This Side of Paradise - Vintage Classics by F Scott Fitzgerald Paperback

About the Book

One of the most brilliant first novels in the history of American literature, "This Side of Paradise" recounts the education of a youth. To this universal story, Fitzgerald brings the promise of everything that is new in the restless America of the years following World War I.

Book Synopsis

F. Scott Fitzgerald's cherished debut novel announced the arrival of a brilliant young writer and anticipated his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby. Published in 1920, when the author was just twenty-three, This Side of Paradise recounts the education of young Amory Blaine--egoistic, versatile, callow, imaginative. As Amory makes his way among debutantes and Princeton undergraduates, we enter an environment heady with the promise of everything that was new in the vigorous, restless America after World War I. We experience Amory's sailing hopes, crushing defeats, deep loves and stubborn losses. His growth from self-absorption to sexual awareness and personhood unfolds with continuous improvisatory energy and delight. Fitzgerald's remarkable formal inventiveness couches Amory's narrative among songs, poems, dramatic dialogue, questions and answers. The novel's freshness and verve--praised upon publication, now renowned by history--only heighten the sense that the world being described is our own, modern world.

Review Quotes

"As nearly perfect as such a work could be.... The glorious spirit of abounding youth glows throughout this fascinating tale."
--The New York Times

About the Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, was born in 1896 and died in 1940.