Bright Young Things discussion

I'm quite surprised that a topic about him doesn't already exist... surely I'm not the only one who finds his work devastatingly beautiful?

I really liked The Great Gatsby - even when I had to read it in school. Now I am reading Tales of the Jazz Age. Also have recently picked up most of the other books but haven't read them yet.

He does have one of my favorite quotes "It is always 3:00 in the morning in the dark night of the soul" (I think that's correct, although I frequently get one or two words wrong).

When I lived in Baltimore, I would frequently pick my mother up from work and had to drive through Malvern Hill and always wondered if I was driving by the house he had lived in.

Jan C wrotere Fitzgerald: "When I lived in Baltimore, I would frequently pick my mother up from work and had to drive through Malvern Hill and always wondered if I was driving by the house he had lived in. ..."

I'm not much for literary pilgrimages, but when I was putting together a walking tour of 50's expatriate Paris I took a good look at the apartment he lived in near St Sulpice. Left as warm a little spot as Zane Grey's cabin that burned down.

Today I just purchased a collection of Fitzgerald works which includes all of his novels and certain selected stories. Needless to say, I am quite excited

Has anyone here read his short story "The Cut-Glass Bowl"? It stuns me every time I read it. He truly had a gift.

I haven't read 'Cut-Glass Bowl', no. But my favourite of his short stories has to be a tie between 'Benjamin Button' and 'Offshore Pirate', which Fitzgerald himself considered to be his greatest masterpiece.

I LOVED Fitzgerald's novel, Tender Is The Night. It's been many years since I read it. I think I will read it again to see if I still feel the same way about it. It's shocking to realize it has been close to 30 years since I read it!

I recently re-read The Great Gatsby and fell in love with it all over again - actually enjoyed more the second time around.

I re-read it every couple of years. At least so far, I've never stopped enjoying it.

It's wonderful. About time I read it again.

I also really enjoyed Tender Is the Night too.

I just watched a very enjoyable and informative documentary on F. Scott Fitzgerald called "Sincerely, F Scott Fitzgerald: A Culture Show Special".

Jay McInerney traces the author’s whole life, mainly via his letters. They’re often disturbing, but are just as revealing as the novels in which Fitzgerald generally hid in plain sight. He bemoaned his lost youth. He pondered alcoholism and lost potency. He worried about money. And he clearly struggled with parenthood, penning alternately harsh (‘your company depresses me’) and charming letters to his daughter. This is, eventually, a fascinating portrait of one of twentieth-century literature’s true enigmas.

It's still on the iPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...

I really recommend it.

Absolutely in love with Fitzgerald. My favourite has to be Tender is the Night, closely followed by Gatsby. I'm currently reading This Side of Paradise and thoroughly enjoying it. I loved The beautiful and Damned but it could have been better with some editing.

Sioned wrote: "I loved The beautiful and Damned but it could have been better with some editing. ."

Thanks Sioned.

You may be interested in our recent discussion about The Beautiful and Damned....

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

You also might be interested in the story of Max Perkins, Fitzgerald's editor. He had many other high-profile authors, too. Some people just won't be "edited".

Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg.

Thanks! I shall check it out now :)

I was interested to see this topic today on the Goodreads blog about the 20 books Fitzgerald considered essential reading:

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/5...

Some titles are quite obscure. I've read 10 of them (well, 9 and a half, since I've read all of Keats but not much Shelley!) , but that is only because he included 3 Proust books which I've just read. Interesting that Proust was such an important influence on him.

I've read one, maybe two (depending on what all are the Wilde plays, I've read three of his). That's awful. I need to do better!

I've read four but have started two other - maybe I should only count that as one since one of them was War and Peace and goodness only knows when I will pick that up again.

Of those "essential" books I've managed two, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, and War and Peace. I won't be rushing to read too many more - good though they doubtless are for those with the time and the inclination.

Me four and a bit! Tried Proust some years ago. Gave up!

We haven't covered Fitzgerald here because this group is for lit from 1800 to 1910. But there are several groups out there that would cover him, Between the Wars being one.

Rochelle wrote: "We haven't covered Fitzgerald here because this group is for lit from 1800 to 1910. But there are several groups out there that would cover him, Between the Wars being one."

You seem to have got a bit confused Rochelle. This group is Bright Young Things and discusses writing from, and about, the early 20th Century, specifically the years from 1900 to 1945. So it's the perfect place to discuss F. Scott Fitzgerald, as we have done many times....

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Oops, wrong forum. Bye.

What an interesting list. Idiosyncratic. Several fit my idea of Fitzgerald's interests, some are surprises, like The Maltese Falcon. I've read 14 of these and would never have put them all together on one list.