The last tycoon centers on the life of fictional film executive Monroe Stahr, circa Hollywood in the 1930s. Stahr is modeled loosely on the life of film executive Irving Thalberg.
The novel's new incarnation, "This Side of Paradise", a largely autobiographical story about love and greed, was centered on Amory Blaine, an ambitious Midwesterner who falls in love with, but is ultimately rejected by, two girls from high-class families. The novel was published in 1920 to glowing reviews and, almost overnight, turned Fitzgerald, at the age of 24, into one of the country's most promising young writers. One week after the novel's publication, he married Zelda Sayre in New York. They had one child, a daughter named Frances Scott Fitzgerald, born in 1921. In 1922, Fitzgerald published his second novel, "The Beautiful and Damned", the story of the troubled marriage of Anthony and Gloria Patch. The Beautiful and Damned helped to cement his status as one of the great chroniclers and satirists of the culture of wealth, extravagance and ambition that emerged during the affluent 1920s-what became known as the Jazz Age.
The Complete Novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald is a comprehensive collection of the renowned author's major works, including This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, and The Love of the Last Tycoon. Fitzgerald's works are characterized by their exploration of the American Dream, the decadence of the Jazz Age, and the complexities of human relationships. His writing style is known for its elegant prose, vivid imagery, and poignant social commentary, making him a cornerstone of American literature. Through his novels, Fitzgerald delves into themes of wealth, class, and the repercussions of ambition, painting a vivid portrait of American society during the early 20th century. His works continue to resonate with readers today, capturing the essence of a bygone era. Fans of classic literature and those interested in the history of American culture will find this collection a captivating and enlightening read.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, has frequently been dismissed as an outlier and curiosity in his oeuvre, a transitional work from the coming-of-age plot of This Side of Paradise to the masterful critique of American aspiration in The Great Gatsby. The Beautiful and Damned belongs to a genre that is widely misunderstood, the “bright young things” novel in which spoiled and wealthy characters succumb to decay because of their privilege and lack of purpose. Set between 1913 and 1922, Fitzgerald’s longest novel touches on many of the decisive issues that mark the passage from the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era into the Jazz Age: conspicuous consumption, income inequality, yellow journalism, the Great War, the rise of the movie industry, automobile travel, Wall Street stock scams, immigration and xenophobia, and the fixation with youth and aging. Published to coincide with the novel’s centennial in 2022, this collection approaches The Beautiful and Damned for its insights more than its faults. Prominent Fitzgerald scholars analyze major themes and reveal unappreciated issues with attention to history, biography, literary influence, gender studies, and narratology. While acknowledging the novel’s shortcomings, the essayists illustrate that The Beautiful and Damned has much more to say about its milieu than previously recognized. This collection provides a guide for understanding Fitzgerald’s aims while demonstrating the richness of ideas that this novel explores, alongside the anxieties and ambitions that reverberate within it.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most challenging authors of American literature. He is known internationally as the author of The Great Gatsby (1925), a twentieth-century literary classic studied by high school students and scholars alike. But Fitzgerald was an amazingly productive writer despite numerous personal and professional difficulties. From the beginning of his literary career with the publication of This Side of Paradise in 1920 to his death in 1940, he wrote 5 novels, roughly 180 short stories, numerous essays and reviews, much poetry, several plays, and some film scripts. Even when he wrote hastily and perhaps bleary-eyed, his works almost always exhibit the flashes of his genius. He is celebrated as a symbol of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties, but beneath all the glitter for which his prose is famous, he warns of the dangers of personal recklessness and praises the redemptive power of love. Through hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries, this reference book provides complete coverage of Fitzgerald's life and writings. The volume begins with a chronology that traces his rise from obscurity to fame, his struggles with alcoholism, and his eventual financial downfall. The entries that follow give a full and detailed picture of Fitzgerald and his work. They present the essential action in Fitzgerald's novels, short stories, plays, and poems; identify all named fictional characters and indicate their significance; and give brief biographical information for Fitzgerald's family members, friends, and professional associates. Many of the entries include bibliographies which emphasize criticism published after 1990, and the volume closes with a general bibliography of the most important broad studies of Fitzgerald and his works. A thorough index and extensive cross references provide additional access to the wealth of information in this reference book and help make it a useful tool for a wide range of users.
This pictorial autobiography of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald documents two lives that have become legendary. The book draws almost entirely from the scrapbooks and photograph albums that the Fitzgeralds scrupulously kept as their personal record and provides a wealth of illustrative material not previously available. Minnesota; a photograph of the country club in Montgomery, Alabama, where the two met; reviews of This Side of Paradise; poems to the couple from Ring Lardner; snapshots of their trips abroad; Fitzgerald's careful accounting of his earnings; a photograph of the house on Long Island where The Great Gatsby was conceived; postcards with Fitzgerald's drawings for his daughter. These rare photographs and memorabilia combine into a narrative augmented by selections from Scott's and Zelda's own writings, conveying the spirit of particuular moments in their lives.