This Side of Paradise - Hardcover

This is Scott Fitzgerald's debut novel, written when he was twenty-four, appeared in 1920 and immediately established him as a leading literary figure in the brilliant and dangerous world of 1920s America. Its instant appeal could be compared to the success of The Catcher in the Rye thirty years later. The novel tells the story of a spoilt child in search of happiness. Pampered, wealthy, brilliant at school, Amory Blaine looks for the love of others but only finds himself. A short, sharp masterpiece with an intriguing religious undertow, this is also a touchingly autobiographical novel which reflects ominously on Fitzgerald's own future. With an Afterword by Ned Halley.

Among the "Lost Generation" of writers that came of age during the Roaring Twenties, the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) epitomized "The Jazz Age": a period of declining traditional values, prohibition and speakeasies, and great artistic leaps. Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise, was a financial success, but subsequent ones, including his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, sold poorly. In need of money, he turned to writing commercial short stories and Hollywood scripts, while his lifelong alcoholism destroyed his health and led to an early death. The 1945 reissue of The Great Gatsby spurred a wide resurgence of interest, and Fitzgerald is now considered one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century.