F. Scott Fitzgerald – Page 2 – Interesting Literature

10 of the Best F. Scott Fitzgerald Novels and Stories Everyone Should Read

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) is one of the most important writers in American literature. He has been credited with writing the ‘great American novel’ and his stories and novels have come to epitomise the Jazz Age: the age of cocktails, parties, and excess in 1920s America.

But there’s much more to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work than this, as his five novels and numerous short stories attest. What are the best Fitzgerald stories and books, though? Below, we introduce ten of his finest …

A Summary and Analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Lost Decade’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Lost Decade’ is one of the shortest works by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), the American author best-known for The Great Gatsby. Published in Esquire magazine in December 1939, just one year before Fitzgerald died, ‘The Lost Decade’ is one of his most powerful short stories to deal with the effects of drink and the way it leads people to forget their surroundings and to lose touch with their everyday life.

Five Fascinating Facts about The Great Gatsby

Fun facts about The Great Gatsby and its author, F. Scott Fitzgerald

1. The Great Gatsby sold no more than 25,000 copies in Fitzgerald’s lifetime. It has now sold over 25 million copies. Fitzgerald’s third novel, The Great Gatsby was first published in 1925. It is narrated by Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate and WWI veteran who goes to live on Long Island, next door to Jay Gatsby, a rich tycoon known for throwing parties. The novel’s evocation of 1920s America and its critique of the American Dream has helped to ensure its place among the great American novels, but it was outsold at the time by This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald’s first novel, published in 1920.

Five Fascinating Facts about Ernest Hemingway

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

1. As a young boy, Ernest Hemingway was dressed in girls’ clothing by his mother and referred to as ‘Ernestine’.

We begin this selection of great Ernest Hemingway facts with a rather revealing nugget about his childhood: Hemingway’s mother had been hoping for a girl.

Literature and Martinis

The great American wit and man of letters, H. L. Mencken, memorably described the martini as ‘the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet’. If the sonnet was the pinnacle of European cultural achievement, then the martini was the transatlantic equivalent. This is by no means the only literary link this iconic American drink can boast. Why is the martini such a popular and esteemed cocktail?