The Best Early Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald (Modern Library Classics)
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Edited and with an Introduction by Bryant Mangum Foreword by Roxana Robinson Benediction * Head and Shoulders * Bernice Bobs Her Hair * The Ice Palace * The Offshore Pirate * May Day * The Jelly Bean * The Diamond as Big as the Ritz * Winter Dreams * Absolution In the euphoric months before and after the publication of This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the flapper's historian and poet laureate of the Jazz Age, wrote the ten stories that appear in this unique collection. Exploring show more characters and themes that would appear in his later works, such as The Beautiful and Damned and The Great Gatsby, these early selections are among the very best of Fitzgerald's many short stories. This Modern Library Paperback Classic includes notes, an appendix of nonfiction essays by Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and their contemporaries, and vintage magazine illustrations. show lessTags
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I haven't actually read that much Fitzgerald (yet), but a thought that occurred to me--one that I haven't subjected to much analysis but that I'll mention anyway--is that Hemingway and Fitzgerald are sort of a Lennon and McCartney for their era. Paul McCartney can grate on me sometimes. He can be too cutesy--sort of like listening to The Boston Pops. McCartney seems to want to ingratiate. Lennon is darker and has more bite. This is all a bit simplistic of course, but overall McCartney paints prettier, but not necessarily better, pictures. In the end I like some McCartney, but prefer Lennon. I think I feel similarly about Hemingway and Fitzgerald (where Hemingway=Lennon and Fitzgerald=McCartney).
Now I'll probably read more from both show more authors and decide that's crap. Maybe.
Benediction: Unimpressed
Head and Shoulders: Better, but the ending almost feels like bathos to me. Too quaint or something. Too cute.
The Ice Palace: This is far better than the first two stories.
More reaction to come.
Bernice Bobs Her Hair: Catty. The image of Bernice laughing with two long braids in her hands is fun.
The Offshore Pirate: Again, the ending feels a little cute. It's Paul McCartney again!
May Day: This is the longest story in the collection, and as a result many of the characters feel a bit more fleshed out in this one, which I like. The very end feels a little too obvious for me, but there are some good bits here.
The Jelly-Bean: I like when Fitzgerald writes about place. There's some of that in this story. I also like that the ending isn't too heavy handed. That said, this story isn't that meaty.
The Diamond As Big As the Ritz: This one feels a bit like a sci-fi/fantasy tale.
Winter Dreams: This is another favorite. Does it say something about me (or about Fitzgerald) that my favorites in this collection are The Ice Palace and Winter Dreams?
Absolution: I was ready to dislike this story since the other tale of religion in the collection, Benediction, was nothing special. I ended up liking this one a lot more.
Overall, a mixed bag. There are some good stories and some good parts of stories, definitely, but at times it felt like reading for school, like I had to force myself to get through--a sensation I haven't had in a long, long time. show less
Now I'll probably read more from both show more authors and decide that's crap. Maybe.
Benediction: Unimpressed
Head and Shoulders: Better, but the ending almost feels like bathos to me. Too quaint or something. Too cute.
The Ice Palace: This is far better than the first two stories.
More reaction to come.
Bernice Bobs Her Hair: Catty. The image of Bernice laughing with two long braids in her hands is fun.
The Offshore Pirate: Again, the ending feels a little cute. It's Paul McCartney again!
May Day: This is the longest story in the collection, and as a result many of the characters feel a bit more fleshed out in this one, which I like. The very end feels a little too obvious for me, but there are some good bits here.
The Jelly-Bean: I like when Fitzgerald writes about place. There's some of that in this story. I also like that the ending isn't too heavy handed. That said, this story isn't that meaty.
The Diamond As Big As the Ritz: This one feels a bit like a sci-fi/fantasy tale.
Winter Dreams: This is another favorite. Does it say something about me (or about Fitzgerald) that my favorites in this collection are The Ice Palace and Winter Dreams?
Absolution: I was ready to dislike this story since the other tale of religion in the collection, Benediction, was nothing special. I ended up liking this one a lot more.
Overall, a mixed bag. There are some good stories and some good parts of stories, definitely, but at times it felt like reading for school, like I had to force myself to get through--a sensation I haven't had in a long, long time. show less
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628+ Works 142,635 Members
F(rancis) Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896. He was educated at Princeton University and served in the U.S. Army from 1917 to 1919, attaining the rank of second lieutenant. In 1920 Fitzgerald married Zelda Sayre, a young woman of the upper class, and they had a daughter, Frances. Fitzgerald is regarded as one show more of the finest American writers of the 20th Century. His most notable work was the novel, The Great Gatsby (1925). The novel focused on the themes of the Roaring Twenties and of the loss of innocence and ethics among the nouveau riche. He also made many contributions to American literature in the form of short stories, plays, poetry, music, and letters. Ernest Hemingway, who was greatly influenced by Fitzgerald's short stories, wrote that Fitzgerald's talent was "as fine as the dust on a butterfly's wing." Yet during his lifetime Fitzgerald never had a bestselling novel and, toward the end of his life, he worked sporadically as a screenwriter at motion picture studios in Los Angeles. There he contributed to scripts for such popular films as Winter Carnival and Gone with the Wind. Fitzgerald's work is inseparable from the Roaring 20s. Berenice Bobs Her Hair and A Diamond As Big As The Ritz, are two short stories included in his collections, Tales of the Jazz Age and Flappers and Philosophers. His first novel The Beautiful and Damned was flawed but set up Fitzgerald's major themes of the fleeting nature of youthfulness and innocence, unattainable love, and middle-class aspiration for wealth and respectability, derived from his own courtship of Zelda. This Side of Paradise (1920) was Fitzgerald's first unqualified success. Tender Is the Night, a mature look at the excesses of the exuberant 20s, was published in 1934. Much of Fitzgerald's work has been adapted for film, including Tender is the Night , The Great Gatsby, and Babylon Revisited which was adapted as The Last Time I Saw Paris by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1954. The Last Tycoon, adapted by Paramount in 1976, was a work in progress when Fitzgerald died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940, in Hollywood, California. Fitzgerald is buried in the historic St. Mary's Cemetery in Rockville, Maryland. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Original title
- The Best Early Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Original publication date
- 2005
- Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- Contains: Benediction • Head and Shoulders • Bernice Bobs Her Hair • The Ice Palace • The Offshore Pirate • May Day • The Jelly Bean • The Diamond as Big as the Ritz • Winter Dreams • Absolution
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- Reviews
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- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 1
