Reading the Classics #48: F. Scott Fitzgerald
You know, I’ve been meaning to do F. Scott Fitzgerald for a while now. I try to balance out the more famous authors and the ones that aren’t as well known, so that kinda pushed him back to here. Anyway, I’m sure a lot of you know who he was. Full name Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, he was born 1896, died in 1940, and was one of the most popular American authors of the 1920s and 30s. He wrote 4 novels and a 5th was published posthumously, but the most famous of them is The Great Gatsby. Does that name sound familiar? It should. It’s become one of the most famous novels of American Literature. Turns out that The Great Gatsby is the only novel of his that I’ve read, so let’s get to it.
1. The Great Gatsby
For those of you who don’t know the story, The Great Gatsby takes place in 1920s America, in the height of the Roaring Twenties. Jay Gatsby is a millionaire living on Long Island, hosting lavish parties for guests and overall enjoying life as best as he can. Nick Carraway is a young man from the Midwest who moves to Long Island to make a living. Tom Buchanan is an adulterer who see no problem in his sins, but cannot stand to see the sins of others. Daisy Buchanan is married to Tom, but she also sees attractive qualities in Jay Gatsby. Put all these characters together, and the result is a story that is both horrifying and realistic. Fitzgerald’s idea in this novel was to portray the darker side of the American dream, the gluttony and greed of it, and he did a good job of it. When I first read the book I didn’t catch on to that, but thinking it over now, I see the theme throughout the story. This book is an essential read for anyone wanting to study American Literature, or just Literature in general.
I would like to read more of F. Scott Fitzgerald at some point. His other novels are Tender is the Night, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, and The Last Tycoon. There isn’t a particular one that I’m interested in, just whatever I can find. I hope you found this post to be interesting. Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you next time!
1630-1651- Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford
1819- Rip van Winkle by Washington Irving
1820- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
1839- The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
1842- The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
1842-1843- The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe
1843- The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
1844-1845- The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe
1845- The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
1849- Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
1878- Daisy Miller by Henry James
1880- Washington Square by Henry James
1881-The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
1886- The Bostonians by Henry James
1888- The Aspern Papers by Henry James
1898- The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
1903- The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James
1908- The Jolly Corner by Henry James
1920- Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
1922- Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
1925- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1926- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
1927- Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway
1929- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft
1930- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
1935- It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
1936- Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft
1940- For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
1941- The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft
1950- Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
1952- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
1955- A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
1957- The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
1960- The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O’Connor
