Flappers and Philosophers

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

These sumptuous new hardback editions mark the 70th anniversary of Fitzgerald's death. Encompassing the very best of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short fiction, this collection spans his career, from the early stories of the glittering Jazz Age, through the lost hopes of the thirties, to the last, twilight decade of his life. It brings together his most famous stories, including 'The Diamond as Big as the Ritz', a fairy tale of unlimited wealth; the sad and hilarious stories of Hollywood hack Pat Hobby; and 'The Lost Decade', written in Fitzgerald's last years.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, 20th Century, Historical Fiction, American

672 pages, Hardcover

First published November 4, 2010

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

[itsdanixx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flappers and Philosophers is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first *official* short story collection, consisting of eight (8) short stories. The stories were a tiny bit hit-and-miss but for the most part I really enjoyed them. ‘Bernice Bobs Her Hair’ was my favourite story.
The stories, and my ratings of them, are as follows:

The Offshore Pirate - 4 Stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Ice Palace - 3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Head and Shoulders - 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Cut-Glass Bowl - 2 Stars ⭐️⭐️
Bernice Bobs Her Hair - 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Benediction - 3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dalyrimple Goes Wrong - 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Four Fists - 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Eoghan O’Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Make your fiction as autobiographical as possible challenge

[Anna Pattle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Had some good ones:

The Offshore Pirate
Head and Shoulders
Bernice Bobs Her Hair

The thing I liked most about this edition (Goodreads doesn’t list the Alma Classics paperback version unfortunately- which was the edition that I read) was that it contains extra material at the back which details Fitzgerald’s life, his relationships with his wife, his career, each of his works, and his health and ultimate death in 1940. I found out that not only was Fitzgerald named after Francis Scott Key, he was also related to him! Very ironic given the anti- American Dream sentiment of many of his works.

A quote I enjoyed: (from The Cut-Glass Bowl)

There was a rough-stone age and a smooth-stone age and a bronze age, and many years afterward a cut-glass age. In the cut-glass age, when young ladies had persuaded young men with long, curly mustaches to marry them, they sat down several months afterwards and wrote thank-you notes for all sorts of cut-glass presents- punchbowls, finger bowls, dinner glasses, wineglasses, ice-cream dishes, bonbon dishes, decanters and vases- for, though cut glass was nothing new in the Nineties, it was then especially busy reflecting the dazzling light of fashion from the Back Bay to the fastnesses of the Middle West.

[Aengus Schulte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my, how gorgeous this was. If you ever want to appreciate the beauty and wit of Fitzgerald's writing, start here. Because the short-form stories don't place as large an emphasis on narrative as his novels, his prose really comes to the fore. He has such a magical way of writing that I adore; you marvel at the sentences' rhythms, at how effective they are in letting you peer into this character's life. Absolutely incredible.

[Amy Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. My love for Fitzgerald began in high school. I've always loved his elegant writing. Beautiful is the only way to describe it. This edition, by the way, is beautiful as well. It's from Penguin, of course.

[Dan Reger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seems very relevant to today. Fitzgerald understands that people are rife with selfish desire and egotistical pursuits, and the more selfish and egotistical ones are the ones that society admires most.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite story in this collection is Bernice Bobs Her Hair. I first read it many years ago in school and since then have watched a tv adaptation of it and reread it a few times. I still love it every time I read it.

There are other good stories in the collection, but Bernice will always be my favorite.

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Big book of brilliance and boredom. This penguin edition collects a substantial number of short stories from Scott. Some of this was a repeat for me as I had recently completed Tales of the Jazz Age. It also incorporates Flappers and Philosophers, All the Sad Young Men, Taps at Reveille, and uncollected stories which were mostly magazine publications like the Pat Hobby stories. I loved Flappers and Philosophers and the Jazz Age tales, not one I disliked. All the Sad Young Men was good too and then it starts to fade for me with the exception of Babylon Revisited and perhaps Bridal Party. Felt more hit and miss. The uncollected stories really didn't charm me and I had to slog through it to finish the book. First half brilliant, second half boredom. 3 stars overall.

[Kwan-Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's Fitzgerald. It's obviously going to be amazing.

[Şehriban Kaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Öykü yazmak sadece Sait Faik'in işi diye düşünürdüm ama Scott Fitzgerald'ın da işiymiş. Çok çok iyi öyküleri var yazarın. Okumakta gecikmişim ayıp etmisim.

[Bonnye Reed]

EarlyBirdBooks

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bernice is girlboss-coded. Everything else is forgettable.

[Jake Kilroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's remarkable how contemporary Fitzgerald's work feels given its century-plus gap. So much of the way characters think, act, and bounce off each other could be my generation, or the one that came before me, or the one that came after me. There remains a timelessness to his perception of young and early middle-aged (white) folks who believe the world is wholly available to their scampery. They. believe themselves destined for big, joyous things—relationships, careers, hobbies, trips—and there comes a crashing cognitive dissonance with what is and what they believe should be. I just love that Fitzgerald's a kind of patron saint for characters with little certainty and direction but all the time in the world and a heart set on the glory of petty fun and rich reward.

[Kelly Perry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I chose to stop reading this collection at page 342, exactly 50% of the way through at the beginning of the short story ‘Magnetism’.

Reason being is I just simply did not enjoy these experience of reading this collection. Some stories deserved to be fully fleshed out into novels and were less because of their shortness. The pacing for some was so quick I didn’t fully understand what was happening or what the take away was supposed to be.

Perhaps simply not the right era, length or writer for me.

[Grace Harman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unexpectedly the best book I’ve read in ages 🤯 somehow makes mundane situations so interesting and I felt attached and invested to all the characters, even the antagonistic ones. Laughed out loud several times I love the irony and humor and the twist endings!! Perfect level of metaphor fluff, made me really think about descriptions but not get too hung up on them or bored. Such a good collection of stories 👍

[TheQueensBooksII · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fabulous introduction to the Fitzgerald's short works. They're funny, twisted and twisty, with beautifully captured characters. Fantastic.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful and elegant collection of short stories.

[Books Over People · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobody does character work like Fitzgerald

[Samantha Gayler · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Lucas Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ice Palace, Head and Shoulders, Benediction

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last Fitzgerald book I shall be reviewing for a while, due largely in part to having finished them all, the Penguin edition of Flappers and Philosophers is a collection of forty-five short stories cherry picked from various compilations. These include Flappers and Philosophers (1920), Tales of the Jazz Age (1922), All the Sad Young Men (1926), Taps at Reveille (1935) and some uncollected stories (1937-40). As Sarah Churchwell astutely points out in her introduction to the volume, the prevalent themes range from 'ambition, hope, illusion and romance; through sexual and professional jealousy, extravagance, waste and 'dissipation'; to 'crack-up', disintegration, failure, madness and death.' Whilst many of the tales deal with similar motifs, they were entertaining enough to sustain my interest, even if it did sometimes feel like I was reading the same story with different characters. In terms of quality, the stories present a very mixed bag. Some of Fitzgerald's more famous ones, such as 'The Cut Glass Bowl' and 'The Diamond as Big as the Ritz' were instant classics, whilst others, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' for example, were real stinkers.

Overall, I preferred the earlier stories, not so much for their lighter tone but for the more fanciful, romantic and imaginative fantasy worlds they portrayed. The difficulty with reviewing a collection of short stories lies principally in not being able to adequately address each one. As such, they must be lumped into crude categories. Section one contains the fresher, more hopeful tales, some of which would be republished in later years. These were the ones I most enjoyed reading and which left the greatest impressions in my mind. The more sombre second batch centres on disappointed opportunities and the collapse of relationships. Favourites from these included 'Gretchen's Forty Winks', 'The Baby Party' and 'The Rough Crossing.' The last section follows the exploits of the shabby Pat Hobby, a Hollywood script writer down on his luck in a money hungry industry. Despite the ready humour and sly satire, I found these tales tedious to get through, particularly given the large number of them. As has been mentioned in previous reviews, Fitzgerald writes at his best when focusing on the recklessness of gilded youth and the consequences which follow.

In an umbrella analysis of Fitzgerald's work, I would be so bold as to suggest that his shorter pieces are substantially more powerful than his longer novels. Nowhere is this seen better than in The Great Gatsby, which for all its brevity and hype remains my personal favourite. Fitzgerald's stories are best interpreted as an encapsulation of the moral and social zeitgeist in which they're set. Location and more importantly time, are in my opinion, inseparable to his works. It is with a sense of exhaustion that I reach the temporary end (there may very well be another collection in the works) of my Fitzgerald marathon. It has kept me occupied for some seven months and as a result, much of the writer's vernacular must no doubt have crept into my own. A fun and riotous ride, one on which I am bound to re-embark after sobering up. With the taste of hiballs on my lips and disillusionment in my heart, I turn my eyes to old favourites. I recommend Flappers and Philosophers to those interested in reading fun, powerful and provocative stories, without the commitment of taking on a whole novel. For further recommendations on which stories in the collection to read and which to avoid, please do not hesitate to ask.

[Marc A · Rating 3 out of 5]

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Flappers and Philosophers is a collection of eight short stories of varying quality. Originally published in periodicals, they were assembled in book form in 1920, around the same time as his first novel.
The Offshore Pirate – ** An alienated 19 year old woman is lounging on the deck of her uncle’s yacht. The yacht is hijacked by six men fleeing a robbery. They sail to an island paradise where the gang leader and the woman engage in about a dozen pages of pretentious dialog. I was going to rate this story one star, but the end of the story was clever enough to merit another star.
The Ice Palace - * A 19 year old southern woman plans to marry a man from the northeast. She moves north to meet his family and friends. She doesn’t like the cold. She goes to a winter festival where there is a building made of ice. The ice building has a labyrinth, in which the woman gets lost. The lights go out and she has a panic attack. She is rescued and flees back to the warmth of the south. I guess I was supposed to be dazzled by the beauty and elegance of Fitzgerald’s prose, but the story is stupid, and his literary skills don’t save it.
Head and Shoulders - **** A 17 year old prodigy who received a bachelor’s degree from Princeton and is currently working on his masters meets a 19 year old showgirl (I’m noticing a pattern) and falls in love, even though she came from a poor family and lacks an education. Despite the cliched plot, the story is charming, the characters are likable, and the O. Henry-like conclusion is amusing.
The Cut-Glass Bowl - *** A dreary story about a married couple with tawdry moral failings and a whole lot of bad luck. The cut-glass bowl, given to the wife by a jilted suitor before her marriage, is cursed. Everything unfortunate that happens to the couple is connected to the cut-glass bowl. The overly florid writing is sometimes confusing and makes the story hard to follow (or maybe I’m too dense to follow it).
Bernice Bobs Her Hair - **½ The story of a nerdy, socially awkward young lady who is taken under the wing of her worldly female cousin, the coolest member of the “in group.” She follows her cousin’s advice and ends up in the unaccustomed position of now being pursued by the most desirable bachelors. She’s clearly enjoying herself, but her cousin gets jealous and corners her into getting her hair bobbed. The desirable bachelors are scandalized and lose interest, just as the bullying cousin wanted. But the nerd gets her petty revenge.
Benediction - * While on her way to meet up with a man for a romantic liaison, a 19 year old woman makes a brief stopover to visit her brother at a Catholic seminary. During the Benediction at the end of her visit, she has some sort of religious vision or something. The ending is ambiguous. This story was a snooze and I don’t know why Fitzgerald bothered writing it.
Dalyrimple Goes Wrong - ** Dalyrimple returns home from the war. After receiving a hero’s welcome, he finds he must work a low paying dead end job. Struggling to make ends meet and unqualified for a better career, he steps outside the law to get what he wants. This short story would be a great chapter 1 for a novel, but instead it ends abruptly. Disappointing.
The Four Fists - ** As he proceeds through life, a young man with poor social skills goes through four life changing events. Although none of the events end well, the young man learns important lessons and becomes a better person.

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flappers and Philosophers is a light, varied collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s early short stories, and his younger style is extremely evident throughout the book. Rather than the dark and deeply symbolic content that defines his work after The Great Gatsby, Flappers is saturated with witty social commentary and the stereotypical roaring 20s setting. While the stories are occasionally shallow and gaudy, Fitzgerald’s excellent prose technique makes this collection worthwhile as an example of successful commercial fiction.

In the best stories of this collection, such as “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” and “Head and Shoulders,” Fitzgerald brilliantly captures the essence of 1920s popular culture with plentiful doses of both flappers and philosophy. More than in his novels, he eschews morality and complexity in favor of simple satire complemented by his signature prose. “Bernice” depicts nothing more than the social dynamics of young flapper women, but Fitzgerald is nonetheless able to include powerfully styled paragraphs reflecting on human nature and self-perception. Furthermore, it’s fascinating to see the difference between these works, which actually earned Fitzgerald a successful living for some years, and his more complex novels that often failed financially. In the same vein that Alexandre Dumas captures the spirit of the French literary public in his serialized chapters of “The Count of Monte Cristo,” this collection portrays an American literary world long forgotten and eclipsed by our obsession with “the Great American Novel.”

Nonetheless, this short story collection does struggle to some extent with content and depth. Nearly all of the stories pertain in some way to the basic milieu of flappers and young rich boys in post-war America, and all of them feature a remarkably similar authorial voice and style. None of them were particularly thought-provoking, and I didn’t get the sense that this collection was capable of altering my perspective in any meaningful way. Fitzgerald’s young voice, too, feels a little arrogant and verbose — he has a tendency to unnecessarily inject himself into the stories, and his pronouncements are often so majestic and high-minded as to feel overstated and inauthentic.

So Flappers and Philosophers is a difficult book to judge, a representation of Fitzgerald’s raw talent and popularity in the early 20s while also a reflection of his most glaring flaws. It’s evident, while reading this, that it’s not his strongest work, although some of the stories are still stimulating and enjoyable in his particular manner. On the whole, I would recommend this book to any fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald or of Lost-Generation/“flapper” literature.

[Franziska · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amusing short story collection that reflects the views and tendencies of the time. As with almost all short story collections, some were better than others. My favorites were "The Offshore Pirate", "Bernice Bobs her Hair", "Four Fists", and "Head and Shoulders" - some more with more amusing tendencies, others more serious and reflective. I enjoy Fitzgerald´s writing style generally and next to "Tender is the night", this is one of my favorite works of his.

[Marie Cordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Reformed libertines are a notoriously intolerant class."

Actual Rating: 3.5/5

Flappers and Philosophers is a pretty tight collection of stories. As with any Fitzgerald work, the prose is impeccable and impactful-with no small thanks to Zelda, I can imagine.

What I observed in this collection was that Fitzgerald's strengths lie in relationships. In every story in this collection, a relationship is central to the plot. The characters are not developed by the plot, but rather the plot is developed by the characters and the relationships formed between them.

Unfortunately, such beautiful writing was ruined by some incredibly disgusting displays of racism-and I really would rather not hear the 'it was different times' excuse because plenty of classic authors successfully avoided adding racist remarks to novels or stories that had nothing to do with racism.

The Offshore Pirate 2.5/5 Stars

I really did love this story and I absolutely loved Ardita and her relationship, but it was rated so low because it was an uncomfortable read regarding...the language utilized in the story. However, it was a solid piece.

The Ice Palace 2/5 Stars

This story was certainly a dizzying tale. I think the ending was the strongest part but the exposition took a little bit too much time to develop. Amongst other stories in this collection, it simply did not live up to the expectations.

Head and Shoulders 5/5 Stars

The most clever story out of the bunch, I think. I loved the relationship and I loved the way the plot progressed and the ending was certainly my favorite part about it.

The Cut Glass Bowl 4.5/5 Stars

My notes on this one included 'This reminds me of a Poe story" and I loved it for that reason-granted, I don't recall Poe having that many racist remarks in his story.

Bernice Bobs Her Hair 5/5 Stars

I loved it. My favorite story out of the bunch by far and there's a reason this story is so iconic. It was absolutely fantastic.

Benediction 4/5 Stars

This was the most haunting of the stories. I thought it was very well written, solidly executed, and the themes were conveyed well.

Dalyrimple Goes Wrong 1/5 Stars

I'm going to be honest and say that I had no clue what this story was about.

The Four Fists 3/5

A solid story and, if it had not been overshadowed by a couple of others, it would have received a higher rating.

Overall, a solid collection. If you're a Fitzgerald fan, I definitely recommend this.

[Paul]

It isn't a great revelation to state that F Scott Fitzgerald's writing is exquisite and so it shouldn't be a surprise that his short stories (collected in Flappers and Philosophers from 1922 to 1940) are also exquisite. They aren't all amazing but for the most part they whip away with a lot of heart and style. Era's of writing show clearly as the years, and the books making up this collection, pass and the adaptability of his writing is like the changing of the seasons. It starts off about young, vital people trying to understand life to the art of the heartbreaking romance either requited or not, the struggles of addiction and arrogance only to wind down to the farce of hopeless mid-life failure for laughs (with his Pat Hobby section) and then ending with something a bit more sad and serious.
The range in these stories is a little unexpected for me as I mostly know the writer from their novels but finding that he has a way with the absurd and the fanciful (almost sci-fi) only makes you more impressed by his talent. A terrific writer and some wonderful writing in this, sizeable, collection.

[Pauline Mountain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an old favorite, a book that intrigued me in high school. Unfortunately, it hasn't worn well.

At their heart, the stories were much the same and mostly rehashing his infatuation with the woman who became his wife. He managed to reduce her to a type, blonde, rich, fashionable, vicious to rivals, no thoughts in her head other than being popular. It never seems to have occurred to either the author or his readers that popular means well-known, not well-liked.

The male main characters are all poor and proud and immensely intelligent social climbers. Did it occur to anyone that someone like that would be bored in no time by the pretty little possession in his house?

Fortunately, this was not a portrait of all people between the wars, but the sense that this can't last is what saves Fitzgerald from death by mediocrity.

[Abbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loooo-oooove Fitzgerald. It's fair to say that this collection would look somewhat like a bell curve - his best short stories, including my favourite, "Winter Dreams", are somewhere amidst the starter-panic and the flat, weariness Fitzgerald wore toward the end of his career - and life. That's not to say those stories at the beginning and the end of the story aren't good, because the Pat Hobby stories? So funny! But they didn't have the morale, or the elegance, that is associated with Fitzgerald. All-in-all, a stunning collection of short stories that any reader should be delighted to have on their shelves.

Also, the idea that this book contains the "collected short stories" of Fitzgerald is false. More notably, I noticed that "The Offshore Pirate was missing from this collection.

[Paul Michaels · Rating 2 out of 5]

My pithy, one-line review: Somewhat pointless tales from the Jazz Age.

The Offshore Pirate ** (Has racist language and a stupid plot twist)
The Ice Palace **½ (Southern girl heads north, kinda pointless)
Head and Shoulders *** (An odd romance between a child prodigy and an actress. Nice ending, subverts each character's roles in the title)
The Cut-Glass Bowl **½ (Domestic troubles, with a love affair and a weird ending)
Bernice Bobs Her Hair *** (Dated youth culture story about the controversial 'bob' haircut. Sometimes intentionally funny, sometimes unintentionally funny. "Splush!")
Benediction ** (Pointless)
Dalyrimple Goes Wrong **** (An ex-soldier turns to a life of crime)
The Four Fists *** (Has a proper structure to it: 4 chapters, 4 violent incidents)

[Timotei · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a few good stories here, but the majority I didn't really enjoy. Not sure why exactly, a lot of the stories were too similar, about young people trying to find love, about the unsuccesses of Pat Hobby. While they are well written, they get boring. Only very few times were there snapshots of exellence in the writing.

It was interesting to get the snapshots of America a century or so ago: the racist country that peeks through the stories, the impact of the war on society, how people interacted.

I wouldn't recommend reading the entire collection unless you are a big Fitzgerald fan, but find lists of his best shorts and read them.