, ella lo quería así, pero vosotros tened en cuenta eso, a ella le encantó así que 5 estrellas
This is about my 5th read of Gatsby - for a book club - and there were various things I picked up on this time that I'm not sure if I had previously.
This read I found the ending rather weak, and actually preferred how the most recent film dove tailed the action with Nick's treatment for chronic alcoholism (even though that isn't suggested by the book).
I also noticed more how the real 'action' always seems to be told to the narrator by a third party (the accident, the shooting etc). So the movement of the narrative is rather stilted.
Plus the almost non existent description of Daisy - it's her voice and her pallor that are described most - but on one occasion her hair is described as yellow blond like her daughter's, another wet and blue against her cheek (when blond hair looks dun or brown when wet) and Gatsby describes her hair as dark and shining in the moonlight ..... Is she an everyman character or a chameleon? Or just juxtaposed against all the other various shades of blondes (Tom, Jordan, Gatsby, Wilson). All the movies show her as a blond, but none have ever got her just right!
I enjoyed reading the novel again and certainly think it is Fitzgerald's best work, but it isn't as enjoyable as it was earlier in my life.
Out of the pieces of work within this book, I read The Great Gatsby. However, I would love to read the others!
The Great Gatsby is a great classic!! (pun intended) I can see why it’s held on a pedestal, and greatly recommend.
My favorite detail in this book is the point of view. The reader experiences the book in the point of view of Nick Carraway. It was really interesting to see the plot unfold through his eyes.
Because of Nick’s point of view, the reader encounters a love triangle through his eyes. The reader gains a connection to Nick because of his storytelling of everything going on around him. If the book was written by any of the other characters point of views, this would be a different story.
The first two books within this collection is This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned. Both of those books were fairly dull with a few interesting moments within them, although reading from a perspective that is set 100 years ago was fascinating and reading what the characters cared about and did on daily basis was interesting when comparing things to 2022. The Great Gatsby is where Fitzgerald takes his writing to a whole new level. Although this book was significantly shorter, to me it had the most depth, and the maturity with which Fitzgerald writes is palpable when reading, all I can say is no wonder this is a classic.
the rating is more for gatsby than the other two stories tbh like gatsby is by far the superior work. This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned blended in together for me like mr fitzgerald certainly has a theme to stick to his stories! and even with that being said... yeah i can believe zelda actually wrote gatsby lmfao if only because how the hell did that one pop off the way it did compared to his other works? maybe he got lucky. maybe it was the powerful homoeroticism. we'll never know i suppose.
The Great Gatsby is a novel set in 20s and with its excess. Gatsby fell in love with Daisy and she loves him but loves money more. Gatsby goes to war and comes back Daisy is married to a man for his money. She doesn’t love tom at all but loved his cash. Tom is sleeping around with a gas station owners wife. Daisy is sleeping around also. Gatsby comes back in an attempt to get Daisy to leave her husband for him now that he has money. A fateful and fatal night lead to a shocking ending with three lives forever brutally ended.