F. Scott Fitzgerald Books

There is a reason why this is required reading in advanced literature classes throughout the country. This is without a doubt one of the best tales ever told. It should be used as an example to any aspiring writer of what great writing can be. The thing that makes it so great is Fitzgerald's ability to formulate characters, both large and small, and his ability to have them interact in a manner that is at once both imaginative and realistic. This makes the story, which in and of itself is not more amazing than other books, more amazing because you are compelled to believe the plausibility of a story that is incredible. Even if you are not a literature student you will find this book an enjoyable read that is intellectually stimulating, yet easy reading for those reading to relax. Many have copied this story directly and indirectly because of the lesson it teaches (that in the story about life and that about creating a story) and many will continue to do so in the future.

There is a reason why this is required reading in advanced literature classes throughout the country. This is without a doubt one of the best tales ever told. It should be used as an example to any aspiring writer of what great writing can be. The thing that makes it so great is Fitzgerald's ability to formulate characters, both large and small, and his ability to have them interact in a manner that is at once both imaginative and realistic. This makes the story, which in and of itself is not more amazing than other books, more amazing because you are compelled to believe the plausibility of a story that is incredible. Even if you are not a literature student you will find this book an enjoyable read that is intellectually stimulating, yet easy reading for those reading to relax. Many have copied this story directly and indirectly because of the lesson it teaches (that in the story about life and that about creating a story) and many will continue to do so in the future.

There is a reason why this is required reading in advanced literature classes throughout the country. This is without a doubt one of the best tales ever told. It should be used as an example to any aspiring writer of what great writing can be. The thing that makes it so great is Fitzgerald's ability to formulate characters, both large and small, and his ability to have them interact in a manner that is at once both imaginative and realistic. This makes the story, which in and of itself is not more amazing than other books, more amazing because you are compelled to believe the plausibility of a story that is incredible. Even if you are not a literature student you will find this book an enjoyable read that is intellectually stimulating, yet easy reading for those reading to relax. Many have copied this story directly and indirectly because of the lesson it teaches (that in the story about life and that about creating a story) and many will continue to do so in the future.

Skim the first few chapters and get into a the good stuff. The book gives great historical information pertaining to the 1920s, when women were interested in breaking the rules of the culture. It goes on to prove that the American Dream is unobtainable to Gatsby. He can have all the money in the world, and throw the best of all parties, but he lacks Daisy. Which goes on to prove the point that a person only wants something he undoubtfully knows he can not have. For some odd reason, a person is attracted to something that is unable to be reached...

There is a reason why this is required reading in advanced literature classes throughout the country. This is without a doubt one of the best tales ever told. It should be used as an example to any aspiring writer of what great writing can be. The thing that makes it so great is Fitzgerald's ability to formulate characters, both large and small, and his ability to have them interact in a manner that is at once both imaginative and realistic. This makes the story, which in and of itself is not more amazing than other books, more amazing because you are compelled to believe the plausibility of a story that is incredible. Even if you are not a literature student you will find this book an enjoyable read that is intellectually stimulating, yet easy reading for those reading to relax. Many have copied this story directly and indirectly because of the lesson it teaches (that in the story about life and that about creating a story) and many will continue to do so in the future.

There is a reason why this is required reading in advanced literature classes throughout the country. This is without a doubt one of the best tales ever told. It should be used as an example to any aspiring writer of what great writing can be. The thing that makes it so great is Fitzgerald's ability to formulate characters, both large and small, and his ability to have them interact in a manner that is at once both imaginative and realistic. This makes the story, which in and of itself is not more amazing than other books, more amazing because you are compelled to believe the plausibility of a story that is incredible. Even if you are not a literature student you will find this book an enjoyable read that is intellectually stimulating, yet easy reading for those reading to relax. Many have copied this story directly and indirectly because of the lesson it teaches (that in the story about life and that about creating a story) and many will continue to do so in the future.

Like most, I first read the Great Gatsby in my high school English class. Although I have read much since then, I've not found another novel that surpasses to Fitzgerald's masterpiece. Between the solid story, symbolism and pleasant prose, the Great Gatsby touches on something everyone experiences in one degree or another: that of unrealized dreams. There are many Gatsbys in the world - each scheming some last-ditch effort to snatch victory from a certain defeat. He is a timeless character.

Now, this is Fitzgerald, and that means he can lapse into sentimentality. I think what makes this book his best work technically is that he keeps tight rein over the sap. It is far more mature than This Side of Paradise and less amorphous than Tender is the Night. Saul Bellow considered Fitzgerald's writing 'weak', but at its best it strikes a young, idealistic chord that makes all the sap worthwhile. I've always felt that comes from Fitzgerald's successful courtship of Zelda.

I recommend this book, but it is one of those stories you know whether you read it or not - like Romeo and Juliet or King Author. If you like Fitzgerald, there are several newer writers that he has influenced. Hunter S. Thompson comes to mind, and I once heard Thomas Wolfe mentioned as a 'devotee'. John Keats was a big inspiration in Fitzgerald's writing, and that old humbug Bernard Shaw as well. Ultimately, I think the Great Gatsby is the best American novel to date, which bridges admirably the old English poets and the modern workaday world.

It's difficult to give any even-handed critique F. Scott Fitzgerald's standard-setting Jazz Age novel since it was required reading for most of us in high school. However, if you come back to it as a full-fledged adult, you'll find that the story still resonates but more like a just-polished cameo piece from a forgotten time. At the core of the book is the elaborate infatuation Jay Gatsby has for Daisy Fay Buchanan, a love story portrayed with both a languid pall and a fatalistic urgency. But the broader context of the setting and the irreconcilable nature of the American dream in the 1920's is what give the novel its true gravitas.

Much of this is eloquently articulated by Nick Carraway, Gatsby's modest Long Island neighbor who becomes his most trusted confidante. Nick is responsible for reuniting the lovers who both have come to different points in their lives five years after their aborted romance. Now a solitary figure in his luxurious mansion, Gatsby is a newly wealthy man who accumulated his fortunes through dubious means. Daisy, on the other hand, has always led a life of privilege and could not let love stand in the way of her comfortable existence. She married Tom Buchanan for that sole purpose. With Gatsby's ambition spurred by his love for Daisy, he rekindles his romance with Daisy, as Tom carries on carelessly with an auto mechanic's grasping wife. Nick himself gets caught up in the jet set trappings and has a relationship with Jordan Baker, a young golf pro.

These characters are inevitably led on a collision course that exposes the hypocrisy of the rich, the falsity of a love undeserving and the transience of individuals on this earth. The strength of Fitzgerald's treatment comes from the lyrical prose he provides to illuminate these themes. Not a word is wasted, and the author's economical handling of such a potentially complex plot is a technique I wish were more frequently replicated today. Most of all, I simply enjoy the book because it does not portend a greater significance eighty years later. It is a classic tale that provides vibrancy and texture to a bygone era. It is well worth re-reading, especially at such a bargain price.

Even though it is unfinished, this book is one of the most amazing peices of fiction I have ever read. No one captures themes of wealth, power, and lonliness the way that Fitzgerald does. I have read all of his novels and this one is righ up there with Gatsby. It is structured, it moves quickly and the characters are really written well. It is really too bad that he did not get a chance to finish this. However, just reading a few pages of Fitzgerald at his best is worth the anguish that you will go through when you come to the "end" of the book. If you like Fitzgerald I think you have to read this, just to see whats out there.

The following review of The Last Tycoon refers to the 1969 hardcover edition, published by Scribner's and edited by Edmund Wilson.

The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a work of fiction but its protagonist, the enigmatic Monroe Stahr bears more than a passing resemblance to real life Hollywood icon Irving Thalberg. Thalberg was an enormously influential producer who took Hollywood by storm only to die at the tender age of 37. Quite ironically, F. Scott Fitzgerald died suddenly at the age of 44 while writing The Last Tycoon. One can only speculate as to how powerful this novel might have been had Fitzgerald lived long enough to complete and further refine the already wonderfully compelling narrative.
We know from the very interesting notes written by the author and presented as a supplement to the text of this unfinished novel that Fitzgerald did not approach the creation of The Last Tycoon lightly. This was a labor undertaken with meticulous attention to plot and character development. Specific scenes were crafted to create just the right mood or get across to the reader just the right message. One would be hard pressed to name another book about the rough and tumble world of Hollywood that contains the degree of nuance found in The Last Tycoon.
One of the most remarkable aspects of this work is the empathy Fitzgerald shows toward his fictional creation, the larger than life producer Monroe Stahr. As a noted author who found himself laboring over movie scripts in an era when such work was considered demeaning for real artists, one would have expected Fitzgerald to display a more cynical, less complimentary view of the movie production overlords of the 1930s....most of whom were semiliterate at best. On the contrary, Stahr is presented as a complex, supremely capable and kind individual who, though lacking in formal education, knows his business inside and out.
The Last Tycoon is first and foremost about Monroe Stahr but the narration is provided by Cecelia Brady, a young woman who admires Stahr and is not so secretly in love with him. In the very first chapter, Fitzgerald has Cecelia say the following: "It's more than possible that some of the pictures Stahr himself conceived had shaped me into what I was." After reading that line, I had to wonder if Cecelia was speaking for just herself and Stahr or for all of us and Hollywood in general.
Though unfinished, The Last Tycoon is an important, thought provoking book. Highly recommended.