F. Scott Fitzgerald

Patrick O'Donnell

Tells the story of Amory Blaine as he struggles to grow up in the years following his return from World War 1.

This Side of Paradise

This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald's romantic and witty first novel, was written when the author was only twenty-three years old. This semiautobiographical story of the handsome, indulged, and idealistic Princeton student Amory Blaine received critical raves and catapulted Fitzgerald to instant fame. Now, readers can enjoy the newly edited, authorized version of this early classic of the Jazz Age, based on Fitzgerald's original manuscript. In this definitive text, This Side of Paradise captures the rhythms and romance of Fitzgerald's youth and offers a poignant portrait of the "Lost Generation."

This Side Of Paradise

“I'm a slave to my emotions, to my likes, to my hatred of boredom, to most of my desires.”

There is no one like Fitzgerald when it comes to giving the most glamorous, outrageous, jaded look to the 1920s, and his debut novel is no exception.

The whole book is essentially an existential crisis of a shallow, spoiled egotist and his quest to find himself a 

™. The fast, cutting dialogues between superficial yet deeply entertaining characters with their pseudo-sophistication, doing everything to fit in, are quite the treat. However (and this is a big however) there was entirely too much wanna-be-intellectual poetry recited for taste, with a strange 10 page rant about socialism for the big finish that came out of nowhere. It is a notable debut that no wonder put Fitzgerald on the scene, but it is not his best work (understandably so). It gets much, much better.

“I'm a slave to my emotions, to my likes, to my hatred of boredom, to most of my desires.”

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There is no one like Fitzgerald when it comes to giving the most glamorous, outrageous, jaded look to the 1920s, and his debut novel is no exception.
The whole book is essentially an existential crisis of a shallow, spoiled egotist and his quest to find himself a personality™. The fast, cutting dialogues between superficial yet deeply entertaining characters with their pseudo-sophistication, doing everything to fit in, are quite the treat. However (and this is a big however) there was entirely too much wanna-be-intellectual poetry recited for taste, with a strange 10 page rant about socialism for the big finish that came out of nowhere. It is a notable debut that no wonder put Fitzgerald on the scene, but it is not his best work (understandably so). It gets much, much better.

Elizabeth 

i probably didn’t understand it too well bc a man wrote it.

Joub

Man this guy’s ego is bigger than mine…. 
Why did i believe the google search that told me I’d find a daisy Buchanan here. :(. Satisfied my need to read 1920s prose though so there’s that.

“I’m a slave to my emotions, to my likes, to my hatred of boredom, to most of my desires.”

this side of paradise is a bildungsroman novel set in the jazz age of 1920s which explores themes of money, youth and innocence, and war. moreover, at the time this book was released, it was viewed as the revelation of the new morals of the youth during the early jazz age.

i think it’s fitting to read this now that i’m twenty-two because i can somehow relate to amory and his attempt to find self-awareness and his place in the world. fitzgerald’s beautiful writing is riveting and captivating which also got me hooked.

Mary Rose Luksha

The Great Gatsby is one of my all time favorite books, and in my opinion the first great American novel. I could get into arguments, and have, about other terrific authors, but I think Fitzgerald tackled the first truly American problems that the rest of the world was never faced with. I've also always been interested in his personal life, almost like a fiction, and was excited to read TSOP. Fitzgerald is one of those brilliant authors who, through the use of language, really puts you in the time period he wishes. He's got such a decadence and sumptuousness with words that I could get lost in paragraphs. As a result, it took me a while longer to read because I really wanted to savor it all, but it was worth it.

I gave the book 4 stars, not 5, not because of the traditional problem people have with this book - using snippets of poetry or drama and it all feeling a bit slapdash (I actually rather liked that), but because a few of Amory's rants were very time sensitive, and were about things that don't strike me as important in today's changing world.

But if you like the early 1900's and the 20's, this book is a perfect slice of the struggle of the middle class, and the struggle of genius.

Barbara Williford

Not one of my favorites by Fitzgerald but it was thoughtful and entertaining. Did not realize this was his first book at age 23. Amory have a self indulgent mother who has raised him to believe he is destined for great things. Off to boarding school because that’s what the wealthy do, then to Princeton where he wastes his days away with the boys, dreams of football, reading, day dreaming and not really interested in an education. This book continues through his life of falling in and out of love, going to war, making new friendships, more romantic endeavors, drunken depression, loss of loved ones, dabbling in socialism, all the while trying to discover himself and what he wants to do with his life. This goes on for 40+ years. An interesting read since it is supposedly based on Fitzgerald’s own journey.

Lindsay Hollmann

His prose really is wonderful. It almost makes up for the utter dullness that is the plot. Amory as a self obsessed egotist was pointed and surprisingly not over the top.

Ella Zegarra

Publicado originalmente: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

This Side of Paradise se me hizo un libro interesante el cual me falló bastante con el final. Si bien la sinopsis ya nos dice que este libro a largo de los años se ha tomado como una especie de biografía del escritor, yo no lo quise tomar así ¿Por qué? Porque después de terminar el libro lo siento más como una excusa que como la meta del libro, por decirlo de algún modo.

No es un libro malo, tiene una gran y exquisita paleta de personaje femeninos. En inicios de año muchas escritoras estuvieron apoyando la campaña "Personajes femeninos diferentes" y para mí, This Side of Paradise es un buen ejemplo de lo que se pide. Tanto como Beatrice, Rosalind, Isabelle y Eleanor, que tienen un ligero parecido solo que cada una tiene algo llamativo que no tiene ningún otro personaje que haya leído antes, al menos en literatura Young Adult, y la verdad es que me gustaría leer más de estas personalidades.

Pero me falló en que no tengo una sensación de conclusión, no soy de las que se molestan con finales abiertos, varios de mis libros favoritos son así, es sólo con A Este Lado del Paraíso siento que me cortaron a mitad de algo, como si fuera el inicio de una serie de libros. No sé si es solo algo que me pasó a mí pero no estoy feliz con el final, Amory se me hizo muy hipócrita al final. Durante todo el libro me gustó como personaje, incluso logré identificarme con él varias veces, sobre todo con su cinismo y como el escritor nos lo describía. "Siempre se trataba de lo que llegaría a ser, nunca de lo que era" Sobre todo esa frase se me quedó grabada durante días. Las personas que nos pasamos más tiempo en la intimidad de nuestras mentes lo entendemos bastante bien.

El personaje que me desagradó en este libro fue Monseñor Darcy, se me hizo tan presuntuoso y uno de los que alentaba a Amory ser cómo era. Creo que también es un poco de envidia por mi parte, ya me gustaría tener a alguien quién crea que todas mis tonterías las hago porque soy un ser especial.

Tengo un montón de citas guardadas y ahora que estuve haciendo un poco de investigación para la reseña, aumenté alguna más, sin duda para futura relectura. Mi problema fue el final tan político y fuera de sentido pero por todo lo demás me gustó.

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Cola

This Side of Paradise (Barnes & Noble Classics)

Jeni Enjaian

I have enjoyed other of Fitzgerald's books but this one bored me almost to tears. Amory;s name rests close to the best description of his character and of the plot, aimless. I could never quite grasp Fitzgerald's intention as to character, plot or purpose. I tried at first to read deeply into the book but the lack of direction left me floating and confused. The end could have come at any point. Fitzgerald could have included one or two more meaningless romances and failed attempts at finding purpose in life and the book would remain as is, only many more meaningless pages longer.

I do not recommend this book.

Definitive novel of the "Lost Generation" focuses on the coming of age of Amory Blaine, a handsome, wealthy Princeton student. Fitzgerald's first novel and an immediate, spectacular success. Note.

Chantale

I found this book to be so boring that I had to DNF it

Katie Cheng

This book was hard. I am probably not intellectually mature enough for this, or, if I try not to be so self-depricating, it seems like Fitzgerald wraps his ideas in circling words that never quite make their point. I'll concede probably the former and not the latter. In other words - you guys, I don't get it! But it had some pretty moments -

Here's a very relevant one:
" 'Fifty years after Waterloo Napoleon was as much a hero to English school children as Wellington. How do we know our grandchildren won't idolize Von Hindenburg the same way?'
'What brings it about?'
'Time, damn it, and the historian. If we could only learn to look on evil as evil, whether it's clothed in filth or monotony or magnificence' " (p153)

Here's a pretty one:
"There is no more dangerous gift to posterity than a few cleverly turned platitudes" (p162)

Here's a feel-good one:
"No, sir, the girl really worth having won't wait for anybody" (p216)

And here's another relevant one:
"For the first time in his life he rather longed for death to roll over his generation, obliterating their petty fevers and struggles and exultations" (p245)

Let's close with that, since I have naught else to say.


P.S. Fitzgerald wrote this novel when he was 23, and that's how old I am.

Linn 

maybe gatsby is the only fitzgerald book with rights because this was so [big silence]. i think i tuned out after 100 pages and just started skimming because i literally couldn’t care less. 

(1.5/5)

This side of paradise

Christina Hufford

The atmosphere in this book is incredible. You can feel Amory's life falling down around him, how he goes from selfish obsession with status to a realization that status accounts for nothing, that nothing accounts for *anything*. I couldn't imagine living in this time period. The female characters have basically to wait until a suitor arrives to marry them, and the male characters have little to do but make enough money so they might be suitor material. Amory, who is too smart for this race but too lazy and self-obsessed to actually revolt against any of the various systems he finds fault in, is just this lost soul who, by the end of the book, has basically no one. No friends, no family. A war has torn away his idealism and soured his spirit (though he was always fairly sour from the start), and he's left with little money and little direction. But, the one thing he does finally have, is full understanding of himself.

That's why this book was so fascinating to me. It was this bitter exploration of a selfish, narcissistic ass who slowly comes to the realization that by using people right and left, and taking nothing seriously, and basking in miserableness, he's more or less ruined himself, by being too damn self-aware. And it speaks to an entire generation like this, a generation completely upended by the cataclysmic repercussions of World War I, a generation made to grow up far too fast, and who was flung into a world not quite ready for them, while they were no more ready for it. 

The book was surprisingly funny at times, if overall a very somber look at one character's ambling trek towards self-discovery. The final line in particular resonated with me: " 'I know myself,' he cried, 'but that is all.' " This coming from a character, you must realize, that would spontaneously expound for pages on subjects he had only a passing familiarity with, if only to argue with and upstage whatever stranger he happened to be sitting with. It was so cool in that regards. Amory Blaine isn't a heroic do-gooder of a character. In a lot of ways, he's unsympathetic and obnoxious. In this book, you watch him break. And you get the sense that his story isn't one overwhelmingly unique, not to that Lost Generation. 

And the fact that Fitzgerald wrote this artful, poignant character exploration when he was all of twenty three years old gives the book an extra special punch you in the throat amazingness. 

(End Note: The only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is that I reserve 5 stars for the books that knock me off my chair and mark significant turning points in my life. This book is really, really, really good, but I don't know how often I'll reread it, so 4 out of 5 stars it gets. Don't think this anything against the book, though. I highly recommend everyone read it.)

Brittany Firmes

it was pretty good - a beautiful story about self discovery :) there was just not a lot happening. I do like Amory as a character though, which made the book better. I cannot read a book if I don’t like the main character.

Faith Simmons

Wow, what a tale of opulence and young angst - allow me to explain. In this semi-autobiographical novel of Fitzgerald's, the narrative follows a young Amory Blaine from his teenage years until his mid-twenties. It is a story of young love, loss of innocence, and tragedy, all compiled into one, admittedly elitist, work. Fitzgerald's opulent taste is evident throughout, and his high-class upbringing makes for a main character that is at times dislikable but also ultimately lovable. Although I found the ending abrupt and not giving of closure, the journey through Blaine's years was enjoyable and afforded me a wonderful bit of escape into an entirely different era than our own. 3.5/5 stars.

This Side of Paradise

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