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.
Background
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While at Princeton, Fitzgerald had written an unpublished novel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.
Publication
This Side of Paradise was published on
March 26,
1920 with a first
printing of 3,000 copies. The initial printing sold out in three
days, confirming his prediction of overnight fame. On March 30,
four days after publication and one day after selling out the first
printing, Scott wired for Zelda to come to New York and get married
that weekend. Barely a week after publication, Zelda and Scott
married in New York on
April 3,
1920.
The book went through 12 printings in 1920 and 1921, for a total of
49,075 copies. The novel itself did not provide a huge income for
Fitzgerald. Copies sold for $1.75 for which he earned 10 percent on
the first 5,000 copies and 15 percent beyond that. In total, in
1920 he earned $6,200 from the book. Its success, however, helped
the now-famous Fitzgerald earn much higher rates for his short
stories.
Plot summary
This book is written in three parts.
"Book One:
The Romantic Egotist"—the novel centers on Amory Blaine, a young
Midwesterner who, convinced that he has an exceptionally promising
future, attends boarding school and later Princeton
University. He leaves behind in the Midwest his
eccentric mother Beatrice and a priest who was a close family
friend, Monsignor Darcy. At Princeton he falls in love with
Isabelle Borgé, and despite his efforts to court her, he is
rejected.
"Interlude"—Following their break-up, Amory is shipped overseas, to
serve in the army in
World War I.
Fitzgerald had been in the army himself, but the war ended while he
was still stationed on Long Island. Amory's experiences in the war
are not described, other than to say later in the book that he was
a bayonet instructor.
"Book Two: The Education of a Personage"—After the war, Amory
Blaine falls in love with a New York debutante named Rosalind
Connage. Because he is poor, however, this relationship collapses
as well; Rosalind decides to marry a wealthy man instead. A
devastated Amory, is further crushed to learn that his mentor
Monsignor Darcy has died. The book ends with Amory's iconic lament
"I know myself, but that is all-"
Characters
Most of the characters are drawn directly from Fitzgerald's own
life:
- Amory Blaine—the protagonist of the book, is clearly based on
Fitzgerald. Both are from the Midwest, attended Princeton, had a
failed romance with a debutante, served in the army, then had a
failed romance with a second debutante (though after This Side
of Paradise's success, Scott won back Zelda).
- Beatrice Blaine—Blaine's mother was actually based on the
mother of one of Fitzgeralds' friends, rather than his own.
- Isabelle Borgé—Amory Blaine's first love is based on Scott's
first love, the Chicago debutante Ginevra
King.
- Monsignor Darcy—Blaine's spiritual mentor is
based on a Monsignor Fay whom Fitzgerald was close to from Minneapolis
.
- Rosalind Connage—Amory Blaine's second love is based on Scott's
second love, Zelda Sayre. Unlike Zelda,
Rosalind was from New York. Rosalind is also partially based on the
character Beatrice Normandy in H.G.
Wells' novel Tono-Bungay.
- Thomas Parke
D'Invilliers—one of Blaine's close friends (also the fictitious
author of the poem at the start of The Great Gatsby) was based on
Fitzgerald's friend and classmate, the poet John Peale Bishop.
Style
This Side of Paradise blends different styles of writing:
at times a fictional narrative, at times free verse, sometimes
narrative drama, interspersed with letters and poems from Amory. In
fact the novel's odd blend of styles was the result of Fitzgerald
cobbling his earlier attempt at a novel
The Romantic
Egotist together with assorted short stories and poems that he
composed, but never published.
Critical reception
The book's critical success was driven in part by the enthusiasm of
reviewers.
Burton Rascoe of the
Chicago Tribune wrote that
"it bears the impress, it seems to me, of genius. It is the only
adequate study that we have had of the contemporary American in
adolescence and young manhood."
H.
L. Mencken wrote that
This Side of
Paradise was the "best American novel that I have seen of
late."
One reader who was not entirely pleased, however, was
John Grier Hibben, the President of
Princeton University: "I cannot bear to think that our young men
are merely living four years in a country club and spending their
lives wholly in a spirit of calculation and snobbishness."
Notes
References
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