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This Side of Paradise (Penny Books) Review

When first published in 1920 This Side of Paradise rapidly became a bestseller and launched the career of its 24 year old author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel's protagonist, Amory Blaine, is clearly a stand-in for Fitzgerald himself.
The book traces Amory's life from early childhood to young adulthood and describes in great detail his challenges and conflicts as he reaches maturity in the very turbulent second decade of the 20th century. Amory, like the author, becomes a Princeton man. Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of This Side of Paradise is that Fitzgerald's unbridled nostalgia for his time spent at Princeton comes through loud and clear. (The fact that he never managed to graduate does not seem to have diminished his fond memories one iota.)
By his own admission, Amory is an egotistical elitist who has little or no empathy for the less fortunate lower classes. Much of the novel consists of Amory's introspection on the true nature of love, personal fulfillment, the relevance of religion and other equally obtuse subjects. This Side of Paradise is also a bit odd from a structural standpoint in that there is an overabundance of poetry interspersed with the prose and one of the more important chapters is written largely in the form of a play complete with lines of dialogue and stage direction.
Those inclined to criticize this book will see it as a hodgepodge of self-indulgence. But to the generation who came of age circa. 1920, it contained much that rang true.

This Side of Paradise (Penny Books) Overview

This Side of Paradise is the debut novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Published in 1920, and taking its title from a line of the Rupert Brooke poem Tiare Tahiti, the book examines the lives and morality of post-World War I youth. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive Princeton University student who dabbles in literature and has the book's theme of love warped by greed and status-seeking.

In the summer of 1919, 22-year-old Fitzgerald broke up with the girl he had been courting, Zelda Sayre. After being drunk for much of the summer he returned to St. Paul, Minnesota, where his family lived, to complete the novel, hoping that if he became a successful novelist he could win Zelda back. While at Princeton, Fitzgerald had written an unpublished novel called The Romantic Egotist and ultimately 80 pages of the typescript of this earlier work ended up in This Side of Paradise.

On September 4, 1919, Fitzgerald gave the manuscript to a friend to deliver to Maxwell Perkins, an editor at Charles Scribner's Sons in New York. The book was nearly rejected by the editors at Scribners, but Perkins insisted, and on September 16 it was officially accepted. Fitzgerald begged for early publication—convinced that he would become a celebrity and impress Zelda—but was told that the novel would have to wait until the spring. Nevertheless, upon the acceptance of his novel for publication he went and visited Zelda and they resumed their courtship. His success imminent, she agreed to marry him.

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This Side of Paradise (Penny Books) Specifications

Fitzgerald's first novel, reprinted in the handsome Everyman's Library series of literary classic, uses numerous formal experiments to tell the story of Amory Blaine, as he grows up during the crazy years following the First World War. It also contains a new introduction by Craig Raine that describes critical and popular reception of the book when it came out in 1920.

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Customer Reviews

A story of crippled souls - Kurt A. Johnson - North-Central Illinois, USA
Amory Blaine was born to an eccentric mother and a cold and distant father. This is the story of his life, but more than that it is the story of his search for love, and his search for meaning - both ultimately disappointingly unsuccessful.

I gather that this book, the first one that F. Scott Fitzgerald published, was wildly successful when it was first published, in 1920. It really spoke to the Lost Generation. Well, reading it now some 90 years later, it does not have the same impact - nor could it.

As a window on the Lost Generation, or at least on their tastes, it is quite interesting. As I read the book, I could not help but reflect on a thinker I knew many years ago who spoke of people who loved themselves best, but were forever on a fruitless search to find someone who would love them more. All of the characters in This Side of Paradise have that same problem - a deep and overwhelming love for themselves which makes them unable to give unconditionally of themselves.

I suppose that is why I did not find myself enjoying this book at any point - there is nothing uplifting here. The crippled souls of the characters only inspired pity in me, as I watched what I knew to be their fruitless search for love and meaning.

So, if you are interested in the Lost Generation and the 1920s, then you will probably enjoy this book. If you are looking for a work of literature that will feed your soul and send you forward, then you will probably not enjoy this book...as indeed, I did not.






Perfecting his craft? - fra7299 - California, United States
Part of the problem with Fitzgerald's being affiliated with a prized novel, The Great Gatsby, is that the author's other novels must be compared to it. I use this as an opening because, while the instances of early talent in the writer are here in his debut novel, the story, even though richly autobiographical, fell a little flat. Maybe this is part due to the fact that for a good deal of the book the protagonist, Amory Blaine, is pretty much synonymous with the shallow, aimless generation that Fitzgerald and other Lost Generation authors tried to depict. With the exception of minor moments of insight late in the novel, Amory is as superficial as the world seems around him.

Some have a problem with the experimental format of This Side of Paradise. It is written as a narrative, poem, drama, letter and journal. I didn't feel that way, and thought it gave a unique aspect to the novel. Fitzgerald's technique seems to coincide with the modern novel of experimenting with narrative. However, the story's subject itself clearly comes across as an author working into his craft, rather than having perfected it.

Within the story, Amory Blaine searches for identity and meaning of life amid outside influences--his mother, the world, the war, his acquaintances at school, his friendships, and his loves. While there were some moments of insight, the story comes across as a bit flat and meandering. In the final estimation, the characters were a bit too artificial.

Fitzgerald's movement towards perfecting his skill is evidenced, however. There are some valid insightful moments for the protagonist in the book's concluding pages, and Fitzgerald's style is evidenced in these brief snapshots. Fitzgerald's style would be perfected later in The Great Gatsby.

This pretty much takes me back to my original argument. The Great Gatsby is vastly superior in terms of depth, narrative and likability of main protagonist than This Side of Paradise. Not to say that there isn't a glimpse of talent here, and future higher achievements, but I'd rather be reading The Great Gatsby.




Definitely not my cup of tea - Love shopping Amazon - MA USA
I have to say that I found this book to be quite boring. i've been laid up for a few weeks. I have a Kindle so have been able to read and enjoy many of the classics. This was a book i had to stop reading several times and always wondered why i returned to it. I will try something else by Fitzgerald from his later years. I won't give up on someone others consider a brilliant writer.


*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Oct 10, 2010 17:30:06