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螚 维位位畏 蠈蠄畏 蟿慰蠀 蟺伪蟻伪未蔚委蟽慰蠀
螠蔚蟿伪蠁蟻伪蟽渭苇谓慰 蟺蟻蠋蟿畏 蠁慰蟻维 蟽蟿伪 蔚位位畏谓喂魏维 伪蟺蠈 蟿慰谓 蟽蠀纬纬蟻伪蠁苇伪 螖畏渭萎蟿蟻畏 危蟿蔚蠁伪谓维魏畏, 畏 芦螁位位畏 蠈蠄畏 蟿慰蠀 蟺伪蟻伪未蔚委蟽慰蠀禄 蔚喂蟽萎纬伪纬蔚 蟺慰位位维 胃苇渭伪蟿伪 蟺慰蠀 苇渭蔚位位蔚 谓伪 伪谓伪蟺蟿蠀蠂胃慰蠉谓 蟽蟿伪 渭蔚蟿伪纬蔚谓苇蟽蟿蔚蟻伪 苇蟻纬伪 蟿慰蠀 桅喂蟿味苇蟻伪位谓蟿, 蔚谓蠋 魏苇蟻未喂蟽蔚 伪渭苇蟽蠅蟼 蟿慰 魏慰喂谓蠈 魏伪喂 蟿慰蠀蟼 魏蟻喂蟿喂魏慰蠉蟼, 蟽畏渭蔚喂蠋-谓慰谓蟿伪蟼 渭蔚纬维位畏 蔚魏未慰蟿喂魏萎 蔚蟺喂蟿蠀蠂委伪. 韦慰 蟺蟻蠋蟿慰 渭蠀胃喂蟽蟿蠈蟻畏渭维 蟿慰蠀 蔚魏蟿蠈尉蔚蠀蟽蔚 蟿慰谓 谓蔚伪蟻蠈 蟽蠀纬纬蟻伪蠁苇伪 蟽蟿畏 蟽蠁伪委蟻伪 蟿畏蟼 位慰纬慰蟿蔚蠂谓喂魏萎蟼 未喂伪蟽畏渭蠈蟿畏蟿伪蟼, 伪谓伪未蔚喂魏谓蠉慰谓蟿维蟼 蟿慰谓 魏蠉蟻喂慰 蔚魏蠁蟻伪蟽蟿萎 蟿畏蟼 伪谓萎蟽蠀蠂畏蟼 魏伪喂 伪谓蟿喂魏慰渭蠁慰蟻渭喂蟽蟿喂魏萎蟼 谓蔚慰位伪委伪蟼 蟿畏蟼 蔚蟺慰蠂萎蟼, 蔚渭蟺慰蟿喂蟽渭苇谓畏蟼 渭蔚 蟿慰蠀蟼 萎蠂慰蠀蟼 蟿畏蟼 蟿味伪味, 蟿慰 蟺谓蔚蠉渭伪 蟿畏蟼 伪谓蔚渭蔚位喂维蟼, 蟿蠅谓 蔚魏蟺位萎尉蔚蠅谓, 蟿蠅谓 伪谓伪蟿蟻慰蟺蠋谓, 蟿蠅谓 伪谓伪喂蟻苇蟽蔚蠅谓 魏伪喂 蟿慰蠀 蟺慰位苇渭慰蠀 蟺慰蠀 苇蟻蠂蔚蟿伪喂.
螚 芦螁位位畏 蠈蠄畏 蟿慰蠀 蟺伪蟻伪未蔚委蟽慰蠀禄 蠂伪蟻蟿慰纬蟻伪蠁蔚委 蟿畏 味蠅萎 蟿慰蠀 螁渭慰蟻喂 螠蟺位苇喂谓 鈥撐滴较屜� 蠁喂位蠈未慰尉慰蠀 谓苇慰蠀 慰 慰蟺慰委慰蟼 蟺伪蟻伪蟺苇渭蟺蔚喂 伪渭蠀未蟻维 蟽蟿慰谓 委未喂慰 蟿慰谓 桅喂蟿味苇蟻伪位谓蟿鈥� 伪蟺蠈 蟿畏 蟽蟿喂纬渭萎 蟺慰蠀 伪蠁萎谓蔚喂 蟿慰 蟺位慰蠉蟽喂慰 蟺伪蟿蟻喂魏蠈 蟿慰蠀 魏伪喂 渭蔚蟿伪魏喂谓蔚委蟿伪喂 伪蟺蠈 蟿喂蟼 渭蔚蟽慰未蠀蟿喂魏苇蟼 蟺慰位喂蟿蔚委蔚蟼 蟽蟿慰 螤伪谓蔚蟺喂蟽蟿萎渭喂慰 蟿慰蠀 螤蟻委谓蟽蟿慰谓. 危蠀蠂谓维味慰谓蟿伪蟼 蟽蟿畏 蟽蠀谓苇蠂蔚喂伪 蟽蟿慰蠀蟼 魏蠉魏位慰蠀蟼 蟿畏蟼 蠀蠄畏位萎蟼 魏慰喂谓蠅谓委伪蟼 蠅蟼 蔚蟺委未慰尉慰蟼 蟽蠀纬纬蟻伪蠁苇伪蟼, 慰 螠蟺位苇喂谓 尾喂蠋-谓蔚喂 蟿畏谓 伪蟺慰蟿蠀蠂委伪 魏伪喂 蟿畏谓 伪蟺慰纬慰萎蟿蔚蠀蟽畏 蟽蟿慰谓 苇蟻蠅蟿伪 伪位位维 魏伪喂 蟽蟿畏谓 魏伪蟻喂苇蟻伪 蟿慰蠀. 螔位苇蟺蔚喂 蟿慰谓 谓蔚伪谓喂魏蠈 蔚谓胃慰蠀蟽喂伪蟽渭蠈 谓伪 蔚尉伪谓蔚渭委味蔚蟿伪喂 魏伪喂 蟿喂蟼 蠄蔚蠀未伪喂蟽胃萎蟽蔚喂蟼 蟿慰蠀 谓伪 未喂伪位蠉慰谓-蟿伪喂, 魏伪胃蠋蟼 蟽蠀谓蔚喂未畏蟿慰蟺慰喂蔚委 蟿畏谓 蟺蟻伪纬渭伪蟿喂魏蠈蟿畏蟿伪.
螚 芦螁位位畏 蠈蠄畏 蟿慰蠀 蟺伪蟻伪未蔚委蟽慰蠀禄 蠂伪蟻蟿慰纬蟻伪蠁蔚委 蟿畏 味蠅萎 蟿慰蠀 螁渭慰蟻喂 螠蟺位苇喂谓 鈥撐滴较屜� 蠁喂位蠈未慰尉慰蠀 谓苇慰蠀 慰 慰蟺慰委慰蟼 蟺伪蟻伪蟺苇渭蟺蔚喂 伪渭蠀未蟻维 蟽蟿慰谓 委未喂慰 蟿慰谓 桅喂蟿味苇蟻伪位谓蟿鈥� 伪蟺蠈 蟿畏 蟽蟿喂纬渭萎 蟺慰蠀 伪蠁萎谓蔚喂 蟿慰 蟺位慰蠉蟽喂慰 蟺伪蟿蟻喂魏蠈 蟿慰蠀 魏伪喂 渭蔚蟿伪魏喂谓蔚委蟿伪喂 伪蟺蠈 蟿喂蟼 渭蔚蟽慰未蠀蟿喂魏苇蟼 蟺慰位喂蟿蔚委蔚蟼 蟽蟿慰 螤伪谓蔚蟺喂蟽蟿萎渭喂慰 蟿慰蠀 螤蟻委谓蟽蟿慰谓. 危蠀蠂谓维味慰谓蟿伪蟼 蟽蟿畏 蟽蠀谓苇蠂蔚喂伪 蟽蟿慰蠀蟼 魏蠉魏位慰蠀蟼 蟿畏蟼 蠀蠄畏位萎蟼 魏慰喂谓蠅谓委伪蟼 蠅蟼 蔚蟺委未慰尉慰蟼 蟽蠀纬纬蟻伪蠁苇伪蟼, 慰 螠蟺位苇喂谓 尾喂蠋-谓蔚喂 蟿畏谓 伪蟺慰蟿蠀蠂委伪 魏伪喂 蟿畏谓 伪蟺慰纬慰萎蟿蔚蠀蟽畏 蟽蟿慰谓 苇蟻蠅蟿伪 伪位位维 魏伪喂 蟽蟿畏谓 魏伪蟻喂苇蟻伪 蟿慰蠀. 螔位苇蟺蔚喂 蟿慰谓 谓蔚伪谓喂魏蠈 蔚谓胃慰蠀蟽喂伪蟽渭蠈 谓伪 蔚尉伪谓蔚渭委味蔚蟿伪喂 魏伪喂 蟿喂蟼 蠄蔚蠀未伪喂蟽胃萎蟽蔚喂蟼 蟿慰蠀 谓伪 未喂伪位蠉慰谓-蟿伪喂, 魏伪胃蠋蟼 蟽蠀谓蔚喂未畏蟿慰蟺慰喂蔚委 蟿畏谓 蟺蟻伪纬渭伪蟿喂魏蠈蟿畏蟿伪.
432 pages, Paperback
First published March 26, 1920
9800 people are currently reading
106247 people want to read
About the author
F. Scott Fitzgerald
1,715听books24.9k听followersFrancis 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.
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.
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April 9, 2020
鈥淰ery few things matter and nothing matters very much.鈥�
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise
Reading The Great Gatsby was an important experience for me, coming as it did at a time when my love for reading was threatening to lapse. Having loved books from a very young age, high school English proved a bucket of cold water for my ardor. It wasn鈥檛 that I struggled. Quite the opposite, as I did extremely well with very little effort (the obverse being true in physics). Rather, it was a matter of taking something fun and making it into a chore. Instead of being a leisurely activity, reading became something I had to do within a given timeframe. More than that, the sensation of being forced to get something out of a book 鈥� to find the themes, the symbols, the meaning in the text, as though it were as objective an exercise as a 鈥渇ind the hidden objects鈥� game in Highlights magazine 鈥� took away all the joy.
F. Scott Fitzgerald鈥檚 The Great Gatsby kept alive that flicker of love 鈥� just barely 鈥� long enough to get me into early adulthood, when I could once again read for the pleasure of reading.
Why The Great Gatsby?
Of all the assigned reading I鈥檝e ever done, I found it the most accessible, the smoothest, and the most entertaining. Unlike The Catcher in the Rye鈥檚 Holden Caulfield, who baffled me then and now, I understood Jay Gatsby鈥檚 desire to impress a girl. After all, I was in high school, and fruitless attempts to impress others took up most of my day. Sure, I was forced to write an essay on the symbolism, but that was easy, because the symbols were all right there, like shells on the beach at low tide, easy to find and pick up. But it wasn鈥檛 just the simplicity, it was the beauty. When Nick Carraway imagined the brooding Gatsby pondering the green light at the end of Daisy鈥檚 dock, I could imagine it too, as clearly as anything in the world.
This is all a rather long way of saying that I was bound to be disappointed when I circled back from Gatsby to Fitzgerald鈥檚 first novel: the somewhat-weird, mildly annoying, ultimately worthwhile This Side of Paradise.
This Side of Paradise tells the story of Amory Blaine, a young boy who comes from a family with money and a good name. We meet Amory in preparatory school, follow him to Princeton, and eventually leave Amory adrift and searching. During this interim, Amory falls in and out of love, avoids combat in World War I, and carries on a series of dialogues 鈥� both internal and external 鈥� that has come to encapsulate a generation, even though it really only applies to a narrow cohort of white, privileged, upper class Ivy-leaguers with names like Amory.
Fitzgerald鈥檚 novel is semiautobiographical, weaving events and locations 鈥� St. Paul, Minnesota; Princeton; a lousy, heart-breaking breakup 鈥� into his fictionalized tale. If Amory is meant to be a stand-in for Fitzgerald, it is a relatively scathing self-portrait. Amory is a mostly-unlikeable protagonist: self-absorbed, overly-confident, thin-skinned, aimless and lazy.
Unlike the straightforward Gatsby, This Side of Paradise is constructed of three separate acts: two 鈥渂ooks鈥� separated by an 鈥渋nterlude.鈥�
The first book, titled 鈥淭he Romantic Egotist,鈥� covers Amory鈥檚 matriculation. It is written in the third-person, from Amory鈥檚 point of view. Most of the time is spent at Princeton, where Amory is convinced that he has a bright future 鈥� and is equally convinced that he shouldn鈥檛 have to work for it.
I found the first book to be a bit of a chore, as Amory is a striking exhibit of undeserved privilege. He is fickle and prickly and generally unpleasant to spend time with. The peripheral characters, including Monsignor Darcy, with whom he exchanges letters, and Thomas Park D鈥橧nvilliers, a student and would-be poet, are thinly drawn at best. Certainly, none of Fitzgerald鈥檚 supporting cast leaves an impression as vivid as Tom Buchanan, with his 鈥渃ruel body鈥� clad in 鈥渆ffeminate鈥� riding clothes.
(Since I clearly cannot get off the subject of Gatsby, I will note that the fictional D鈥橧nvilliers gave Gatsby its famous epigraph: 鈥淭hen wear the gold hat, if that will move her鈥︹€�).
The 鈥渋nterlude鈥� portion of the novel, dividing books one and two, briskly covers Amory鈥檚 participation in World War I, where he served as an instructor. No further information is given regarding his military stint. Thus, unlike other postwar novels 鈥� such as The Sun Also Rises 鈥� the shadow of the war does not loom overlarge. To that end, it鈥檚 worth noting that Fitzgerald himself 鈥� unlike Hemingway 鈥� never went overseas.
The second book, titled 鈥淭he Education of a Personage,鈥� begins with a chapter written as a play, with stage directions and dialogue. No reason is given for this temporary shift in narrative style, but it works, despite desperately calling attention to itself. Here we learn about Amory鈥檚 courtship and love affair with a debutante named Rosalind (standing in for Zelda Sayre). The ebb and flow of this relationship, delineated by conversation, comes close to making Amory into a relatable, half-sympathetic human being, and salvaging him a bit from the first book.
For long stretches, I felt captive to Amory鈥檚 pompous proclamations. His long monologues can get a bit frustrating. Every once in a while, though, Fitzgerald slipped in a little grace note. Near the end of the novel, for example, Amory is shuffling down the road when a man in a limo offers him a ride. Amory then subjects the man to a tiresome disquisition on his economic theories. As the ride ends, it turns out that Amory went to Princeton with the man鈥檚 son, who is now dead:
Mostly, though, Amory is detestable. For instance:
To me, This Side of Paradise is a rough first effort by an extremely talented author. There is some experimentation at work, as Fitzgerald transitions from third-person narrative to a play, while also including letters, poetry and verse. You will have to decide for yourself whether you are dazzled or distracted by this shifting structure.
(Note: this 鈥渆xperimentation鈥� might simply have been Fitzgerald stitching things together, since This Side of Paradise began life as a different, unpublished work).
My paperback copy is less than three-hundred pages long. Nevertheless, This Side of Paradise felt meandering and baggy and choppily episodic. There were portions where my eyes just glazed over. But just as often, I was transported by Fitzgerald鈥檚 lyrical, beautiful prose, his ability to describe a place by putting you right there:
The Roaring Twenties live on in American imagination, at least as calculated by the number of Roaring Twenties parties I鈥檝e attended in my life. This Side of Paradise fuels that flame. In retrospect, it has been credited 鈥� according to Professor Sharon Carson, who wrote the introduction to my copy 鈥� with establishing 鈥渢he image of seemingly carefree, party-mad young men and women out to create a new morality for a new, postwar America.鈥�
In reality, This Side of Paradise tells the story of only a thin tranche of America鈥檚 population. Those who were moneyed. Those who were white. Those who were living fast and high during Coolidge鈥檚 laissez-faire administration, unknowingly rushing towards their economic doom. Lost 鈥� or rather, ignored, completely 鈥� is any hint of a world beyond the elite. There are no minorities. There are no wage-earners. There is no indication that anyone from this time period got through life without an emotionally-jarring relationship with a flapper.
Because of the confluence of author, setting, and historical moment, This Side of Paradise will live forever. As for me, I started to forget about it right away.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise
Reading The Great Gatsby was an important experience for me, coming as it did at a time when my love for reading was threatening to lapse. Having loved books from a very young age, high school English proved a bucket of cold water for my ardor. It wasn鈥檛 that I struggled. Quite the opposite, as I did extremely well with very little effort (the obverse being true in physics). Rather, it was a matter of taking something fun and making it into a chore. Instead of being a leisurely activity, reading became something I had to do within a given timeframe. More than that, the sensation of being forced to get something out of a book 鈥� to find the themes, the symbols, the meaning in the text, as though it were as objective an exercise as a 鈥渇ind the hidden objects鈥� game in Highlights magazine 鈥� took away all the joy.
F. Scott Fitzgerald鈥檚 The Great Gatsby kept alive that flicker of love 鈥� just barely 鈥� long enough to get me into early adulthood, when I could once again read for the pleasure of reading.
Why The Great Gatsby?
Of all the assigned reading I鈥檝e ever done, I found it the most accessible, the smoothest, and the most entertaining. Unlike The Catcher in the Rye鈥檚 Holden Caulfield, who baffled me then and now, I understood Jay Gatsby鈥檚 desire to impress a girl. After all, I was in high school, and fruitless attempts to impress others took up most of my day. Sure, I was forced to write an essay on the symbolism, but that was easy, because the symbols were all right there, like shells on the beach at low tide, easy to find and pick up. But it wasn鈥檛 just the simplicity, it was the beauty. When Nick Carraway imagined the brooding Gatsby pondering the green light at the end of Daisy鈥檚 dock, I could imagine it too, as clearly as anything in the world.
This is all a rather long way of saying that I was bound to be disappointed when I circled back from Gatsby to Fitzgerald鈥檚 first novel: the somewhat-weird, mildly annoying, ultimately worthwhile This Side of Paradise.
This Side of Paradise tells the story of Amory Blaine, a young boy who comes from a family with money and a good name. We meet Amory in preparatory school, follow him to Princeton, and eventually leave Amory adrift and searching. During this interim, Amory falls in and out of love, avoids combat in World War I, and carries on a series of dialogues 鈥� both internal and external 鈥� that has come to encapsulate a generation, even though it really only applies to a narrow cohort of white, privileged, upper class Ivy-leaguers with names like Amory.
Fitzgerald鈥檚 novel is semiautobiographical, weaving events and locations 鈥� St. Paul, Minnesota; Princeton; a lousy, heart-breaking breakup 鈥� into his fictionalized tale. If Amory is meant to be a stand-in for Fitzgerald, it is a relatively scathing self-portrait. Amory is a mostly-unlikeable protagonist: self-absorbed, overly-confident, thin-skinned, aimless and lazy.
Unlike the straightforward Gatsby, This Side of Paradise is constructed of three separate acts: two 鈥渂ooks鈥� separated by an 鈥渋nterlude.鈥�
The first book, titled 鈥淭he Romantic Egotist,鈥� covers Amory鈥檚 matriculation. It is written in the third-person, from Amory鈥檚 point of view. Most of the time is spent at Princeton, where Amory is convinced that he has a bright future 鈥� and is equally convinced that he shouldn鈥檛 have to work for it.
I found the first book to be a bit of a chore, as Amory is a striking exhibit of undeserved privilege. He is fickle and prickly and generally unpleasant to spend time with. The peripheral characters, including Monsignor Darcy, with whom he exchanges letters, and Thomas Park D鈥橧nvilliers, a student and would-be poet, are thinly drawn at best. Certainly, none of Fitzgerald鈥檚 supporting cast leaves an impression as vivid as Tom Buchanan, with his 鈥渃ruel body鈥� clad in 鈥渆ffeminate鈥� riding clothes.
(Since I clearly cannot get off the subject of Gatsby, I will note that the fictional D鈥橧nvilliers gave Gatsby its famous epigraph: 鈥淭hen wear the gold hat, if that will move her鈥︹€�).
The 鈥渋nterlude鈥� portion of the novel, dividing books one and two, briskly covers Amory鈥檚 participation in World War I, where he served as an instructor. No further information is given regarding his military stint. Thus, unlike other postwar novels 鈥� such as The Sun Also Rises 鈥� the shadow of the war does not loom overlarge. To that end, it鈥檚 worth noting that Fitzgerald himself 鈥� unlike Hemingway 鈥� never went overseas.
The second book, titled 鈥淭he Education of a Personage,鈥� begins with a chapter written as a play, with stage directions and dialogue. No reason is given for this temporary shift in narrative style, but it works, despite desperately calling attention to itself. Here we learn about Amory鈥檚 courtship and love affair with a debutante named Rosalind (standing in for Zelda Sayre). The ebb and flow of this relationship, delineated by conversation, comes close to making Amory into a relatable, half-sympathetic human being, and salvaging him a bit from the first book.
For long stretches, I felt captive to Amory鈥檚 pompous proclamations. His long monologues can get a bit frustrating. Every once in a while, though, Fitzgerald slipped in a little grace note. Near the end of the novel, for example, Amory is shuffling down the road when a man in a limo offers him a ride. Amory then subjects the man to a tiresome disquisition on his economic theories. As the ride ends, it turns out that Amory went to Princeton with the man鈥檚 son, who is now dead:
"I sent my son to Princeton鈥erhaps you knew him. His name was Jesse Ferrenby. He was killed last year in France.鈥�
鈥淚 knew him very well. In fact, he was one of my particular friends.鈥�
鈥淗e was 鈥� a 鈥� quite a fine boy. We were very close.鈥�
Amory began to perceive a resemblance between the father and the dead son and he told himself that there had been all along a sense of familiarity. Jesse Ferrenby, the man who in college had borne off the crown that he had aspired to. It was all so far away. What little boys they had been, working for blue ribbons鈥he big man held out his hand. Amory saw that the fact that he had known Jesse more than outweighed any disfavor he had created by his opinions. What ghosts were people with which to work!
Mostly, though, Amory is detestable. For instance:
"I detest poor people,鈥� thought Amory suddenly. 鈥淚 hate them for being poor. Poverty may have been beautiful once, but it鈥檚 rotten now. It鈥檚 the ugliest thing in the world. It鈥檚 essentially cleaner to be corrupt and rich than it is to be innocent and poor.鈥�
To me, This Side of Paradise is a rough first effort by an extremely talented author. There is some experimentation at work, as Fitzgerald transitions from third-person narrative to a play, while also including letters, poetry and verse. You will have to decide for yourself whether you are dazzled or distracted by this shifting structure.
(Note: this 鈥渆xperimentation鈥� might simply have been Fitzgerald stitching things together, since This Side of Paradise began life as a different, unpublished work).
My paperback copy is less than three-hundred pages long. Nevertheless, This Side of Paradise felt meandering and baggy and choppily episodic. There were portions where my eyes just glazed over. But just as often, I was transported by Fitzgerald鈥檚 lyrical, beautiful prose, his ability to describe a place by putting you right there:
At first Amory noticed only the wealth of sunshine creeping across the long, green swards, dancing on the leaded windowpanes, and swimming around the tops of the spires and towers and battlemented walls鈥�
The Roaring Twenties live on in American imagination, at least as calculated by the number of Roaring Twenties parties I鈥檝e attended in my life. This Side of Paradise fuels that flame. In retrospect, it has been credited 鈥� according to Professor Sharon Carson, who wrote the introduction to my copy 鈥� with establishing 鈥渢he image of seemingly carefree, party-mad young men and women out to create a new morality for a new, postwar America.鈥�
In reality, This Side of Paradise tells the story of only a thin tranche of America鈥檚 population. Those who were moneyed. Those who were white. Those who were living fast and high during Coolidge鈥檚 laissez-faire administration, unknowingly rushing towards their economic doom. Lost 鈥� or rather, ignored, completely 鈥� is any hint of a world beyond the elite. There are no minorities. There are no wage-earners. There is no indication that anyone from this time period got through life without an emotionally-jarring relationship with a flapper.
Because of the confluence of author, setting, and historical moment, This Side of Paradise will live forever. As for me, I started to forget about it right away.
January 15, 2022
I wanted to like this book because it has all the trappings of books I tend to enjoy, including gradual disillusionment with life and a character who I relate to, i.e. bad work ethic and excessive emotional reactions. I think the issue is I can't stand when people are condescending or care about status and so it made it hard for me to like the character. On top of that I wasn't quite sure what the plot or purpose of the book was. There was a lot of random poetry included in between the prose and I didn't think the poetry was good to be quite honest. The book just felt meandering, the main character was unlikeable, none of the other characters were developed in any meaningful way and so I didn't really like this one. I liked this even less than The Great Gatsby. Mostly I just felt bored.
January 20, 2022
This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940)
This Side of Paradise is the debut novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was published in 1920. Taking its title from a line of Rupert Brooke's poem Tiare Tahiti, the book examines the lives and morality of post鈥揥orld War I youth. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive Princeton University student who dabbles in literature. The novel explores the theme of love warped by greed and status seeking.
Fitzgerald's first novel, was an immediate, spectacular success and established his literary reputation. Perhaps the definitive novel of that Lost Generation, it tells the story of Amory Blaine, a handsome, wealthy Princeton student who halfheartedly involves himself in literary cults, liberal student activities, and a series of empty flirtations with young women. When he finally does fall truly in love, however, the young woman rejects him for another.
鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮: 乇賵夭 亘蹖爻鬲 賵 丿賵賲 賲丕賴 賳賵丕賲亘乇 爻丕賱2011賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 丕蹖賳 爻賵蹖 亘賴卮鬲貨 丕孬乇: 賮乇丕賳爻蹖爻 丕爻讴丕鬲 賮蹖鬲夭噩乇丕賱丿貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 爻賴蹖賱 爻賲蹖貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賯賯賳賵爻貙 爻丕賱1389貙 丿乇376氐貙 丕丿亘蹖丕鬲 噩賴丕賳101貙 乇賲丕賳86貙 卮丕亘讴9789643118976貙 賲賵囟賵毓 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丕蹖丕賱丕鬲 賲鬲丨丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 - 爻丿賴 20賲
丿乇 爻蹖 爻丕賱诏蹖貙 芦丕蹖賲乇蹖 (丌賲賵乇蹖) 亘賱蹖賳禄貙 亘丕 孬乇賵鬲蹖 讴賴 亘丕 賲乇诏 丿賵 亘乇丕丿乇 亘夭乇诏鈥屫必簇� 亘賴 丕賵 賲蹖鈥屫必池� 丕丨爻丕爻 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 丿賳蹖丕 賲丕賱 丕賵爻鬲貨 倬丿乇卮 芦丕爻鬲蹖賮賳 亘賱蹖賳禄 賲乇丿蹖 賳丕賱丕蹖賯貙 讴賴 亘賴 丕卮毓丕乇 芦賱乇丿 亘丕蹖乇賵賳禄貙 卮丕毓乇 芦丕賳诏賱蹖爻蹖禄 毓賱丕賯賴鈥� 蹖 亘爻蹖丕乇蹖 丿丕卮鬲貙 鬲夭賱夭賱貙 賵 丿賵丿賱蹖 賵蹖跇賴 丕蹖 亘乇丕蹖 倬爻乇卮貙 亘賴 丕乇孬 诏匕丕卮鬲貙 讴賴 丕賵 乇丕 丕賳爻丕賳蹖 爻爻鬲 毓賳氐乇貙 亘丕 氐賵乇鬲蹖讴賴 賳氐賮卮 倬卮鬲 賲賵賴丕蹖 丕亘乇蹖卮賲蹖 賵 毓丕乇蹖 丕夭 丨蹖丕鬲卮貙 賲丨賵 卮丿賴 亘賵丿貙 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫ж� 芦丕蹖賳 爻賵蹖 亘賴卮鬲禄 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 夭賳丿诏蹖 倬爻乇讴蹖 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 鬲丕 倬蹖卮 丕夭 丿賴 爻丕賱诏蹖貙 賲丕丿乇卮 亘賴 丕賵 丌賲賵夭卮鈥屬囏й� 賮乇丕賵丕賳 丿丕丿貨 丕賵 丿乇 蹖丕夭丿賴 爻丕賱诏蹖 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗀池� 乇賵丕賳貙 賵 乇丕丨鬲貙 蹖丕 卮丕蹖丿 亘丕 賱丨賳蹖 蹖丕丿丌賵乇 芦亘乇丕賲爻禄貙 芦賲賵鬲爻丕乇鬲禄貙 賵 芦亘鬲賴賵賵賳禄貙 丨乇賮 亘夭賳丿貨 倬爻乇蹖 讴賴 亘賴 诏賲丕賳 賲丕丿乇卮貙 賵丕賯毓丕 亘丕 賮乇賴賳诏 賵 噩匕丕亘 亘賵丿貙 賵 丿乇 毓蹖賳 丨丕賱 禺蹖賱蹖 馗乇蹖賮貙 亘丕 夭賳丿诏蹖 丿乇 禺丕賳賴鈥� 丕蹖 讴賴 賴賲蹖卮賴 鬲卮乇蹖賮丕鬲 賵蹖跇賴 蹖 禺賵丿卮 乇丕 丿丕卮鬲貨 ...貨
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 17/03/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 29/10/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
This Side of Paradise is the debut novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was published in 1920. Taking its title from a line of Rupert Brooke's poem Tiare Tahiti, the book examines the lives and morality of post鈥揥orld War I youth. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive Princeton University student who dabbles in literature. The novel explores the theme of love warped by greed and status seeking.
Fitzgerald's first novel, was an immediate, spectacular success and established his literary reputation. Perhaps the definitive novel of that Lost Generation, it tells the story of Amory Blaine, a handsome, wealthy Princeton student who halfheartedly involves himself in literary cults, liberal student activities, and a series of empty flirtations with young women. When he finally does fall truly in love, however, the young woman rejects him for another.
鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮: 乇賵夭 亘蹖爻鬲 賵 丿賵賲 賲丕賴 賳賵丕賲亘乇 爻丕賱2011賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 丕蹖賳 爻賵蹖 亘賴卮鬲貨 丕孬乇: 賮乇丕賳爻蹖爻 丕爻讴丕鬲 賮蹖鬲夭噩乇丕賱丿貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 爻賴蹖賱 爻賲蹖貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賯賯賳賵爻貙 爻丕賱1389貙 丿乇376氐貙 丕丿亘蹖丕鬲 噩賴丕賳101貙 乇賲丕賳86貙 卮丕亘讴9789643118976貙 賲賵囟賵毓 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丕蹖丕賱丕鬲 賲鬲丨丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 - 爻丿賴 20賲
丿乇 爻蹖 爻丕賱诏蹖貙 芦丕蹖賲乇蹖 (丌賲賵乇蹖) 亘賱蹖賳禄貙 亘丕 孬乇賵鬲蹖 讴賴 亘丕 賲乇诏 丿賵 亘乇丕丿乇 亘夭乇诏鈥屫必簇� 亘賴 丕賵 賲蹖鈥屫必池� 丕丨爻丕爻 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 丿賳蹖丕 賲丕賱 丕賵爻鬲貨 倬丿乇卮 芦丕爻鬲蹖賮賳 亘賱蹖賳禄 賲乇丿蹖 賳丕賱丕蹖賯貙 讴賴 亘賴 丕卮毓丕乇 芦賱乇丿 亘丕蹖乇賵賳禄貙 卮丕毓乇 芦丕賳诏賱蹖爻蹖禄 毓賱丕賯賴鈥� 蹖 亘爻蹖丕乇蹖 丿丕卮鬲貙 鬲夭賱夭賱貙 賵 丿賵丿賱蹖 賵蹖跇賴 丕蹖 亘乇丕蹖 倬爻乇卮貙 亘賴 丕乇孬 诏匕丕卮鬲貙 讴賴 丕賵 乇丕 丕賳爻丕賳蹖 爻爻鬲 毓賳氐乇貙 亘丕 氐賵乇鬲蹖讴賴 賳氐賮卮 倬卮鬲 賲賵賴丕蹖 丕亘乇蹖卮賲蹖 賵 毓丕乇蹖 丕夭 丨蹖丕鬲卮貙 賲丨賵 卮丿賴 亘賵丿貙 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫ж� 芦丕蹖賳 爻賵蹖 亘賴卮鬲禄 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 夭賳丿诏蹖 倬爻乇讴蹖 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 鬲丕 倬蹖卮 丕夭 丿賴 爻丕賱诏蹖貙 賲丕丿乇卮 亘賴 丕賵 丌賲賵夭卮鈥屬囏й� 賮乇丕賵丕賳 丿丕丿貨 丕賵 丿乇 蹖丕夭丿賴 爻丕賱诏蹖 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗀池� 乇賵丕賳貙 賵 乇丕丨鬲貙 蹖丕 卮丕蹖丿 亘丕 賱丨賳蹖 蹖丕丿丌賵乇 芦亘乇丕賲爻禄貙 芦賲賵鬲爻丕乇鬲禄貙 賵 芦亘鬲賴賵賵賳禄貙 丨乇賮 亘夭賳丿貨 倬爻乇蹖 讴賴 亘賴 诏賲丕賳 賲丕丿乇卮貙 賵丕賯毓丕 亘丕 賮乇賴賳诏 賵 噩匕丕亘 亘賵丿貙 賵 丿乇 毓蹖賳 丨丕賱 禺蹖賱蹖 馗乇蹖賮貙 亘丕 夭賳丿诏蹖 丿乇 禺丕賳賴鈥� 丕蹖 讴賴 賴賲蹖卮賴 鬲卮乇蹖賮丕鬲 賵蹖跇賴 蹖 禺賵丿卮 乇丕 丿丕卮鬲貨 ...貨
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 17/03/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 29/10/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
April 6, 2018
Entitlement courses through every word and hemorrhages forth with a youthful flair for dramatics. That a momentary blemish can nearly bring a girl to tears of despair, that looking into the very face of death wrangles only a moment's serious reflection before thoughts are turned back to the senior prom - these scenes seem too fantastical to believe. And yet, I am angered by them. I loath these characters' nonchalance about life and lives. If they were not authored into existence with such undeniable skill, I would not have wanted to charge into this book and wring their necks. This Side of Paradise is a triumph of decadence unveiled.
July 24, 2022
[Revised, shelves and pictures added, spoilers hidden 7/24/2022]
This was Fitzgerald鈥檚 first novel, published when he was 23. So it鈥檚 a coming-of-age novel and semi-autobiographical.
Our main character, Amory, is presented to us as a not-very-likable egotistical young god. 鈥溾€e wondered how people could fail to notice he was a boy marked for glory鈥︹€� He鈥檚 so 鈥渞emarkable looking鈥� that a middle-aged woman turns around in the theater to tell him so. He鈥檚 the football quarterback but hey, who cares, he gives that up. We are told older boys usually detested him.
He鈥檚 a big hit with the girls but he鈥檚 disgusted by his first kiss. There鈥檚 a lot of chasing of girls, drinking, partying, driving fast cars and a tragedy. The blurbs tell us that some young women used the book as a manual for how to be a jazz-age flapper 鈥� this in the 1920s. We even get a bit of goth when we are told that with one girl 鈥渆vil crept close to him.鈥�
The book is dense with themes, the main one being wealthy young men in an ivy-league environment 鈥� Princeton, where Fitzgerald went. So there鈥檚 a lot about college life and the competition among young men. We read of endless hours over coffee BS-ing about philosophy and their 鈥榬ushing鈥� to get into the 鈥榬ight鈥� clubs.
There are a lot of excerpts of poetry he was reading and writing and one-sentence judgments about the classics they had to read in those days. And a bit about writing: 鈥溾€ get distracted when I start to write stories 鈥� get afraid I鈥檓 doing it instead of living鈥︹€�
Hanging over all these young men is not just the usual 鈥榳hat am I going to do with my life,鈥� but first, waiting to survive being drafted into World War I. Our main character is conscious of the changing of the generations and their different values: The Victorians are dying out and the WW I generation is in. They are playing with socialism.
He鈥檚 prescient when he tells us 鈥淢odern life changes no longer century by century, but year by year, ten times faster than it ever has before鈥︹€� It sounds as if he鈥檚 talking about the age of the internet.
By the end of the book
At one point Amory tells us 鈥淚 detest poor people鈥� because he saw 鈥渙nly coarseness, physical filth, and stupidity.鈥� Was he a Democrat or a Republican? LOL.
Almost noir and a good book. You can see Fitzgerald鈥檚 emerging genius.
Coincidentally I happened to be reading A Separate Peace by John Knowles, while reading Paradise. There were many similarities. Rich young men coming of age (at a prep school instead of university) while a war goes on (WW II instead of WW I) with the draft hanging over them.
Top photo of Princeton in 1915 from princetonarchives.tumblr.com
The author (1896-1940) from thefamouspeople.com
This was Fitzgerald鈥檚 first novel, published when he was 23. So it鈥檚 a coming-of-age novel and semi-autobiographical.
Our main character, Amory, is presented to us as a not-very-likable egotistical young god. 鈥溾€e wondered how people could fail to notice he was a boy marked for glory鈥︹€� He鈥檚 so 鈥渞emarkable looking鈥� that a middle-aged woman turns around in the theater to tell him so. He鈥檚 the football quarterback but hey, who cares, he gives that up. We are told older boys usually detested him.
He鈥檚 a big hit with the girls but he鈥檚 disgusted by his first kiss. There鈥檚 a lot of chasing of girls, drinking, partying, driving fast cars and a tragedy. The blurbs tell us that some young women used the book as a manual for how to be a jazz-age flapper 鈥� this in the 1920s. We even get a bit of goth when we are told that with one girl 鈥渆vil crept close to him.鈥�
The book is dense with themes, the main one being wealthy young men in an ivy-league environment 鈥� Princeton, where Fitzgerald went. So there鈥檚 a lot about college life and the competition among young men. We read of endless hours over coffee BS-ing about philosophy and their 鈥榬ushing鈥� to get into the 鈥榬ight鈥� clubs.
There are a lot of excerpts of poetry he was reading and writing and one-sentence judgments about the classics they had to read in those days. And a bit about writing: 鈥溾€ get distracted when I start to write stories 鈥� get afraid I鈥檓 doing it instead of living鈥︹€�
Hanging over all these young men is not just the usual 鈥榳hat am I going to do with my life,鈥� but first, waiting to survive being drafted into World War I. Our main character is conscious of the changing of the generations and their different values: The Victorians are dying out and the WW I generation is in. They are playing with socialism.
He鈥檚 prescient when he tells us 鈥淢odern life changes no longer century by century, but year by year, ten times faster than it ever has before鈥︹€� It sounds as if he鈥檚 talking about the age of the internet.
By the end of the book
At one point Amory tells us 鈥淚 detest poor people鈥� because he saw 鈥渙nly coarseness, physical filth, and stupidity.鈥� Was he a Democrat or a Republican? LOL.
Almost noir and a good book. You can see Fitzgerald鈥檚 emerging genius.
Coincidentally I happened to be reading A Separate Peace by John Knowles, while reading Paradise. There were many similarities. Rich young men coming of age (at a prep school instead of university) while a war goes on (WW II instead of WW I) with the draft hanging over them.
Top photo of Princeton in 1915 from princetonarchives.tumblr.com
The author (1896-1940) from thefamouspeople.com
August 22, 2020
Bleh, I tried. I tried SO HARD to like this book! I ended up skimming the last 1/3 or so of it. I love Fitzgerald鈥檚 other work, but this first book he wrote was so blas茅, with no real plot or emotional connections. It was quite vapid and selfish. It reminded me of A Separate Peace or Catcher in the Rye, neither of which I enjoyed. Life is too short for boring books! On to better reading.
February 4, 2022
Amory Blaine, a mid-Westerner and middle class, begin what feels like the start of the rest of his life, in the place he feels he is meant to be, and on his arrival at Princeton (university) he feels at his life's greatest moment. This is his story, via a mix of narrators, styles, even genres, the story of his painful intellectual and sexual awakening as part of the 'Jazz Age' in the shadows of and after the Great War (World War I), as America begins to find itself moving to Superpower status, whilst it's young as ever question the empowered way of life, and in this case the superpowered to be way of life.
Fitzgerald's quasi autobiographical bildungsroman debut novel is everything: showing the genius to come; showing the failings that would impede his future success; overall thematically looking at America at it's perceived best, and realised worst; dysfunctional romantic liaisons; and at its heart a quest for identity. Loathed by some critics (even now), but loved by readers at the time (his best seller in his lifetime!!!!), this starts with a strong erudite man-on-campus feel that evolves into a lot more. The first Fitzgerald read that I've enjoyed that may now lead me to rereading and reading his other works. Worth reading alone for the final chapters when Amory throws contrary opinions at the monied classes in such a delightful way, with arguments that could still be used today! 7 out of 12.
2022 read
Fitzgerald's quasi autobiographical bildungsroman debut novel is everything: showing the genius to come; showing the failings that would impede his future success; overall thematically looking at America at it's perceived best, and realised worst; dysfunctional romantic liaisons; and at its heart a quest for identity. Loathed by some critics (even now), but loved by readers at the time (his best seller in his lifetime!!!!), this starts with a strong erudite man-on-campus feel that evolves into a lot more. The first Fitzgerald read that I've enjoyed that may now lead me to rereading and reading his other works. Worth reading alone for the final chapters when Amory throws contrary opinions at the monied classes in such a delightful way, with arguments that could still be used today! 7 out of 12.
2022 read
December 20, 2024
鈥淚f being an idealist is both safe and lucrative, I might try it.鈥� 鈥� F. Scott Fitzgerald in This Side of Paradise
Oh, Amory! This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald鈥檚 debut novel, was so bad that Scribner declined to publish it multiple times. In fact, during the final vote, Scribner once again declined publication, and Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald鈥檚 editor, said that he would essentially resign if the talent of F. Scott Fitzgerald wasn鈥檛 published. Only then did Scribner agree to publish.
This is a classic coming-of-age story with lots of teenage angst. Amory Blaine has tremendous potential (boarding school, Princeton) but wastes every opportunity, doing nothing but trying to amass kisses. Of the people most deserving of sympathy in the world, Amory wouldn鈥檛 even make the top 10. Or even the top 1,000.
This book is interesting for two reasons. The first is that this book is a thinly disguised autobiography for F. Scott Fitzgerald. The author went to boarding school, attended Princeton, and befriended a priest. Often times, a character鈥檚 real-life equivalent is known. For example, Thomas Parke D鈥橧nvilliers is John Peale Bishop.
The second reason relates to this work鈥檚 literary influence. JD Salinger admitted that he was influenced by F. Scott Fitzgerald鈥�The Catcher in the Rye is somewhat a retelling of This Side of Paradise. And, of course, this novel is a steppingstone to The Great Gatsby. Sadly, This Side of Paradise isn鈥檛 of the same caliber as The Great Gatsby.
The tone of the book is rather depressing. Fitzgerald himself once said, 鈥淚t takes a genius to whine appealingly.鈥� He should have heeded his own advice. And the splendor and magic of this book is buried beneath excessively long paragraphs and chapters. As the book resembles an autobiography, it feels aimless and lacks a plot. The dialogue is also unnatural and bulky with characters overexplaining, and Fitzgerald uses too many adverbs (examples: Amory said sharply, he continued coldly, she said faintly, she said finally, and many more!).
Instead of professors merely holding up The Great Gatsby, and the heavens part and a beautiful beam of sunshine plays upon the cover, This Side of Paradise should be included in the curriculum, reassuring students that Fitzgerald wasn鈥檛 born with the writing chops to churn out The Great Gatsby. He started off by putting out a mediocre book that even his publisher didn鈥檛 want. But keep writing. Keep working.
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Texts 鈥� Both are First Edition Library copies (FEL): $75.82 on eBay. The second FEL text comes from a set of 19 FEL books that I bought at an estate sale for $500.
Audiobook - $84.99 per year through Everand
Connect With Me!
Oh, Amory! This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald鈥檚 debut novel, was so bad that Scribner declined to publish it multiple times. In fact, during the final vote, Scribner once again declined publication, and Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald鈥檚 editor, said that he would essentially resign if the talent of F. Scott Fitzgerald wasn鈥檛 published. Only then did Scribner agree to publish.
This is a classic coming-of-age story with lots of teenage angst. Amory Blaine has tremendous potential (boarding school, Princeton) but wastes every opportunity, doing nothing but trying to amass kisses. Of the people most deserving of sympathy in the world, Amory wouldn鈥檛 even make the top 10. Or even the top 1,000.
This book is interesting for two reasons. The first is that this book is a thinly disguised autobiography for F. Scott Fitzgerald. The author went to boarding school, attended Princeton, and befriended a priest. Often times, a character鈥檚 real-life equivalent is known. For example, Thomas Parke D鈥橧nvilliers is John Peale Bishop.
The second reason relates to this work鈥檚 literary influence. JD Salinger admitted that he was influenced by F. Scott Fitzgerald鈥�The Catcher in the Rye is somewhat a retelling of This Side of Paradise. And, of course, this novel is a steppingstone to The Great Gatsby. Sadly, This Side of Paradise isn鈥檛 of the same caliber as The Great Gatsby.
The tone of the book is rather depressing. Fitzgerald himself once said, 鈥淚t takes a genius to whine appealingly.鈥� He should have heeded his own advice. And the splendor and magic of this book is buried beneath excessively long paragraphs and chapters. As the book resembles an autobiography, it feels aimless and lacks a plot. The dialogue is also unnatural and bulky with characters overexplaining, and Fitzgerald uses too many adverbs (examples: Amory said sharply, he continued coldly, she said faintly, she said finally, and many more!).
Instead of professors merely holding up The Great Gatsby, and the heavens part and a beautiful beam of sunshine plays upon the cover, This Side of Paradise should be included in the curriculum, reassuring students that Fitzgerald wasn鈥檛 born with the writing chops to churn out The Great Gatsby. He started off by putting out a mediocre book that even his publisher didn鈥檛 want. But keep writing. Keep working.
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Texts 鈥� Both are First Edition Library copies (FEL): $75.82 on eBay. The second FEL text comes from a set of 19 FEL books that I bought at an estate sale for $500.
Audiobook - $84.99 per year through Everand
Connect With Me!
September 29, 2023
鈥淚 know myself,鈥� he cried, 鈥渂ut that is all!鈥�
And that鈥檚 how the novel ends. The book made Fitzgerald rich at 24. Sometimes I have to wonder what people in The Roaring Twenties saw in it.
It is a manuscript that progresses from narrative to pages of poetry to tell the story; then to setting out the lines and actions of a stage play to carry the novel forward; then to love stories that never end well; then to naive and blustering arguments for socialism (it was after all 1920, and he鈥檇 written the novel in the years prior, with the Russian Revolution only two years young); then ending with a severely nihilistic attitude towards practically everything.
But we write and say a lot of iconoclastic things at 24 if we are in the habit of hashing things out in our mind over and over again. The male protagonist, Amory, who appears to a certain degree to be a sketch of Fitzgerald, doesn鈥檛 seem to know himself at the end, in any case. Except for his love affairs with four women, especially Rosalind, the novel did not enthrall or hold my interest.
Yes, there is some beautiful writing, some wonderful metaphors and similes, some lovely poetic flow to a rather chopped up narrative. But six years of his life later, when he publishes The Great Gatsby at 30, we see a much more cohesive and nuanced approach to writing that produces one of the great novels of American literature.
The Beautiful and the Damned was his second novel (1922), Gatsby his third (1926), Tender is the Night his final complete work (1934), and what a tragedy that was, but then, so was Gatsby. The writing in Gatsby is superior to This Side of Paradise in so many ways, yet it was not the bestseller Paradise was. Is that because the partying public didn鈥檛 like Fitzgerald鈥檚 criticism of their world in Gatsby?
There were several parts I enjoyed very much even if the overall effect on me was pretty gray.
And that鈥檚 how the novel ends. The book made Fitzgerald rich at 24. Sometimes I have to wonder what people in The Roaring Twenties saw in it.
It is a manuscript that progresses from narrative to pages of poetry to tell the story; then to setting out the lines and actions of a stage play to carry the novel forward; then to love stories that never end well; then to naive and blustering arguments for socialism (it was after all 1920, and he鈥檇 written the novel in the years prior, with the Russian Revolution only two years young); then ending with a severely nihilistic attitude towards practically everything.
But we write and say a lot of iconoclastic things at 24 if we are in the habit of hashing things out in our mind over and over again. The male protagonist, Amory, who appears to a certain degree to be a sketch of Fitzgerald, doesn鈥檛 seem to know himself at the end, in any case. Except for his love affairs with four women, especially Rosalind, the novel did not enthrall or hold my interest.
Yes, there is some beautiful writing, some wonderful metaphors and similes, some lovely poetic flow to a rather chopped up narrative. But six years of his life later, when he publishes The Great Gatsby at 30, we see a much more cohesive and nuanced approach to writing that produces one of the great novels of American literature.
The Beautiful and the Damned was his second novel (1922), Gatsby his third (1926), Tender is the Night his final complete work (1934), and what a tragedy that was, but then, so was Gatsby. The writing in Gatsby is superior to This Side of Paradise in so many ways, yet it was not the bestseller Paradise was. Is that because the partying public didn鈥檛 like Fitzgerald鈥檚 criticism of their world in Gatsby?
There were several parts I enjoyed very much even if the overall effect on me was pretty gray.
December 31, 2012
The Great Gatsby is colossal. It's one of those books from your high school reading list that you probably still like. I do. I love Gatsby. When I saw the Baz Luhrman movie was coming out I remembered that I once promised myself I would read all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels. This Side of Paradise is his first novel, published in 1920.
It's not a good book, but it's a sincere book. It's an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink book. You can tell young F. Scott Fitzgerald put EVERYTHING HE HAD into this book. His life, his loves, his poetry, every idea, every experience--he crammed it all in here and called it a novel. A lot of it doesn't fit together. Not all of it is interesting. Some of it is truly puzzling. The saving grace is that behind it all there's this exuberance and passion that keeps you turning the pages.
There's not much plot to speak of. At first you're reading a bildungsroman, the story of a young american, Amory Blaine, coming of age at Princeton University. Then the story seems to focus on his love life and becomes very episodic, with touches that show you this is a very autobiographical book. The last third of the book gets...experimental. Part of it is written as a one-act play. One brief section is stream-of-consciousness (the introduction says Fitzgerald was inspired by Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man). Then there are the poems. Loads and loads of poems. Some of them are just sort of hanging there in the middle of the chapter, without a lot of context as to what they're doing there. Oh, and there are reading lists of the hip authors Amory and his friends are reading at Princeton. Huge swaths of the novel are just discussions between Amory and his classmates about literature.
So, yeah, all the freshman mistakes are here. I can tell F. Scott Fitzgerald is a first-time novelist here because he makes the mistake new comedians make. They do stand-up comedy ABOUT stand-up comedy. Here, Fitzgerald is writing about writing before he knows how to write.
He's still more brilliant than you or I will ever be. Each section, by itself, is obviously the work of a very precocious young genius in the offing. They don't make a novel when you glue them all together, but taken a piece at a time there's a lot of fascinating stuff here. I particularly liked the section where Amory Blaine meets the devil. And some of the Princeton bits reminded me so much of my own college experience, how your mind develops and your ideas change during that time.
But what I take away is how ON FIRE Fitzgerald was to write, to get it all down, to get it all out there. That excitement is there in every line. That's the lesson of the book and it's a good one.
Oh, and I also take away that 'Amory Blaine' is a terrible name for a character.
It's not a good book, but it's a sincere book. It's an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink book. You can tell young F. Scott Fitzgerald put EVERYTHING HE HAD into this book. His life, his loves, his poetry, every idea, every experience--he crammed it all in here and called it a novel. A lot of it doesn't fit together. Not all of it is interesting. Some of it is truly puzzling. The saving grace is that behind it all there's this exuberance and passion that keeps you turning the pages.
There's not much plot to speak of. At first you're reading a bildungsroman, the story of a young american, Amory Blaine, coming of age at Princeton University. Then the story seems to focus on his love life and becomes very episodic, with touches that show you this is a very autobiographical book. The last third of the book gets...experimental. Part of it is written as a one-act play. One brief section is stream-of-consciousness (the introduction says Fitzgerald was inspired by Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man). Then there are the poems. Loads and loads of poems. Some of them are just sort of hanging there in the middle of the chapter, without a lot of context as to what they're doing there. Oh, and there are reading lists of the hip authors Amory and his friends are reading at Princeton. Huge swaths of the novel are just discussions between Amory and his classmates about literature.
So, yeah, all the freshman mistakes are here. I can tell F. Scott Fitzgerald is a first-time novelist here because he makes the mistake new comedians make. They do stand-up comedy ABOUT stand-up comedy. Here, Fitzgerald is writing about writing before he knows how to write.
He's still more brilliant than you or I will ever be. Each section, by itself, is obviously the work of a very precocious young genius in the offing. They don't make a novel when you glue them all together, but taken a piece at a time there's a lot of fascinating stuff here. I particularly liked the section where Amory Blaine meets the devil. And some of the Princeton bits reminded me so much of my own college experience, how your mind develops and your ideas change during that time.
But what I take away is how ON FIRE Fitzgerald was to write, to get it all down, to get it all out there. That excitement is there in every line. That's the lesson of the book and it's a good one.
Oh, and I also take away that 'Amory Blaine' is a terrible name for a character.
April 29, 2015
An Apprentice Work, With Flashes Of Genius
This Side Of Paradise was Fitzgerald鈥檚 first novel, the one that made him, at age 23, a literary star, the unofficial chronicler of the flapper era. It was such a success that his ex-girlfriend, Zelda Sayre, agreed to marry him. And we know how that turned out.
Autobiographical protagonist Amory Blaine is insufferably narcissistic and egotistical. Fitzgerald was clearly aware of this, and there鈥檚 more than a bit of satire to his portrait of the vain golden boy; he titled an earlier version The Romantic Egotist. Structurally, the book is all over the place, a collection of vignettes, impressions, poems鈥� there鈥檚 even something resembling a one-act play near the end. WWI is oddly glossed over in an interlude.
It鈥檚 a coming of age novel with an experimental feel; at one point Fitzgerald refers to Joyce鈥檚 A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, and you can sense its influence, especially in the second half.
The book covers Amory鈥檚 comfortable midwest childhood, his Princeton years and the restless post-war Jazz Age generation. Throughout there鈥檚 the search for all those things you rhapsodize about when you鈥檙e very young: love, beauty, spirituality, fulfillment. The narrator occasionally drones on, telling us stuff, like some pedantic teaching assistant outlining a course.
But while the book is clearly, at times painfully, an apprentice work, it shows a ton of potential; you can see why legendary editor Maxwell Perkins agreed to publish it, despite the protests of his less enthusiastic colleagues at Scribner鈥檚.
The book has an undeniable vitality, a spark of originality and the occasional flash of genius. You feel that Fitzgerald is attempting to capture his generation, one unshackling itself from pre-war mores. What it needs is a Nick Carraway figure, an outsider among the privileged to comment on the action. Amory is living in the eye of his own dramatic hurricane, and it鈥檚 hard to get a balanced point of view.
What鈥檚 eerie, though, is how many prescient passages there are. Like this one:
Indeed he does.
Also included is one post-breakup bender that foreshadows the author鈥檚 later alcoholism. An elegiac feeling suffuses the book, especially near the end. When Amory revisits Princeton after the war, full of early disillusion, Fitzgerald gives us this stunning passage.
Fitzgerald's obvious lyrical gift is on display, but there鈥檚 also a knowledge of the currents and rhythms of life that, even at so young an age, he intuitively grasped.
In short: there鈥檚 real artistry.
This Side Of Paradise was Fitzgerald鈥檚 first novel, the one that made him, at age 23, a literary star, the unofficial chronicler of the flapper era. It was such a success that his ex-girlfriend, Zelda Sayre, agreed to marry him. And we know how that turned out.
Autobiographical protagonist Amory Blaine is insufferably narcissistic and egotistical. Fitzgerald was clearly aware of this, and there鈥檚 more than a bit of satire to his portrait of the vain golden boy; he titled an earlier version The Romantic Egotist. Structurally, the book is all over the place, a collection of vignettes, impressions, poems鈥� there鈥檚 even something resembling a one-act play near the end. WWI is oddly glossed over in an interlude.
It鈥檚 a coming of age novel with an experimental feel; at one point Fitzgerald refers to Joyce鈥檚 A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, and you can sense its influence, especially in the second half.
The book covers Amory鈥檚 comfortable midwest childhood, his Princeton years and the restless post-war Jazz Age generation. Throughout there鈥檚 the search for all those things you rhapsodize about when you鈥檙e very young: love, beauty, spirituality, fulfillment. The narrator occasionally drones on, telling us stuff, like some pedantic teaching assistant outlining a course.
But while the book is clearly, at times painfully, an apprentice work, it shows a ton of potential; you can see why legendary editor Maxwell Perkins agreed to publish it, despite the protests of his less enthusiastic colleagues at Scribner鈥檚.
The book has an undeniable vitality, a spark of originality and the occasional flash of genius. You feel that Fitzgerald is attempting to capture his generation, one unshackling itself from pre-war mores. What it needs is a Nick Carraway figure, an outsider among the privileged to comment on the action. Amory is living in the eye of his own dramatic hurricane, and it鈥檚 hard to get a balanced point of view.
What鈥檚 eerie, though, is how many prescient passages there are. Like this one:
鈥淎mory, you鈥檙e young. I鈥檓 young. People excuse us now for our poses and vanities, for treating people like Sancho and yet getting away with it. They excuse us now. But you鈥檝e got a lot of knocks coming to you.鈥�
Indeed he does.
Also included is one post-breakup bender that foreshadows the author鈥檚 later alcoholism. An elegiac feeling suffuses the book, especially near the end. When Amory revisits Princeton after the war, full of early disillusion, Fitzgerald gives us this stunning passage.
Long after midnight the towers and spires of Princeton were visible, with here and there a late-burning light 鈥� and suddenly out of the clear darkness the sound of bells. As an endless dream it went on; the spirit of the past brooding over a new generation, the chosen youth from the muddled, unchastened world, still fed romantically on the mistakes and half-forgotten dreams of dead statesmen and poets. Here was a new generation, shouting the old cries, learning the old creeds, through a reverie of long days and nights, destined finally to go out into the dirty grey turmoil to follow love and pride; a new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find all God鈥檚 dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken鈥�
Fitzgerald's obvious lyrical gift is on display, but there鈥檚 also a knowledge of the currents and rhythms of life that, even at so young an age, he intuitively grasped.
In short: there鈥檚 real artistry.
August 2, 2022
here is my original short review of this book from a hundred years ago (both when it was published and when i wrote about it):
"i read it in pieces during the summer, and it was good brain food in the middle of wispy beach fiction."
i used to actually, like, try at this. there was a time when i didn't just crack weird jokes and talk about myself.
weird.
part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago
"i read it in pieces during the summer, and it was good brain food in the middle of wispy beach fiction."
i used to actually, like, try at this. there was a time when i didn't just crack weird jokes and talk about myself.
weird.
part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago
November 16, 2014
So how is it that this novel, despite it鈥檚 shortcomings, was still able to be successful? Ask any New York agent to represent your literary novel with a male protagonist and he'll tell you: 鈥淟iterary novel鈥檚 with a male protagonist are hard sells.鈥� And they are. Think about it: How many literary novels with male protagonists have you enjoyed in the last, say, five years? Probably zero. The key to the success of This Side of Paradise is in Fitzgerald鈥檚 mastery of the Male Protagonist in a Literary Novel Problem. But why should this even be a problem at all? It鈥檚 my belief that males generally don鈥檛 relate to one and other. They dominate each other. The question of 鈥榙o you respect a full grown man?鈥� really comes down to: 鈥榠s he dominate in some way?鈥�
In a literary novel, a male protagonist is essentially going after the status quo. He鈥檚 saying that the society in which you live needs to change. We鈥檙e not apt to give credence to a full grown male who thinks things should change and yet is not in a powerful situation. We鈥檒l assume it鈥檚 sour grapes. So, in a literary novel, a male lead must be powerful enough to have an unbiased view of the problem he sees with society. The difficulty is that powerful, dominant men generally don鈥檛 tend to be sensitive and open-minded enough to appreciate a societal problem. What鈥檚 needed in a literary male protagonist is a delicate balance of sensitivity and strength that we don鈥檛 normally see in the real world.
Many a would-be author will pen a male protagonist who just isn鈥檛 strong enough for us to feel sympathy for him. And striking this balance, or countermining this principle, has been the secret struggle of many a literary author. Shakespeare鈥檚 Hamlet was a whinny, emotional punk鈥� but he was the king of Denmark; T.S. Garp was a famous author; most all of Hemingway's male leads were war veterans or soldiers or, in the case of The Old Man and the Sea, handicapped with age. Other ways to get around the unsympathetic male protagonist is with youth, ie, Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn, or insanity, (see: Hamlet, yet again), Lolita, Moby Dick (Captain Ahab) and Slaughter House Five.
The average, weak and sensitive male is to be avoided at all costs by the would-be author of literary fiction. History shows us that it is only kind to those that follow this principle and This Side of Paradise is no exception. Where Fitzgerald succeeds is with his execution of what I鈥檒l call the Snob Narrator (something that he wasted no time in establishing in The Great Gatsby). Armory Blaine is sensitive and weak in many ways鈥攆or example his vanity鈥攂ut since he is a Princeton student and literary scholar, we know he also has dominance. It鈥檚 this balance of sensitivity and strength (much like Shakespeare鈥檚 Hamlet) that convince us through the 268 pages of this novel until the very end that Armory Blaine might have the solution to what is wrong with society. SPOILER ALERT: He didn鈥檛. Fun read though. And very inventive.
In a literary novel, a male protagonist is essentially going after the status quo. He鈥檚 saying that the society in which you live needs to change. We鈥檙e not apt to give credence to a full grown male who thinks things should change and yet is not in a powerful situation. We鈥檒l assume it鈥檚 sour grapes. So, in a literary novel, a male lead must be powerful enough to have an unbiased view of the problem he sees with society. The difficulty is that powerful, dominant men generally don鈥檛 tend to be sensitive and open-minded enough to appreciate a societal problem. What鈥檚 needed in a literary male protagonist is a delicate balance of sensitivity and strength that we don鈥檛 normally see in the real world.
Many a would-be author will pen a male protagonist who just isn鈥檛 strong enough for us to feel sympathy for him. And striking this balance, or countermining this principle, has been the secret struggle of many a literary author. Shakespeare鈥檚 Hamlet was a whinny, emotional punk鈥� but he was the king of Denmark; T.S. Garp was a famous author; most all of Hemingway's male leads were war veterans or soldiers or, in the case of The Old Man and the Sea, handicapped with age. Other ways to get around the unsympathetic male protagonist is with youth, ie, Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn, or insanity, (see: Hamlet, yet again), Lolita, Moby Dick (Captain Ahab) and Slaughter House Five.
The average, weak and sensitive male is to be avoided at all costs by the would-be author of literary fiction. History shows us that it is only kind to those that follow this principle and This Side of Paradise is no exception. Where Fitzgerald succeeds is with his execution of what I鈥檒l call the Snob Narrator (something that he wasted no time in establishing in The Great Gatsby). Armory Blaine is sensitive and weak in many ways鈥攆or example his vanity鈥攂ut since he is a Princeton student and literary scholar, we know he also has dominance. It鈥檚 this balance of sensitivity and strength (much like Shakespeare鈥檚 Hamlet) that convince us through the 268 pages of this novel until the very end that Armory Blaine might have the solution to what is wrong with society. SPOILER ALERT: He didn鈥檛. Fun read though. And very inventive.
March 10, 2021
This Side of Paradise was the debut and coming-of-age novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald that heralded a new and dynamic author into writing about the gilded age and the emerging jazz age in 1920. This novel is purported to be semi-autobiographical, and at times not a very flattering portrait. And at times the book seems disjointed as Fitzgerald experiments with different structures in the novel resulting in long passages of poetry and prose focusing on socialism, religion and relationships. Amory Blaine is a privileged young man but struggling to find his core. He attended a preparatory school in Minnesota and then went to Princeton. But in his early life, what it so endearing is his relationship with his neurotic mother whom he calls Beatrice, and the beautiful and emerging relationship with Monsignor Darcy. It becomes clear that the Monsignor regarded him as a son and some of the best parts of this novel are the meetings and letters between them. One of the most beautiful passages:
"They slipped into an intimacy from which they never recovered."
And the essence of this novel is very much a romantic tale, but we see F. Scott Fitzgerald's instinct for the tragic view of life as we follow Amory Blaine through his years at Princeton and beyond. After all, we are looking at lives in the aftermath of World War I. I loved this book and all of the promise that this young author at the age of 23-years of age brought forth. F. Scott Fitzgerald's brilliance is apparent within these pages.
One of the most poignant moments in this book and my favorite is with Amory Blaine at loose ends and trying to find himself as he is pondering social class issues in American society and where he fits. As he is walking back to Princeton and feeling driven that that is what he must do, he is given a ride by a limousine driver. It is in this riveting conversation between these men that we learn so much, not only about Amory Blaine, but about ourselves and our beliefs.
"They slipped into an intimacy from which they never recovered."
And the essence of this novel is very much a romantic tale, but we see F. Scott Fitzgerald's instinct for the tragic view of life as we follow Amory Blaine through his years at Princeton and beyond. After all, we are looking at lives in the aftermath of World War I. I loved this book and all of the promise that this young author at the age of 23-years of age brought forth. F. Scott Fitzgerald's brilliance is apparent within these pages.
One of the most poignant moments in this book and my favorite is with Amory Blaine at loose ends and trying to find himself as he is pondering social class issues in American society and where he fits. As he is walking back to Princeton and feeling driven that that is what he must do, he is given a ride by a limousine driver. It is in this riveting conversation between these men that we learn so much, not only about Amory Blaine, but about ourselves and our beliefs.
"I sent my son to Princeton,"
"Did you?"
"Perhaps you knew him. His name was Jesse Ferrenby. He was killed last year in France."
"I knew him very well. In fact he was one of my particular friends."
April 27, 2020
Por primera vez en su vida deseaba que la muerte se llevara a toda su generaci贸n, borrando sus mezquinas fiebres y luchas y alegr铆as
3,5/5
Esta fue la primera novela de Fitzgerald y no la recomiendo para empezar con el autor (mejor 'El gran Gatsby'). Creo que es un libro que se disfruta mucho m谩s si ya has le铆do otras de sus novelas antes y conoces su estilo y vida... Porque una vez m谩s, 'A este lado del para铆so' tiene mucho de relato 补耻迟辞产颈辞驳谤谩蹿颈肠辞, y aqu铆 Fitzgerald libera toda la decepci贸n y disgusto que siente ante el mundo.
La novela relata los a帽os en la universidad de Princeton del joven Amory cuando era un joven adinerado y egoc茅ntrico, hasta la llegada de la Primera Guerra Mundial y el cambio que supuso en la sociedad y especialmente en su generaci贸n.
Sorprendentemente la guerra no tiene una importancia real para Amory (igual que para Fitzgerald) pero s铆 nos muestra sus consecuencias.
Como me ha ocurrido con todas las novelas que he le铆do de este autor, es un libro que me ha dejado m谩s poso del que esperaba y sus 煤ltimas 100 p谩ginas me han gustado much铆simo por lo cr铆ticas e inconformistas que son.
Aunque durante la mayor铆a de la historia los personajes resultan bastante odiosos por ser unos j贸venes millonarios caraduras yo me divert铆 mucho con sus andanzas, e incluso en los tr谩gicos amor铆os de Amory encontr茅 un poso de reflexi贸n sobre la situaci贸n de la mujer, tan terriblemente limitada.
Otra cosa a destacar es la maravillosa prosa de Fitzgerald, siempre insuperable, a煤n en su primer escrito, y adem谩s aqu铆 hay que a帽adir lo original que resulta este libro que intercala cartas, poemas e incluso un peque帽o drama teatral que encaja a la perfecci贸n.
Sea como sea, no me parece una de sus grandes novelas, pero me hizo disfrutar y sorprenderme una vez m谩s de la habilidad con las palabras de este gran autor.
3,5/5
Esta fue la primera novela de Fitzgerald y no la recomiendo para empezar con el autor (mejor 'El gran Gatsby'). Creo que es un libro que se disfruta mucho m谩s si ya has le铆do otras de sus novelas antes y conoces su estilo y vida... Porque una vez m谩s, 'A este lado del para铆so' tiene mucho de relato 补耻迟辞产颈辞驳谤谩蹿颈肠辞, y aqu铆 Fitzgerald libera toda la decepci贸n y disgusto que siente ante el mundo.
La novela relata los a帽os en la universidad de Princeton del joven Amory cuando era un joven adinerado y egoc茅ntrico, hasta la llegada de la Primera Guerra Mundial y el cambio que supuso en la sociedad y especialmente en su generaci贸n.
Sorprendentemente la guerra no tiene una importancia real para Amory (igual que para Fitzgerald) pero s铆 nos muestra sus consecuencias.
Como me ha ocurrido con todas las novelas que he le铆do de este autor, es un libro que me ha dejado m谩s poso del que esperaba y sus 煤ltimas 100 p谩ginas me han gustado much铆simo por lo cr铆ticas e inconformistas que son.
Aunque durante la mayor铆a de la historia los personajes resultan bastante odiosos por ser unos j贸venes millonarios caraduras yo me divert铆 mucho con sus andanzas, e incluso en los tr谩gicos amor铆os de Amory encontr茅 un poso de reflexi贸n sobre la situaci贸n de la mujer, tan terriblemente limitada.
Otra cosa a destacar es la maravillosa prosa de Fitzgerald, siempre insuperable, a煤n en su primer escrito, y adem谩s aqu铆 hay que a帽adir lo original que resulta este libro que intercala cartas, poemas e incluso un peque帽o drama teatral que encaja a la perfecci贸n.
Sea como sea, no me parece una de sus grandes novelas, pero me hizo disfrutar y sorprenderme una vez m谩s de la habilidad con las palabras de este gran autor.
August 6, 2013
after reading: Meh. Meh, meh, meh. See, this is the problem with re-reading books that shine so bright in your memory 鈥� sometimes they just don't live up. I mean, there's really no reason I shouldn't have loved this book. It's filled with philosophical musings and snappy, flirty dialogue; it's pleasantly disjointed, very slice-of-life-y; it's definitely full of verve and probably powerful ideas.... but I just couldn't get into it. I was in fact very impatient throughout. I found Amory Blaine to be a bit of a narcissistic bore, all the female characters thoroughly self-obsessed and false, and most of the other characters either inconsistent, un-memorable, or not believable.
I nearly always feel guilty about not liking a book. In this case my guilt is compounded by the fact that someone who once meant a great deal to me loved the shit out of Fitzgerald, and this book in particular; in fact, it's his copy, full of his underlinings and nearly destroyed due to the number of times it's been caught in in rainstorms, that I still have.
But Nick, I'm sorry. F. Scott, I'm sorry. I just don't love this like I used to.
I nearly always feel guilty about not liking a book. In this case my guilt is compounded by the fact that someone who once meant a great deal to me loved the shit out of Fitzgerald, and this book in particular; in fact, it's his copy, full of his underlinings and nearly destroyed due to the number of times it's been caught in in rainstorms, that I still have.
But Nick, I'm sorry. F. Scott, I'm sorry. I just don't love this like I used to.
dnf
May 10, 2016DNFing this one. Maybe it's because I'm not in the mood, or maybe it's just slow and not my jam in general. Either way, just thinking about picking this book up was not inspiring me to read so I'm done.
September 4, 2022
Francis Scott Fitzgerald, unlike Nekrasov, who: "dedicated the lyre to his people," did not swing at such large-scale projects, having cut out for himself in the gardens of world literature a plot of influence of money, big money, very big money on the individual and Personality (like this, with a capital one). And that's good, thanks to his lyre we have "The Great Gatsby".
"This Side of Paradise" is Fitzgerald's first book, which immediately brought him literary fame as the youngest novelist of the Scribners publishing house and the author of the generational manifesto. And the financial success that came with her made it possible to resume the engagement with Zelda Sayre - in the novel she is depicted in the image of Rosalind - and determined the further themes of creativity. Then Fitzgerald will write all the time about the rich, the young, the beautiful, the talented, the carefree. About the world of expensive exquisite things in which they live. About the specific problems they have to face. About the sufferings of people who are excluded from the opportunity to be equal among equals in the society of the inhabitants of the earthly paradise who enter these circles.
袘芯谐邪褌褘械 谢褞写懈 - 芯褋芯斜褘械 谢褞写懈
袠 屑褍写褉芯褋褌褜 屑邪谢芯 褍褌械褕邪械褌
袩芯 褝褌褍 褋褌芯褉芯薪褍 芯褌 褉邪褟...
Well this side of Paradise! ....
There鈥檚 little comfort in the wise.
Tiare Tahiti by Rupert Brooke
肖褉褝薪褋懈褋 小泻芯褌褌 肖懈褑写卸械褉邪谢褜写, 胁 芯褌谢懈褔懈械 芯褌 袧械泻褉邪褋芯胁邪, 泻芯褌芯褉褘泄: "谢懈褉褍 锌芯褋胁褟褌懈谢 薪邪褉芯写褍 褋胁芯械屑褍", 薪邪 褌邪泻懈械 屑邪褋褕褌邪斜薪褘械 锌褉芯械泻褌褘 薪械 蟹邪屑邪褏懈胁邪谢褋褟, 胁褘泻褉芯懈胁 写谢褟 褋械斜褟 胁 褋邪写邪褏 屑懈褉芯胁芯泄 谢懈褌械褉邪褌褍褉褘 写械谢褟薪泻褍 胁谢懈褟薪懈褟 写械薪械谐, 斜芯谢褜褕懈褏 写械薪械谐, 芯褔械薪褜 斜芯谢褜褕懈褏 写械薪械谐 薪邪 懈薪写懈胁懈写褍褍屑邪 懈 袥懈褔薪芯褋褌褜 (胁芯褌 褌邪泻, 褋 蟹邪谐谢邪胁薪芯泄). 袠 褝褌芯 褏芯褉芯褕芯, 斜谢邪谐芯写邪褉褟 械谐芯 谢懈褉械 褍 薪邪褋 械褋褌褜 "袙械谢懈泻懈泄 袚褝褌褋斜懈".
"袩芯 褝褌褍 褋褌芯褉芯薪褍 芯褌 褉邪褟" 锌械褉胁邪褟 泻薪懈谐邪 肖懈褑写卸械褉邪谢褜写邪, 泻芯褌芯褉邪褟 褌芯褌褔邪褋 锌褉懈薪械褋谢邪 械屑褍 谢懈褌械褉邪褌褍褉薪褍褞 褋谢邪胁褍 褋邪屑芯谐芯 屑芯谢芯写芯谐芯 褉芯屑邪薪懈褋褌邪 懈蟹写邪褌械谢褜褋褌胁邪 "小泻褉懈斜薪械褉褋" 懈 邪胁褌芯褉邪 锌芯泻芯谢械薪褔械褋泻芯谐芯 屑邪薪懈褎械褋褌邪. 袗 锌褉懈褕械写褕懈泄 褋 薪械泄 褎懈薪邪薪褋芯胁褘泄 褍褋锌械褏 锌芯蟹胁芯谢懈谢 胁芯蟹芯斜薪芯胁懈褌褜 锌芯屑芯谢胁泻褍 褋 袟械谢褜写芯泄 小械泄褉 - 胁 褉芯屑邪薪械 芯薪邪 胁褘胁械写械薪邪 胁 芯斜褉邪蟹械 袪芯蟹邪谢懈薪写褘 - 懈 芯锌褉械写械谢懈谢 写邪谢褜薪械泄褕褍褞 褌械屑邪褌懈泻褍 褌胁芯褉褔械褋褌胁邪. 袛邪谢褜褕械 肖懈褑写卸械褉邪谢褜写 胁褋械 胁褉械屑褟 褋褌邪薪械褌 锌懈褋邪褌褜 芯 斜芯谐邪褌褘褏, 屑芯谢芯写褘褏, 泻褉邪褋懈胁褘褏, 褌邪谢邪薪褌谢懈胁褘褏, 斜械蟹蟹邪斜芯褌薪褘褏. 袨 屑懈褉械 写芯褉芯谐懈褏 懈蟹褘褋泻邪薪薪褘褏 胁械褖械泄, 胁 泻芯褌芯褉芯屑 芯薪懈 芯斜懈褌邪褞褌. 袨 褋锌械褑懈褎懈褔械褋泻懈褏 锌褉芯斜谢械屑邪褏, 褋 泻芯褌芯褉褘屑懈 懈屑 锌褉懈褏芯写懈褌褋褟 褋褌邪谢泻懈胁邪褌褜褋褟. 袨 褋褌褉邪写邪薪懈褟褏 谢褞写械泄, 芯褌谢褍褔械薪薪褘褏 芯褌 胁芯蟹屑芯卸薪芯褋褌懈 斜褘褌褜 褉邪胁薪褘屑懈 褋褉械写懈 褉邪胁薪褘褏 胁 芯斜褖械褋褌胁械 芯斜懈褌邪褌械谢械泄 蟹械屑薪芯谐芯 褉邪褟, 胁褏芯卸懈褏 胁 褝褌懈 泻褉褍谐懈.
袠褋褌芯褉懈褟 协屑芯褉懈 袘谢械泄薪邪, 锌褉芯懈褋褏芯写褟褖械谐芯 懈蟹 斜芯谐邪褌芯泄, 薪芯 斜械写薪械褞褖械泄 薪邪 锌褉芯褌褟卸械薪懈懈 褉芯屑邪薪邪 写芯 锌芯谢薪芯谐芯 褉邪蟹芯褉械薪懈褟 泻 褎懈薪邪谢褍 褋械屑褜懈: 械谐芯 写械褌褋褌胁邪, 械谐芯 芯褌薪芯褕械薪懈泄 褋芯 胁蟹斜邪谢屑芯褕薪芯泄 泻褉邪褋邪胁懈褑械泄 屑邪褌械褉褜褞, 褋 芯写薪芯泻邪褕薪懈泻邪屑懈, 褋 薪邪褋褌邪胁薪懈泻芯屑, 褋 卸械薪褖懈薪邪屑懈 - 胁芯-屑薪芯谐芯屑 邪胁褌芯斜懈芯谐褉邪褎懈褔薪邪. 孝邪泻 褔邪褖械 胁褋械谐芯 懈 斜褘胁邪械褌, 写械斜褞褌邪薪褌 锌懈褕械褌 锌械褉胁褍褞 泻薪懈谐褍 褋 褋械斜褟. 袙 褋胁械褌械 褝褌芯谐芯 泻褉懈褌懈褔薪芯褋褌褜 邪胁褌芯褉邪 胁 芯褌薪芯褕械薪懈懈 屑芯褌懈胁邪褑懈泄 屑芯谢芯写芯谐芯 褝谐芯懈褋褌邪 ("袪芯屑邪薪褌懈褔械褋泻懈泄 褝谐芯懈褋褌" - 锌械褉胁芯薪邪褔邪谢褜薪芯械 薪邪蟹胁邪薪懈械 褉芯屑邪薪邪, 锌芯写 泻芯褌芯褉褘屑 褉褍泻芯锌懈褋褜 芯褌泻谢芯薪懈谢懈 懈蟹写邪褌械谢褜褋褌胁邪) 胁褘谐谢褟写懈褌 褋懈屑锌邪褌懈褔薪芯泄. 袙 褌芯 胁褉械屑褟, 泻邪泻 斜械褋泻芯薪械褔薪褘械 褍锌芯屑懈薪邪薪懈褟 泻褉邪褋芯褌褘 谐械褉芯褟 锌褉芯懈蟹胁芯写褟褌 薪械褋泻芯谢褜泻芯 泻芯屑懈褔薪芯械 胁锌械褔邪褌谢械薪懈械.
袨写薪邪泻芯 褌褍褌 褋谢械写褍械褌 锌芯屑薪懈褌褜, 褔褌芯 斜芯谐邪褌褋褌胁芯 褋邪屑芯 锌芯 褋械斜械: 写邪褞褖械械 芯斜谢邪写邪褌械谢褞 褉褘褔邪谐懈 胁谢懈褟薪懈褟, 胁芯蟹屑芯卸薪芯褋褌褜 褋芯蟹懈写邪褌械谢褜薪芯泄 写械褟褌械谢褜薪芯褋褌懈 懈 褍谢褍褔褕械薪懈褟 芯斜褖械褋褌胁械薪薪褘褏 懈薪褋褌懈褌褍褌芯胁 - 屑邪谢芯 懈薪褌械褉械褋褍械褌 肖懈褑写卸械褉邪谢褜写邪. 袝谐芯 锌褉懈芯褉懈褌械褌 胁 褝褋褌械褌懈褔械褋泻芯泄 褋褎械褉械, 芯褌褋褞写邪 褍褌褉懈褉芯胁邪薪薪芯械 卸械谢邪薪懈械 锌芯写褔械褉泻薪褍褌褜 胁薪械褕薪褞褞 泻褉邪褋芯褌褍 协屑芯褉懈 懈 袪芯蟹邪谢懈薪写褘. 袛械薪褜谐懈 褑械薪薪褘 胁芯蟹屑芯卸薪芯褋褌褜褞 泻褉邪褋懈胁芯 懈 薪械芯谐褉邪薪懈褔械薪薪芯 褌褉邪褌懈褌褜褋褟 薪邪 锌褉械泻褉邪褋薪褘械 褋褍屑邪褋斜褉芯写褋褌胁邪. 袧械 褋谢褍褔邪泄薪芯 懈褏 褋 袟械谢褜写芯泄 斜褉邪泻 褋褌邪谢 屑邪褌械褉懈邪谢褜薪褘屑 胁褘褉邪卸械薪懈械屑 褌邪泻芯谐芯 褉芯写邪 胁蟹谐谢褟写芯胁.
袗褌屑芯褋褎械褉邪 褉械胁褍褖懈褏 写胁邪写褑邪褌褘褏, 泻邪泻 薪械谢褜蟹褟 谢褍褔褕械 锌芯写褏芯写褟褖懈褏 写谢褟 锌械褉械写邪褔懈 褌邪泻芯谐芯 褉芯写邪 芯斜褉邪蟹邪 屑褘褋谢械泄 懈 写械泄褋褌胁懈泄, 胁芯褋褋芯蟹写邪薪邪 胁 褉芯屑邪薪械 褋 写械褌邪谢褜薪芯泄 锌芯写褉芯斜薪芯褋褌褜褞, 邪 褔褌械薪懈械 袠谐芯褉褟 袣薪褟蟹械胁邪 锌芯写褋胁械褔懈胁邪械褌 锌芯胁械褋褌胁芯胁邪薪懈械, 泻芯褌芯褉芯械 懈薪芯谐写邪 屑芯卸械褌 锌芯泻邪蟹邪褌褜褋褟 褔械褉械褋褔褍褉 褋薪芯斜褋泻懈屑, 屑褟谐泻芯泄 褋邪屑芯懈褉芯薪懈械泄.
"This Side of Paradise" is Fitzgerald's first book, which immediately brought him literary fame as the youngest novelist of the Scribners publishing house and the author of the generational manifesto. And the financial success that came with her made it possible to resume the engagement with Zelda Sayre - in the novel she is depicted in the image of Rosalind - and determined the further themes of creativity. Then Fitzgerald will write all the time about the rich, the young, the beautiful, the talented, the carefree. About the world of expensive exquisite things in which they live. About the specific problems they have to face. About the sufferings of people who are excluded from the opportunity to be equal among equals in the society of the inhabitants of the earthly paradise who enter these circles.
袘芯谐邪褌褘械 谢褞写懈 - 芯褋芯斜褘械 谢褞写懈
袠 屑褍写褉芯褋褌褜 屑邪谢芯 褍褌械褕邪械褌
袩芯 褝褌褍 褋褌芯褉芯薪褍 芯褌 褉邪褟...
Well this side of Paradise! ....
There鈥檚 little comfort in the wise.
Tiare Tahiti by Rupert Brooke
肖褉褝薪褋懈褋 小泻芯褌褌 肖懈褑写卸械褉邪谢褜写, 胁 芯褌谢懈褔懈械 芯褌 袧械泻褉邪褋芯胁邪, 泻芯褌芯褉褘泄: "谢懈褉褍 锌芯褋胁褟褌懈谢 薪邪褉芯写褍 褋胁芯械屑褍", 薪邪 褌邪泻懈械 屑邪褋褕褌邪斜薪褘械 锌褉芯械泻褌褘 薪械 蟹邪屑邪褏懈胁邪谢褋褟, 胁褘泻褉芯懈胁 写谢褟 褋械斜褟 胁 褋邪写邪褏 屑懈褉芯胁芯泄 谢懈褌械褉邪褌褍褉褘 写械谢褟薪泻褍 胁谢懈褟薪懈褟 写械薪械谐, 斜芯谢褜褕懈褏 写械薪械谐, 芯褔械薪褜 斜芯谢褜褕懈褏 写械薪械谐 薪邪 懈薪写懈胁懈写褍褍屑邪 懈 袥懈褔薪芯褋褌褜 (胁芯褌 褌邪泻, 褋 蟹邪谐谢邪胁薪芯泄). 袠 褝褌芯 褏芯褉芯褕芯, 斜谢邪谐芯写邪褉褟 械谐芯 谢懈褉械 褍 薪邪褋 械褋褌褜 "袙械谢懈泻懈泄 袚褝褌褋斜懈".
"袩芯 褝褌褍 褋褌芯褉芯薪褍 芯褌 褉邪褟" 锌械褉胁邪褟 泻薪懈谐邪 肖懈褑写卸械褉邪谢褜写邪, 泻芯褌芯褉邪褟 褌芯褌褔邪褋 锌褉懈薪械褋谢邪 械屑褍 谢懈褌械褉邪褌褍褉薪褍褞 褋谢邪胁褍 褋邪屑芯谐芯 屑芯谢芯写芯谐芯 褉芯屑邪薪懈褋褌邪 懈蟹写邪褌械谢褜褋褌胁邪 "小泻褉懈斜薪械褉褋" 懈 邪胁褌芯褉邪 锌芯泻芯谢械薪褔械褋泻芯谐芯 屑邪薪懈褎械褋褌邪. 袗 锌褉懈褕械写褕懈泄 褋 薪械泄 褎懈薪邪薪褋芯胁褘泄 褍褋锌械褏 锌芯蟹胁芯谢懈谢 胁芯蟹芯斜薪芯胁懈褌褜 锌芯屑芯谢胁泻褍 褋 袟械谢褜写芯泄 小械泄褉 - 胁 褉芯屑邪薪械 芯薪邪 胁褘胁械写械薪邪 胁 芯斜褉邪蟹械 袪芯蟹邪谢懈薪写褘 - 懈 芯锌褉械写械谢懈谢 写邪谢褜薪械泄褕褍褞 褌械屑邪褌懈泻褍 褌胁芯褉褔械褋褌胁邪. 袛邪谢褜褕械 肖懈褑写卸械褉邪谢褜写 胁褋械 胁褉械屑褟 褋褌邪薪械褌 锌懈褋邪褌褜 芯 斜芯谐邪褌褘褏, 屑芯谢芯写褘褏, 泻褉邪褋懈胁褘褏, 褌邪谢邪薪褌谢懈胁褘褏, 斜械蟹蟹邪斜芯褌薪褘褏. 袨 屑懈褉械 写芯褉芯谐懈褏 懈蟹褘褋泻邪薪薪褘褏 胁械褖械泄, 胁 泻芯褌芯褉芯屑 芯薪懈 芯斜懈褌邪褞褌. 袨 褋锌械褑懈褎懈褔械褋泻懈褏 锌褉芯斜谢械屑邪褏, 褋 泻芯褌芯褉褘屑懈 懈屑 锌褉懈褏芯写懈褌褋褟 褋褌邪谢泻懈胁邪褌褜褋褟. 袨 褋褌褉邪写邪薪懈褟褏 谢褞写械泄, 芯褌谢褍褔械薪薪褘褏 芯褌 胁芯蟹屑芯卸薪芯褋褌懈 斜褘褌褜 褉邪胁薪褘屑懈 褋褉械写懈 褉邪胁薪褘褏 胁 芯斜褖械褋褌胁械 芯斜懈褌邪褌械谢械泄 蟹械屑薪芯谐芯 褉邪褟, 胁褏芯卸懈褏 胁 褝褌懈 泻褉褍谐懈.
袠褋褌芯褉懈褟 协屑芯褉懈 袘谢械泄薪邪, 锌褉芯懈褋褏芯写褟褖械谐芯 懈蟹 斜芯谐邪褌芯泄, 薪芯 斜械写薪械褞褖械泄 薪邪 锌褉芯褌褟卸械薪懈懈 褉芯屑邪薪邪 写芯 锌芯谢薪芯谐芯 褉邪蟹芯褉械薪懈褟 泻 褎懈薪邪谢褍 褋械屑褜懈: 械谐芯 写械褌褋褌胁邪, 械谐芯 芯褌薪芯褕械薪懈泄 褋芯 胁蟹斜邪谢屑芯褕薪芯泄 泻褉邪褋邪胁懈褑械泄 屑邪褌械褉褜褞, 褋 芯写薪芯泻邪褕薪懈泻邪屑懈, 褋 薪邪褋褌邪胁薪懈泻芯屑, 褋 卸械薪褖懈薪邪屑懈 - 胁芯-屑薪芯谐芯屑 邪胁褌芯斜懈芯谐褉邪褎懈褔薪邪. 孝邪泻 褔邪褖械 胁褋械谐芯 懈 斜褘胁邪械褌, 写械斜褞褌邪薪褌 锌懈褕械褌 锌械褉胁褍褞 泻薪懈谐褍 褋 褋械斜褟. 袙 褋胁械褌械 褝褌芯谐芯 泻褉懈褌懈褔薪芯褋褌褜 邪胁褌芯褉邪 胁 芯褌薪芯褕械薪懈懈 屑芯褌懈胁邪褑懈泄 屑芯谢芯写芯谐芯 褝谐芯懈褋褌邪 ("袪芯屑邪薪褌懈褔械褋泻懈泄 褝谐芯懈褋褌" - 锌械褉胁芯薪邪褔邪谢褜薪芯械 薪邪蟹胁邪薪懈械 褉芯屑邪薪邪, 锌芯写 泻芯褌芯褉褘屑 褉褍泻芯锌懈褋褜 芯褌泻谢芯薪懈谢懈 懈蟹写邪褌械谢褜褋褌胁邪) 胁褘谐谢褟写懈褌 褋懈屑锌邪褌懈褔薪芯泄. 袙 褌芯 胁褉械屑褟, 泻邪泻 斜械褋泻芯薪械褔薪褘械 褍锌芯屑懈薪邪薪懈褟 泻褉邪褋芯褌褘 谐械褉芯褟 锌褉芯懈蟹胁芯写褟褌 薪械褋泻芯谢褜泻芯 泻芯屑懈褔薪芯械 胁锌械褔邪褌谢械薪懈械.
袨写薪邪泻芯 褌褍褌 褋谢械写褍械褌 锌芯屑薪懈褌褜, 褔褌芯 斜芯谐邪褌褋褌胁芯 褋邪屑芯 锌芯 褋械斜械: 写邪褞褖械械 芯斜谢邪写邪褌械谢褞 褉褘褔邪谐懈 胁谢懈褟薪懈褟, 胁芯蟹屑芯卸薪芯褋褌褜 褋芯蟹懈写邪褌械谢褜薪芯泄 写械褟褌械谢褜薪芯褋褌懈 懈 褍谢褍褔褕械薪懈褟 芯斜褖械褋褌胁械薪薪褘褏 懈薪褋褌懈褌褍褌芯胁 - 屑邪谢芯 懈薪褌械褉械褋褍械褌 肖懈褑写卸械褉邪谢褜写邪. 袝谐芯 锌褉懈芯褉懈褌械褌 胁 褝褋褌械褌懈褔械褋泻芯泄 褋褎械褉械, 芯褌褋褞写邪 褍褌褉懈褉芯胁邪薪薪芯械 卸械谢邪薪懈械 锌芯写褔械褉泻薪褍褌褜 胁薪械褕薪褞褞 泻褉邪褋芯褌褍 协屑芯褉懈 懈 袪芯蟹邪谢懈薪写褘. 袛械薪褜谐懈 褑械薪薪褘 胁芯蟹屑芯卸薪芯褋褌褜褞 泻褉邪褋懈胁芯 懈 薪械芯谐褉邪薪懈褔械薪薪芯 褌褉邪褌懈褌褜褋褟 薪邪 锌褉械泻褉邪褋薪褘械 褋褍屑邪褋斜褉芯写褋褌胁邪. 袧械 褋谢褍褔邪泄薪芯 懈褏 褋 袟械谢褜写芯泄 斜褉邪泻 褋褌邪谢 屑邪褌械褉懈邪谢褜薪褘屑 胁褘褉邪卸械薪懈械屑 褌邪泻芯谐芯 褉芯写邪 胁蟹谐谢褟写芯胁.
袗褌屑芯褋褎械褉邪 褉械胁褍褖懈褏 写胁邪写褑邪褌褘褏, 泻邪泻 薪械谢褜蟹褟 谢褍褔褕械 锌芯写褏芯写褟褖懈褏 写谢褟 锌械褉械写邪褔懈 褌邪泻芯谐芯 褉芯写邪 芯斜褉邪蟹邪 屑褘褋谢械泄 懈 写械泄褋褌胁懈泄, 胁芯褋褋芯蟹写邪薪邪 胁 褉芯屑邪薪械 褋 写械褌邪谢褜薪芯泄 锌芯写褉芯斜薪芯褋褌褜褞, 邪 褔褌械薪懈械 袠谐芯褉褟 袣薪褟蟹械胁邪 锌芯写褋胁械褔懈胁邪械褌 锌芯胁械褋褌胁芯胁邪薪懈械, 泻芯褌芯褉芯械 懈薪芯谐写邪 屑芯卸械褌 锌芯泻邪蟹邪褌褜褋褟 褔械褉械褋褔褍褉 褋薪芯斜褋泻懈屑, 屑褟谐泻芯泄 褋邪屑芯懈褉芯薪懈械泄.
August 15, 2021
85th book of 2021.
2.5. This is Fitzgerald's messy and juvenile debut from 1920. It's told through vignettes mostly with no real semblance of "plot". It reads of its time and reminds me of numerous other novels from the same sort of period (Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, Woolf's Jacob's Room, Nabokov's Glory). The most prominent flaw in the first half of the book is its seemingly complete lack of self-awareness: where later Fitzgerald works value vapidness as a theme, This Side of Paradise feels only vapid, without the dissection of it. This is rectified by the end somewhat but it's a lot of detached prose to read with a self-centred and fairly unlikeable protagonist Amory Blaine doing nothing. He goes to Princeton (as Fitzgerald did) and talks incessantly about his world view, what books he likes. . . These are things I usually like to read but Fitzgerald's delivery is poor. Frankly, it reads as if Fitzgerald had done and said everything that is in the book and simply recorded it all. At one point a character accuses Amory of writing things down and saving them for later, and maybe that's what Fitzgerald actually did. Other than being lifeless, the structure is mostly a smorgasbord is stuff: random numbered lists, several chapters that drop into the structure of a script with no apparent benefit, even a Question and Answer page (the latter two both appearing as chapter styles in Ulysses which I find interesting as this was published two years before). The Introduction does suggest that Joyce's Portrait must have been a great influence for Fitzgerald and he naturally tried to downplay that. Despite all its faults this novel was an instant success in 1920 and "overnight" sent Fitzgerald into money and literary fame. Just two books later he would write The Great Gatsby so somehow he learnt the craft fast. Very fast. There are tiny, tiny flashes of his later genius in here with some beautifully structured sentences in an otherwise hurricane of bland characters, bland happenings and dizzying structure.
2.5. This is Fitzgerald's messy and juvenile debut from 1920. It's told through vignettes mostly with no real semblance of "plot". It reads of its time and reminds me of numerous other novels from the same sort of period (Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, Woolf's Jacob's Room, Nabokov's Glory). The most prominent flaw in the first half of the book is its seemingly complete lack of self-awareness: where later Fitzgerald works value vapidness as a theme, This Side of Paradise feels only vapid, without the dissection of it. This is rectified by the end somewhat but it's a lot of detached prose to read with a self-centred and fairly unlikeable protagonist Amory Blaine doing nothing. He goes to Princeton (as Fitzgerald did) and talks incessantly about his world view, what books he likes. . . These are things I usually like to read but Fitzgerald's delivery is poor. Frankly, it reads as if Fitzgerald had done and said everything that is in the book and simply recorded it all. At one point a character accuses Amory of writing things down and saving them for later, and maybe that's what Fitzgerald actually did. Other than being lifeless, the structure is mostly a smorgasbord is stuff: random numbered lists, several chapters that drop into the structure of a script with no apparent benefit, even a Question and Answer page (the latter two both appearing as chapter styles in Ulysses which I find interesting as this was published two years before). The Introduction does suggest that Joyce's Portrait must have been a great influence for Fitzgerald and he naturally tried to downplay that. Despite all its faults this novel was an instant success in 1920 and "overnight" sent Fitzgerald into money and literary fame. Just two books later he would write The Great Gatsby so somehow he learnt the craft fast. Very fast. There are tiny, tiny flashes of his later genius in here with some beautifully structured sentences in an otherwise hurricane of bland characters, bland happenings and dizzying structure.
February 29, 2008
Of all the writing by writers in their early 20s I've read (and written), this book is down the street and around the corner from most. I wish I'd read about the Romantic Egotist before I wrote a book called that also takes place in the Princeton area. (I loved when Amory Blaine biked at night with a friend from P'ton to my hometown.) Fitzgerald writes sharp, swervy, gorgeous, clever sentences, pretty much always with his eyes on the socio-existential prize. Also, really funny: 30 LOLs, at least. Self-consciously episodic in structure, with a conventional, linear, there-and-back again, rising arc (NOT lacking structure, as so many muffinheads on here say; the plot is propelled by Amory's thoughts about his emotional/intellectual progression more than old-fashioned conflict/resolution). Also, I think he's conscious of most of the things people on here level at him re: class -- he seems to me more often critical than complicit (eg, the end of his relationship with Rosalind, not to mention the final rant in the car). It's a lot like Tolstoy's Confession, but here the Egotist steps into the labyrinth of the rest of his life and realizes he knows himself and nothing else. Looking forward to the other F. Scott novels and then re-re-re-reading Gatsby.
October 18, 2024
Clearly an early work (1920), with many imperfections, but still, it captivates. The composition is a bit messy, pluriform, so not everything is equally good. The central themes are that of the Fallen Angel and of punctured certainties. Perhaps this could qualify more as a Quest than as a 'Bildungsroman' or a 'coming-of-age'. Reading this, it felt a bit like Oscar Wilde, with an intrusive accumulation of quotes. (2.5 stars)
May 26, 2016
I strongly disliked this book and I'm saying no more lest it turn into a rant.
Edit: Okay, some friends have requested the rant, so here goes. I never connected with the main character. The only time we really get insight into what he's thinking is when he's thinking about how much better he is than everybody else. (gag) We follow his romantic adventures as he falls in love repeatedly and we have no idea how he really feels or why he's doing this. The motivations of all of the characters make no sense to me. They're all paper dolls, doing weird things with no understandable motivations. "Oh, I killed my horse! Sometimes I just go mad and do things like that!" (context makes this make a tiny bit more sense)
And oh, the poetry! It's like Fitzgerald being a pretentious ass and trying to get lame (to me) poetry into a book way too many times. One or two would be fine, but I seriously wanted to close my eyes and bang my head against a wall every time it cropped up. However, that would have given me a hell of a headache because there was a lot of it.
Oh, yes, how could I possibly forget the political ranting in favor of socialism? It went on and on and on and on...
The interesting thing is how extreme my reaction was. Last year I read for a classics challenge, and not only did I give it some five star love, it was also one of my favorite books last year. A favorite of both the challenge and a 2015 top 10. So I was understandably extremely excited about this book. His first published book, and a book that took the world by storm. A book that was so popular that he makes a comment in The Beautiful and Damned about how all of society is talking about it and it's a must read for them. Arrogant and self-centered but it made me really want to read this. And then I do and I hate it as much as I loved the other. I've also read and had a sane, normal 3.5 star reaction to it. So why do these two books provoke such a powerful reaction?
Edit: Okay, some friends have requested the rant, so here goes. I never connected with the main character. The only time we really get insight into what he's thinking is when he's thinking about how much better he is than everybody else. (gag) We follow his romantic adventures as he falls in love repeatedly and we have no idea how he really feels or why he's doing this. The motivations of all of the characters make no sense to me. They're all paper dolls, doing weird things with no understandable motivations. "Oh, I killed my horse! Sometimes I just go mad and do things like that!" (context makes this make a tiny bit more sense)
And oh, the poetry! It's like Fitzgerald being a pretentious ass and trying to get lame (to me) poetry into a book way too many times. One or two would be fine, but I seriously wanted to close my eyes and bang my head against a wall every time it cropped up. However, that would have given me a hell of a headache because there was a lot of it.
Oh, yes, how could I possibly forget the political ranting in favor of socialism? It went on and on and on and on...
The interesting thing is how extreme my reaction was. Last year I read for a classics challenge, and not only did I give it some five star love, it was also one of my favorite books last year. A favorite of both the challenge and a 2015 top 10. So I was understandably extremely excited about this book. His first published book, and a book that took the world by storm. A book that was so popular that he makes a comment in The Beautiful and Damned about how all of society is talking about it and it's a must read for them. Arrogant and self-centered but it made me really want to read this. And then I do and I hate it as much as I loved the other. I've also read and had a sane, normal 3.5 star reaction to it. So why do these two books provoke such a powerful reaction?
August 11, 2013
When published in March 1920, this - Fitzgerald's first novel - was an immediate critical and popular success. It led to success for Fitzgerald in another way too, because when it was accepted for publication Zelda Sayre, who had ended her relationship with Fitzgerald the previous year, agreed to marry him. After the first print run sold out within three days of publication, Fitzgerald wired for Zelda to come to New York City to marry him that weekend. She agreed and they married a week after the novel was published. The pair then fell headlong into the life of celebrity which contributed so much to their ultimate downfall.
In some ways it's difficult to understand why this work was so well received. It has "first novel" stamped all over it. The writing is uneven in quality and patchy in tone, clearly cobbled together from pieces which don't always fit together harmoniously. Fitzgerald combines standard prose narrative, narrative in the form of a play, free verse and rather pedestrian poetry to tell the story of Amory Blaine, a young mid-Westerner who believes he will achieve extraordinary success in life. He goes to boarding school and then to university, falls in and out of love, drinks too much, tries to write, goes to war, works briefly in an advertising agency and endlessly philosophises alone and with his friends.
Amory is squarely based on Fitzgerald and much of the action is autobiographical. While what appealed to critics about the novel in 1920 was the exploration of young American manhood in the aftermath of World War I, it is the autobiographical flavour of the novel which is probably of most interest to modern readers. Fitzgerald's ego and his insecurities, his relationship with Zelda, his desire for success, the cynicism of the age are all there in the text. Amory Blaine's self-obsession is Fitzgerald's self-obsession, not the less real for being insightful. In a moment of introspection, Blaine reflects:
He knew tht he could sophisticate himself finally into saying that his own weakness was just the result of circumstance and environment; that often when he raged at himself as an egotist something would whisper ingratiatingly "No, Genius!". That was one manifestation of fear, that voice which whispered that he could be both great and good, that genius was the exact combination of those inexplicable grooves and twists in his mind, that any discipline would curb it to mediocrity. Probably more than any concrete vice or failing Amory despised his own personality - he loathed knowing that tomorrow and the thousand days after he would swell pompously at a compliment and sulk at an ill word like a third-rate musician or a first class actor. He was ashamed of the fact that simple and honest people usually distrusted him; that he had been cruel, often, to those who had sunk their personalities in him - several girls, and a man here and there through college, that he had been an evil influence on people who had followed him here and there into mental adventures from which he alone rebounded unscathed.Knowing that Fitzgerald did not continue to rebound unscathed from those mental adventures adds a certain poignancy to reading this novel. However, nothwithstanding the beautiful prose, the evocation of the age with which Fitzgerald has become synonymous, and the autobiographical insights, this is not a work I have any particular interest in reading again. Most of the problem with the novel is, I think, that clever young men are never quite as interesting as they think they are. Two stars for Amory's story and another one because of the insight it provides into the workings of the young Fitzgerald's mind.
September 7, 2014
"It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being."
Thinking back in time, I believe that I must have had ADD as a kid because when I was presented with all of the classics in school, I just didn't appreciate them like I am now, with the exception of Poe. Since I finished reading , I have had a thirst for devouring the classics and lucky me: it's like an extended Christmas since there are so many!!
When deciding on which classics to read my mind went first to F. Scott Fitzgerald, but not because he is considered one of the greatest novelists of all time, but because he settled for a time in North Carolina (my home state), while his wife Zelda was in an institution for schizophrenia. He stayed in Asheville at the Omni Grove Park Inn in room 441, which has not been remodeled since his time there and people can rent this room out to this day and feel the presence of Fitzgerald himself. I have actually had dinner here where you can eat on a veranda that overlooks the mountains and at one time could view the hospital where Zelda once was before it burned down taking her life with it. Enough about that though and on to the book...
This is a story told from the POV of Amory Blaine. It starts out when he is an adolescent and ends when he is a young man. As with many of the classics that I have been reading lately, this is mainly character-driven and he seems to be on a quest to understand his place in the world and to understand life itself. Of course, as with the other classics, this leads to deep introspection once he fails first at love, career, and convention. Once he is stripped of these things it leads him to finally think:
"I know myself, but that is all."
That one sentence really packs a punch and narrows down the entire book. What I loved far more than the story or the characters within was Fitzgerald's poetic prose and I am not one for saying such things.
For a minute they stood there, hating each other with a bitter sadness. But as Avory had loved himself in Eleanor, so now what he hated was only a mirror. Their poses were strewn about the pale dawn like broken glass. The stars were long gone and there were left only the little sighing gusts of wind and the silences between...but naked souls are poor things ever, and soon he turned homeward and let new lights come in with the sun."
Also as with most of the great classics there is the philosophy that decorates the pages and this one wasn't short of them,
"Sentimentalists think they want to be in the pure, simple state they were in before they ate the candy. They don't. They just want the fun of eating it all over again. The matron doesn't want to repeat her girlhood-she wants to repeat her honeymoon. I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again."
"To hold a man a woman has to appeal to the worst in him." That was the thesis of most of his bad nights...
I love reading stories about the rich, or so Amory was in the beginning, that just wander the Earth looking for introspect. They tend to get heavy at times, but I love to read the rattlings of their minds.
March 18, 2025
DNF @ 20%
I really, really tried to like this but I just couldn鈥檛鈥�
The first chapter, while sometimes difficult to get through, was still somewhat readable. But everything after Amory arrives at college was really testing my patience (and ability to read).
I was expecting to love this, especially since The Great Gatsby is one of my favourite books, and I鈥檝e also adored The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and every other short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald I鈥檝e ever read.
Now, I assume it鈥檚 because this was his debut novel, but I found the writing so dense it took away all pleasure out of reading it for me. Despite the fact that every single sentence is a complex one, it also feels like each one has at least three metaphors and thirty adjectives. I cannot- 馃槶鉁嬸煆�
The plot itself is intriguing, and I鈥檝e heard it even inspired J.D Salinger to write The Catcher in the Rye (which is one of my all time favourites). I just can鈥檛, for the life of me, get through it, and believe me I鈥檝e tried. I鈥檝e been struggling with this for almost two months 馃槴
The story follows a young man, Amory Blaine, a middle-class student at Princeton who mostly fixates on his supposed superiority and believes he is destined for greatness (which, obviously, he was told by his mommy). Now I鈥檇 love to see what life throws his way over the course of this book, but I guess I won鈥檛 馃檪鈥嶁啍锔�
I might pick it up again at some point in my life, but rn it鈥檚 time to let this one go鈥�
I really, really tried to like this but I just couldn鈥檛鈥�
The first chapter, while sometimes difficult to get through, was still somewhat readable. But everything after Amory arrives at college was really testing my patience (and ability to read).
I was expecting to love this, especially since The Great Gatsby is one of my favourite books, and I鈥檝e also adored The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and every other short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald I鈥檝e ever read.
Now, I assume it鈥檚 because this was his debut novel, but I found the writing so dense it took away all pleasure out of reading it for me. Despite the fact that every single sentence is a complex one, it also feels like each one has at least three metaphors and thirty adjectives. I cannot- 馃槶鉁嬸煆�
The plot itself is intriguing, and I鈥檝e heard it even inspired J.D Salinger to write The Catcher in the Rye (which is one of my all time favourites). I just can鈥檛, for the life of me, get through it, and believe me I鈥檝e tried. I鈥檝e been struggling with this for almost two months 馃槴
The story follows a young man, Amory Blaine, a middle-class student at Princeton who mostly fixates on his supposed superiority and believes he is destined for greatness (which, obviously, he was told by his mommy). Now I鈥檇 love to see what life throws his way over the course of this book, but I guess I won鈥檛 馃檪鈥嶁啍锔�
I might pick it up again at some point in my life, but rn it鈥檚 time to let this one go鈥�
November 4, 2007
Someone needed to tell F. Scott Fitzgerald to stop writing poetry and including it in this book as the work of his characters. You have to read it, because it's freaking F. Scott Fitzgerald and you don't skim the man's work, but honestly this was insufferable.
There were passages in this book that I loved, and parts that I couldn't put down: but overall the work seemed uneven. The plot structure wasn't really there. The whole focus of the book is simply one character's development as a person from childhood to mid-twenties, and that development isn't always believable.
That said, there was a lot of playfulness in this book that made it fun to read. Midway through, you suddenly have three chapters that are written entirely in play format. Towards the end you enter Amory Blaine's head with a series of questions and answers he's asking and answering for himself, followed by a page of stream of consciousness. These deviations, while abrupt, give effective, fascinating glimpses into the characters' lives that traditional prose could not deliver.
Recommended kinda!
There were passages in this book that I loved, and parts that I couldn't put down: but overall the work seemed uneven. The plot structure wasn't really there. The whole focus of the book is simply one character's development as a person from childhood to mid-twenties, and that development isn't always believable.
That said, there was a lot of playfulness in this book that made it fun to read. Midway through, you suddenly have three chapters that are written entirely in play format. Towards the end you enter Amory Blaine's head with a series of questions and answers he's asking and answering for himself, followed by a page of stream of consciousness. These deviations, while abrupt, give effective, fascinating glimpses into the characters' lives that traditional prose could not deliver.
Recommended kinda!
May 3, 2016
Brilliant dialogue that still rings true after many years of being published. One has to wonder what he would have accomplished if F Scott Fitzgerald had not died so young ?
February 28, 2012
This Side of Paradise primarily suffers from not being The Great Gatsby. And while I know that This Side of Paradise is Fitzgerald's first foray into writing, The Great Gatsby is most people's first foray into Fitzgerald. People have expectations, you know? This Side of Paradise just doesn't measure up. One of TSoP's main flaws is that it has virtually no plot. It does contain the rare snippets of brilliance, but you have to wade through a whole lot of tosh to find them. Still, I can't say that I hated it, however, I've definitely had naps that were more stimulating.
December 17, 2016
Introduction
Note on the Text
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of F. Scott Fitzgerald
--This Side of Paradise
Explanatory Notes
Note on the Text
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of F. Scott Fitzgerald
--This Side of Paradise
Explanatory Notes
February 23, 2018
鈥淚 know myself,鈥� he cried, 鈥榖ut that is all.鈥�
This was Fitzgerald鈥檚 first novel and the one the catapulted him into fame and riches at the young age of 23. Whilst I don鈥檛 like it quite as much as I do The Great Gatsby, this still holds all the depth and details that I love in Fitzgerald鈥檚 work.
In this book we follow Amory Blaine throughout his young years, growing up and going to Princeton, and his young adult life trying to find his way. We see his many attempts at love and his failings and we see him try to understand himself as he learns more and more about the world and the way it all works. Fitzgerald really captures that sense of the unknown when you are in your early twenties and trying to figure out the path you want to carve in life. This book is pretty satire and Fitzgerald鈥檚 witty and lyrical prose is a pleasure to read.
His usual themes are present; wealth, doomed love, faith, society and even socialism. I must say I did find it a little jarring at times as the way the story is written changes and various intervals. There are pages of poetry, letters, even a segment written like a play. But overall it ended up just showing his merits and skill as an author.
I do hope to read all of Fitzgerald鈥檚 novels this year as he is one of my favourite authors. I can鈥檛 wait to experience some of his other stories.
This was Fitzgerald鈥檚 first novel and the one the catapulted him into fame and riches at the young age of 23. Whilst I don鈥檛 like it quite as much as I do The Great Gatsby, this still holds all the depth and details that I love in Fitzgerald鈥檚 work.
In this book we follow Amory Blaine throughout his young years, growing up and going to Princeton, and his young adult life trying to find his way. We see his many attempts at love and his failings and we see him try to understand himself as he learns more and more about the world and the way it all works. Fitzgerald really captures that sense of the unknown when you are in your early twenties and trying to figure out the path you want to carve in life. This book is pretty satire and Fitzgerald鈥檚 witty and lyrical prose is a pleasure to read.
His usual themes are present; wealth, doomed love, faith, society and even socialism. I must say I did find it a little jarring at times as the way the story is written changes and various intervals. There are pages of poetry, letters, even a segment written like a play. But overall it ended up just showing his merits and skill as an author.
I do hope to read all of Fitzgerald鈥檚 novels this year as he is one of my favourite authors. I can鈥檛 wait to experience some of his other stories.
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