Description

This novel of disillusionment, love and greed follows the protagonist Amory Blaine, a charming and romantic egotist. Convinced of his exceptional talent, Amory leaves his home in the Midwest to attend Princeton University, leaving behind his mother Beatrice and his close friends. He determines to succeed at Princeton, but though he is intelligent, Amory is prone to idleness and whiling away time with his privileged friends. When World War I breaks out, he dutifully enlists in the army instead of staying at Princeton to finish his degree, and while is his abroad he receives the news that his mother has died. Upon his return to America Amory meets Rosalind, a stunning debutante and the sister of his college friend Alec. Amory and Rosalind fall deeply in love, but their relationship is hindered by the fact that Amory's family has grown poor as a result of bad investments. Rosalind wishes to marry into money, and so Amory throws himself into an advertising job in an effort to become the man she wants him to be. But all of this is to no avail, as Rosalind leaves him for a much wealthier man. Devastated, Amory squanders what opportunities remain for him and is forced to confront his intellectual convictions and his very sense of self.

About the Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) was born into a privileged family in St. Paul, Minnesota. Early on, the young Fitzgerald tried his hand at writing and saw his work appear in the school paper. Although not a stellar student, the young man attended Princeton University. While at college Fitzgerald began writing parts of what would become one of his most important works, This Side of Paradise. In 1917 the United States became involved in the First World War and Fitzgerald decided to join up and serve his country. He found himself at boot camp in Alabama, where he met the woman—Zelda Sayre—who would become his wife and closest companion in the wild and exciting decade to come. After the war's end, Fitzgerald went to work for a New York advertising agency and finally published his first novel. He and Sayre were married and throughout the 1920s they were one of the Jazz Age's most trend-setting couples, living a life of excess and fun in the spotlight. Fitzgerald and Sayre spent considerable time in Europe, where they moved in some of the most notable circles of the "Lost Generation," a community of artistic expatriates who lived and worked in the exciting world abroad. The decadent lifestyle that Zelda and Fitzgerald led would eventually bring a shadow of instability and destruction in its wake. Although he died at an early age, Fitzgerald's novels, such as The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned record a definitive moment in American culture, when new freedoms allowed a fleeting plunge into a world of inspiration and glamour.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

. . . Well this side of Paradise! . . .
There's little comfort in the wise.
--Rupert Brooke.
give to their mistakes.
--Oscar Wilde.
Amory Blaine inherited from his mother every trait, except the stray inexpressible few, that made him worth ...