It is probably true that in some respects Fitzgerald has painted a faithful portrayal of the type of young man who may be described as the male flapper, but our objection lies in the fact that to our mind the type is not interesting. After all, the reviewer who has been through several seasons of tales about sub-debs cannot view with anything but horror the prospect of being treated to exhaustive studies of her brother and first cousins.
In making himself responsible for the descriptions of college pranks and larks the author has undertaken a task of enormous difficulty. Things done in a spirit of alcoholic exuberation must of necessity sound flat and unprofitable to the mature and cold, sober reader. When Fitzgerald writes, “The donor of the party having remained sober, Kerry and Amory accidentally dropped him down two flights of stairs, and called, shamefaced and penitent, at the infirmary all the following week,” he does scant justice to Kerry and Amory. After all, in the mood and at the moment it can hardly have seemed such a silly trick as it must appear to the reader in Fitzgerald’s laconic statement.
The thing that puzzled us most was the author’s description of the violent effect of the sex urge upon some of his young folk. On page 122, for instance, a chorus girl named Axia laid her blond head on Amory’s shoulder and the youth immediately rushed away in a frenzy of terror and suffered from hallucinations for forty-eight hours. The explanation was hidden from us. It did not sound altogether characteristic of Princeton.
There are occasional thrusts of shrewd observation and a few well turned sentences and phrases in This Side of Paradise. It is only fair to add that the book has received enthusiastic praise from most American reviewers. Fitzgerald has been hailed as among the most promising of our own authors. And it may be so, but we dissent. We think he will go no great distance until he has grown much simpler in expression. It seems to us that his is a style larded with fine writing. When we read, “It was like weakness in a good woman, or blood on satin; one of those terrible incongruities that shake little things in the back of the brain,” we cannot but feel that we are not yet grown out of the self-conscious stage which makes writing nothing more than a stunt.
—from the New York Tribune (April 11, 1920)
ROBERT C. BENCHLEY
As an account of the career of a boy through preparatory school, Princeton, love and life, “This Side of Paradise” may not be a great book. Frankly, I don’t know a great book when I see one. I have to wait and find out what other people think about it. But in spite of its immaturity, its ingenuousness and its many false notes, it is something new, and for this alone Mr. Fitzgerald deserves to a crown of something very expensive. He tells a story in a new way, without regard to rules or convention, and it is an interesting story. In these days when any one can (and does) turn out a book which has been done hundreds of times before and bids fair to be done hundreds of times again, simply by following Stevenson’s advice and playing “the sedulous ape” to successful predecessors, I should be inclined to hail as a genius any twenty-three-year-old author who can think up something new and say it in a new way so that it will be interesting to a great many people.
—from the New York Morning World (April 21, 1920)
DAVID W. BAILEY
Small wonder [This Side of Paradise] has taken the bookstalls by storm, that it has been hailed as a truly American novel, bewildering, brilliant. The story is a little slice carved out of real life, running over with youth and jazz and sentiment and romance and virile American humor—everything in short that is dear to a Princeton man (Mr. Fitzgerald himself), or a Yale man, or a Harvard man, or just any kind of man. The author calls it a book about flappers for philosophers, which amounts to the same thing.... To read This Side of Paradise once is to read it twice and quote it endlessly.
—from the Harvard Crimson (May 1, 1920)
H. L. MENCKEN
The best American novel that I have seen of late is also the product of a neophyte, to wit, F. Scott Fitzgerald.... In “This Side of Paradise” he offers a truly amazing first novel—original in structure, extremely sophisticated in manner, and adorned with a brilliancy that is as rare in American writing as honesty is in American state-craft.... The first half of the story is far better than the second half. It is not that Fitzgerald’s manner runs thin, but that his hero begins to elude him. What, after such a youth, is to be done with the fellow ? The author’s solution is anything but felicitous. He simply drops his Amory Blaine as Mark Twain dropped Huckleberry Finn, but for a less cogent reason. But down to and including the episode of the love affair with Rosalind the thing is capital, especially the first chapters. Not since Frank Norris’s day has there been a more adept slapping in of preliminaries.
—from Smart Set (August 1920)
EDMUND WILSON
It has been said by a celebrated person that to meet F. Scott Fitzgerald is to think of a stupid old woman with whom someone has left a diamond; she is extremely proud of the diamond and shows it to everyone who comes by, and everybody is surprised that such an ignorant old woman should possess so valuable a jewel; for in nothing does she appear so stupid as in the remarks she makes about the diamond.
The person who invented this simile did not know Scott Fitzgerald very well and can have seen him only, I think, in particularly uninteresting moods. The reader must not suppose that there is any literal truth in the image. Scott is no old woman, but a very good-looking young man, and not in the least stupid, but exceedingly entertaining. But there is, nonetheless, a symbolic truth in the description quoted above: it is true that Fitzgerald has been left with a jewel which he doesn’t quite know what to do with. For he has been given imagination without intellectual control of it; he has been given a desire for beauty without an aesthetic ideal; and he has been given a gift for expression without many ideas to express.
—from the Literary Spotlight (1924)
Questions
1. Is Fitzgerald’s depiction of women in This Side of Paradise sexist? If so, in what way?
2. Why are relations between the sexes so difficult and unsatisfying in this novel?
3. Are the attitudes, values, mind-sets, and ambitions depicted in this novel still current? Does the ethos of the “Jazz Age” seem familiar to you?
4. Suppose you were Amory’s slightly older and much wiser cousin. What advice would you give him?
FOR FURTHER READING
Biographies
Bruccoli, Matthew J. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. With a genealogical afterword by Scottie Fitzgerald Smith. Second revised edition. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2002.
Donaldson, Scott. Fool for Love: F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Congdon and Weed, 1983.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Edited by Andrew Turnbull. New York: Scribner, 1963.
Mizener, Arthur. The Far Side of Paradise: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965.
Turnbull, Andrew. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Scribner, 1962.
Criticism
Allen, Joan M. Candles and Carnival Lights: The Catholic Sensibility of F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: New York University Press, 1978.
Burhans, Clinton S., Jr. “Structure and Theme in This Side of Paradise.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 68 (1969), pp. 605-624.
Eble, Kenneth E. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1963.
Fitzgerald, Scott. This Side of Paradise. Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Edited by James L. W. West III. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Hendriksen, Jack. This Side of Paradise as a Bildungsroman. New York: P. Lang, 1993.
Miller, James E. F. Scott Fitzgerald: His Art and Technique. New York: New York University Press, 1964.
Moore, Benita A. Escape into a Labyrinth: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Catholic Sensibility, and the American Way. New York: Garland, 1988.
Sklar, Robert. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Last Laocoon. New York: Oxford University Pre
ss, 1967.
Tate, Mary Jo. F. Scott Fitzgerald A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. With a foreword by Matthew J. Bruccoli. New York: Facts on File, 1998.
Other Works Cited in the Introduction
Curnutt, Kirk. “Youth Culture and the Spectacle of Waste: This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned.” In F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Twenty-first Century, edited by Jackson R. Bryer, Ruth Prigozy, and Milton R. Stern. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2003, pp. 79-103.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “Echoes of the Jazz Age.” In The Crack-Up, edited by Edmund Wilson. New York: New Directions, 1993, pp. 13-22.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. This Side of Paradise. Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Edited by James L. W. West III. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Fussell, Paul. The Great War and Modern Memory. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1975.
Fryer, Sarah Beebe. Fitzgerald’s New Women: Harbingers of Change. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1988.
Gillin, Edward. “Princeton, Pragmatism, and Fitzgerald’s Sentimental Journey.” In F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Twenty-first Century, edited by Jackson R. Bryer, Ruth Prigozy, and Milton R. Stern. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2003, pp. 38-53.
Hahn, Stephen Walter. “And She Be Fair”: Keats’s Influence on F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and William Carlos Williams. Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ: 1983.
Kahn, Sy. “This Side of Paradise: The Pageantry of Disillusion.” In F. Scott Fitzgerald: Critical Assessments, vol. 2, edited by Henry Claridge. Mountfield, Sussex, UK: Helm Information, 1991, pp. 52-63.
Monk, Craig. “The Political F. Scott Fitzgerald: Liberal Illusion and Disillusion in This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned.” American Studies International (October 1995) 33:2. Stavola, Thomas J. Scott Fitzgerald: Crisis in an American Identity. London: Vision Press, 1979.
Tanner, Stephen L. “The Devil and F. Scott Fitzgerald.” In F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Twenty-first Century, edited by Jackson R. Bryer, Ruth Prigozy, and Milton R. Stern. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2003, pp. 66—78.
Trilling, Lionel. The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society. New York: Viking Press, 1950.
Tuttleton, James. “The Presence of Poe in This Side of Paradise.” In F. Scott Fitzgerald: Critical Assessments, vol. 2, edited by Henry Claridge. Mountfield, Sussex, UK: Helm Information, 1991, pp. 64-68.
Way, Brian. F Scott Fitzgerald and the Art of Social Fiction. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980.
West, James L. W. III. The Making of This Side of Paradise. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983.
a May be an indirect allusion to amor (Latin for “love”), as in Amory’s quest for love.
b Site of a popular summer resort for the wealthy; developed in the 1840s and located in Walworth County, Wisconsin.
c That is, 1896, also the year of Fitzgerald’s birth.
d 1869 volume of poetry by Paul Verlaine, a French bohemian poet.
e Bobsledding party.
f One of the predecessors to the record player; played music recorded on wax-covered cylinders.
g Blue washing powder, used to prevent white fabrics from yellowing.
h Famous 60- by 90-foot sign in Manhattan depicting the chariots in a Roman race speeding around an arena.
i Owen Johnson’s 1912 boys’ book about “Dink” Stover; it exposes academic anti-intellectualism and social elitism.
j Student hangout in Princeton at 64 Nassau Street with a soda fountain and a lunch counter that sold clothing and school supplies. Ajigger is a sundae.
k Princeton College drama club focusing on producing musical comedies.
l Variety shop on Witherspoon Street in Princeton with a soda fountain and lunch counter where Amory meets the “highbrow” Thomas Parke D’Invilliers, a character based on Fitzgerald’s Princeton friend John Peale Bishop.
m Musical comedy put on by the Triangle Club; the title is similar to “Fie! Fie! Fi-Fi!”—a 1914-1915 Triangle Club musical with script and lyrics written by Fitzgerald.
n Social event devoted to hugging and kissing.
o The Stutz Bearcat was a popular two-seater sports car of the 1910s and 1920s.
p Princeton University student newspaper.
q Hotel and tavern located at 52 Nassau Street in Princeton.
r Resort on the Jersey Shore frequented by the wealthy.
s Elegant Manhattan restaurant located at 522 Fifth Avenue.
t The blue slip Amory receives from the Registrar’s Office means he did not pass the exam to be taken off “conditioned” status.
u French Aviation Service composed of volunteer American pilots, formed in 1916.
v Waiter who takes small change, ajitney (“nickel”), for his services.
w Romantic World War I poet whose poem “Tiare Tahiti” (1914) strongly influenced This Side of Paradise.
x By Compton MacKenzie, this novel is said to be a model for This Side of Paradise.
y Fitzgerald’s friend Henry Strater (the model for Burne Holiday) participated in a 1917 revolt against the Princeton eating clubs.
z Tolstoy’s novel, published in the United States in 1890, about sexual relationships, marriage, and morality.
aa Christian disciple in the Bible (Acts 6-7) who is chosen by the people to preach and who is stoned to death by the elders and scribes for blasphemy.
ab State of reverie, abstraction, or deep thought.
ac 1916 musical showpiece song that sold more than 2 million copies in combined sales of sheet music and recordings.
ad Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934), German field marshal during World War I; later (1925-1934) he was president of Germany.
ae World War I embarkation camp (where troops waited to be transported to the war) in Mineola, Long Island; Fitzgerald was stationed there when the armistice was signed.
af Parrish (1870-1966) was a popular book illustrator and poster artist of the 1920s and 1930s whose work was lush, romantic, and sentimental.
ag At age nineteen, Rosalind has already been expelled from this fashionable prep school for girls then at 30 West 55th Street in New York City.
ah Bar on Broadway and 38th Street in Manhattan.
ai Restaurant on Broadway north of 42nd Street.
aj On July 1, 1919, the United States went dry under a wartime prohibition measure passed by Congress; this was a “dry run” for the Eighteenth Amendment, which was passed on January 16, 1920.
ak Included in Amory’s massive reading list are works by H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), an influential social and literary critic during the 1910s and 1920s who became Fitzgerald’s friend.
al Edgar Allan Poe’s morose “Ulalume: A Ballad” (1847).
am At that time bobbed (“cut short”) hair on young women, such as Eleanor Savage, was seen as a sign of their independence and rebellion against society.
an Passed by Congress in 1910, and also known as the White Slave Act, this law made it a penitentiary offense to transport a woman across state lines for “immoral purposes.”
ao Men’s underwear made by Bradley, Voorhies, and Day.
ap Elegant restaurant located on Fifth Avenue and 44th Street; it is in stark contrast here to Amory’s impoverished state.
aq Sometimes used as a synonym for “communist,” the term Bolshevik was used as a derogatory term for a radical or a left-winger.
ar The Lewis machine gun was used by American troops in World War I.
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