The Crack Up With Other Pieces And Stories

Compiled and published after Fitzgerald's death by his friend, the prominent critic and editor Edmund Wilson, The Crack-Up is a collection of writings that chronicle the author's state of mind and personal perspective on events, fellow writers and public figures of the 1920s and 1930s. In addition to articles and essays such as the celebrated title piece, this volume includes a selection of Fitzgerald's notebooks, which - as well as being a repository of anecdotes and witty lines - provide a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into the novelist's creative process, with passages that would be reworked into his fiction.An entertaining and eclectic miscellany that sheds light on the author and his times, The Crack-Up is an invaluable companion to such well-known works as The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night.

The Great Gatsby, set in the town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922, concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession for the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. The novel explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream. The Beautiful and Damned tells the story of Anthony Patch, a 1910s socialite and presumptive heir to a tycoon's fortune, and his courtship and relationship with his wife Gloria Gilbert. It describes his brief service in the Army during World War I, and the couple's post-war partying life in New York, and his later alcoholism. The novel explores and portrays New York café society and the American Eastern elite during the Jazz Age before and after "the Great War" and in the early 1920s.

From his first novel, This Side of Paradise, which brought him a blaze of youthful fame, to his last, unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon, F. Scott Fitzgerald's appeal as one of America's most quintessential artists has continued to maintain its hold on twenty-first century readers. In this reader-friendly study of Fitzgerald's major fiction, Michael K. Glenday: - Offers new readings of the author's canonical works, including The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night - Draws on the very latest research in his reassessment of the ideas and significance of Fitzgerald's major novels - Explores the core themes of the novels, as well as their considerable contribution to the spirit and complexity of modern-day American culture Assuming no prior knowledge, this book is ideal for those seeking a lively, informed introduction to Fitzgerald's fiction, as well as those looking for fresh and original insights into his extraordinary work.