This Side of Paradise (with Audio & Text)

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Mar 2022 · CLASSICS OF THE WESTERN WORLD Book 21 · East West Studio

About this ebook

This Side of Paradise is the debut novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was published in 1920. 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. The novel explores the theme of love warped by greed and status seeking. The novel famously helped F. Scott Fitzgerald gain Zelda Sayre's hand in marriage due to its success.

This Side of Paradise blends different styles of writing: it is, at times, a fictional narrative, at times free verse, and at times a narrative drama, interspersed with letters and poems from Amory. In fact, the novel's odd blend of styles was the result of Fitzgerald's cobbling his earlier attempt at a novel, "The Romantic Egotist", together with assorted short stories and poems that he had composed but never published. The occasional switch from third person to second person gives the hint that the story is semi-autobiographical.