This Side of Paradise

I have spent the first week of the project reading This Side of Paradise, the debut novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was published in 1920 and it is remarkable to think of such a young man (he was born on 24 September 1896) writing such an impressive and successful novel.

Fitzgerald effectively dropped out of university in November 1917 to take up a commission as a second lieutenant in the infantry. He never got to serve in Europe but mentions in this largely autobiographical novel two men who did see active service and never returned: Kerry Holiday, who left university to enlist as a pilot in the Lafayette Escadrille in France, and Jesse Ferrenby. No doubt several of Fitzgerald’s friends were killed in the war. Some might well have become great writers!

The first mention of the war in this novel places the beginning of the conflict in the summer following the freshman year of the central character, Amory Blaine. It "failed to thrill or interest him", though "he hoped it would be long and bloody".






Later in the war, Amory was envious and admiring of his friend Kerry Holiday's decision to leave college and sail for France to join the international contingent of the French air force. He tells one of his mentors, Monsignor Thayer Darcy, that Kerry wanted him to join him in the adventure.Darcy advises him: "You wouldn't like to go... Well, you'd have to be very much more tired of life than I think you are." Amory admits "It just seemed an easy way out of everything — when I think of another useless, draggy year."

In the interlude chapter between Book One and Book Two, a letter from Darcy to Amory of January 1918 reflects on the impact the war is having on young men like Amory, who is stationed with the 171st Infantry at a port of embarkation. "This is the end of one thing: for better or worse you will never again be quite the Amory Blaine that I knew... your generation is growing hard, much harder than mine ever grew..." Perhaps this was the legacy of the war for young Americans: a hard resistance. In the concluding chapter, Amory argues passionately for the panacea of Socialism with a man who turns out to be the bereaved father of his friend, Jesse Ferrenby. "I'm restless. My whole generation is restless.... I'm in love with change."

Reading list

Great War Reading Project (chronological order)

Fiction by authors (born 1896-1900) from countries involved in the Great War

(i.e. those who turned 18 between July 1914 and November 1918).

Also memoirs of the war by literary figures (born 1896-1900)*

1896 (31 titles)

Fitzgerald, F. Scott, This Side of Paradise (1920)

O’Flaherty, Liam, The Informer (1925)

Bromfield, Louis, Early Autumn (1926)

Springs, Elliott White, Warbirds: the diary of an unknown aviator (1927)

Blunden, Edmund, Undertones of War * (1928)

Tey, Josephine, The Man in the Queue (1929)

Powell, Dawn, Dance Night (1930)

van Doderer, Heimito, The Secret of the Empire (1930)

Brinig, Myron, Wide Open Town (1931)

Gloag, John, Tomorrow’s Yesterday (1932)

Mills, George, Meredith and Co. (1933)

Miyazawa, Kenji, Night on the Milky Way Train (1934)

Mitchell, Janet, Tempest in Paradise (1935)

Plisnier, Charles, Nothing to Chance (1936)

Panfyorov, Fyodor, And then the Harvest (1937)

Savard, Felix-Antoine, Boss of the River (1937)

Kinnan Rawlings, Marjorie, The Yearling (1938)

Meghani, Jhaverchand, The Promised Hand (1938)

Postgate, Raymond, Verdict of Twelve (1940)

Zuckmayer, Carl, Second Wind * (1940)

Smith, Betty, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943)

Rogers, Joel Townsley, The Red Right Hand (1945)

Spitz, Jacques, The Eye of Purgatory (1945)

Castle, Marian, Deborah (1946)

Nolan Clark, Ann, Secret of the Andes (1952)

Brown, Slater, Spaceward Bound (1955)

Tomasi di Lampedusa, Giuseppe, The Leopard (1958)

Ackerley, J.R., We Think the World of You (1960)

Porteous, Sydney, Cattleman (1960)

Lindsay, Joan, Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967)

Gibbon, Monk, Inglorious Soldier * (1968)

1897 (55 titles)

Scanlon, Herbert, Recollections of a Soldier’s Life (1918)

Anthony, Joseph, The Gang (1921)

Walsh, James M., The Lost Valley (1921)

Price, Edith Ballinger, Garth, Able Seaman (1923)

Burke, Kenneth, The White Oxen (1924)

Collins, Dale, Ordeal (1924)

Wheen, Arthur, Two Masters (1924)

Teodoreanu, Ionel, One Moldavian Summer (1925)

Aragon, Louis, Nightwalker (1926)

Faulkner, William, Soldiers’ Pay (1926)

Bolitho, Hector, Solemn Boy (1927)

Gibberd, Kathleen, Vain Adventure (1927)

Kataev, Valentin, The Embezzlers (1927)

Bataille, Georges, Story of the Eye (1928)

Fisher, Rudolph, The Walls of Jericho (1928)

Ilf, Ilya (and Evgeny Petrov), The Twelve Chairs (1928)

Marienhof, Anatoly, Cynics (1928)

Pottle, Frederick, Stretchers* (1929)

Newman, Bernard, The Cavalry Went Through (1930)

Thomas, Adrienne, Katrin Becomes a Soldier (1930)

Alverdes, Paul, Reinhold at the Front (1931)

Hanley, James, Boy (1931)

Granberry, Edwin, A Trip to Czardis (1932)

Simpson, Helen de Guerry, Boomerang (1932)

Singh, Nanak, White Blood (1932)

Coates, Robert M., Yesterday’s Burdens (1933)

Mendes, Alfred, Pitch Lake (1934)

Yeates, Victor, Winged Victory (1934)

Birkett, Winifred, Earth’s Quality (1935)

Mc Coy, Horace, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1935)

Mitchison, Naomi, We Have Been Warned (1935)

Uno, Chiyo, Confessions of Love (1935)

Jones, Lewis, Cwmardy (1936)

Kandel, Aben, City for Conquest (1936)

Knight, Eric, Song on Your Bugles (1937)

Pap, Károly, Azarel (1937)

La Farge, Christopher, Each to the Other (1939)

Sperry, Armstrong, Call It Courage (1940)

Gallico, Paul, The Snow Goose (1941)

Goodrich, Marcus, Delilah (1941)

Lernet-Holenia, Alexander, Mars in Aries (1941)

Szathmári, Sándor, Voyage to Kazohinia (1941)

Blyton, Enid, The Land of Far-Beyond (1942)

O’Brien, Kate, The Last of Summer (1943)

Smith, Lillian, Strange Fruit (1944)

Barnard Eldershaw, M., Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1947)

Cooper, Lettice, Black Bethlehem (1947)

Wheatley, Dennis, The Second Seal (1950)

Osaragi, Jiro, The Journey (1952)

Simonaityte, Ieva, Buse and Her Sisters (1953)

Barr, Stringfellow, Purely Academic (1957)

Graves, Richard H., On Gallipoli: an epic of ANZAC (1958)

Wilder, Thornton, The Eighth Day (1967)

Cloete, Stuart, How Young They Died (1969)

Mellersh, Harold, Schoolboy into War * (1978)

1898 (43 titles)

Waugh, Alec, The Prisoners of Mainz * (1919)

Libedinsky, Yuri, A Week (1922)

Boyd, Thomas, Through the Wheat (1923)

Curlewis, Jean, Beach Beyond (1923)

Bove, Emmanuel, My Friends (1924)

Barfield, Owen, The Silver Trumpet (1925)

Kessel, Joseph, Belle de Jour (1928)

Remarque, Erich, All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)

Ferreira de Castro, Jose M., The Jungle (1930)

Harrison, Charles Yale, Generals Die in Bed (1930)

Dołęga-Mostowicz, Tadeusz, The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma (1932)

al Hakim, Tawfiq, Return of the Spirit (1933)

Lewis, C.S., The Pilgrim’s Regress (1933)

Brecht, Bertolt, Threepenny Novel (1934)

Heslop, Harold, Last Cage Down (1935)

Adamič, Louis, Cradle of Life (1936)

Holtby, Winifred, South Riding (1936)

Walschap, Gerard, The Man Who Meant Well (1936)

Bemelmans, Ludwig, My War with the United States* (1937)

Benét, Stephen Vincent, By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

Child, Philip, God’s Sparrows (1937)

Hoult, Norah, Coming from the Fair (1937)

Hatch, Richard W., The Fugitive (1938)

Edmunds, Murrell, Between the Devil (1939)

Mc Crone, Guy, Antimacassar City (1940)

Regler, Gustav, The Great Crusade (1940)

Rey, H.A., Curious George (1941)

Goffin, Robert, The White Brigade (1943)

Jones, Zenith, Siren in the Night (1943)

Lockridge, Richard, Death in the Mind (1945)

Popkin, Zelda, The Journey Home (1945)

Erdman, Loula Grace, The Years of the Locust (1946)

Bond, Mary Fanning Wickham, Device and Desire (1949)

Malaparte, Curzio, The Skin (1949)

Risse, Heinz, The Earthquake (1950)

Huchet Bishop, Claire, All Alone (1953)

Vialar, Paul, Five Soldiers (1954)

Hazaz, Haim, Gates of Bronze (1956)

Haylen, Leslie, A for Artemis (1960)

Cialente, Fausta, The Levantines (1961)

Ibuse, Masuji, Black Rain (1965)

Papashvily, George, Home, and Home Again* (1973)

1899 (42 titles)

Shute, Nevil, Stephen Morris (1923)

Cobb, Chester, Days of Disillusion (1926)

Bakunts, Aksel, The Dark Valley (1927)

Olesha, Yuri, Envy (1927)

Brophy, John, The Bitter End (1928)

Childers, James Saxon, Hilltop in the Rain (1928)

Bowen, Elizabeth, The Last September (1929)

Hemingway, Ernest, A Farewell to Arms (1929)

Eberhart, Mignon, While the Patient Slept (1930)

Burnett, W.R., Little Caesar (1931)

de Brunhoff, Jean, The Story of Babar (1931)

Kästner, Erich, Fabian (1931)

Knowles, Vernon, Eternity in an Hour (1932)

Latimer, Margery, Guardian Angel and Other Stories (1932)

Stong, Phil, State Fair (1932)

Freeman, H.W., Pond Hall’s Progress (1933)

Hunter, Norman, The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm (1933)

White, Antonia, Frost in May (1933)

Cobb, Humphrey, Paths of Glory (1935)

Fleming, Berry, Siesta (1935)

Guilloux, Louis, Bitter Victory (1935)

Kerr, James Lennox, Woman of Glenshiels (1935)

Bates, Ralph, The Olive Field (1936)

Forester, C.S., The General (1936)

Leonov, Leonid, Skutarevsky (1936)

Kawabata, Yasunari, Snow Country (1937)

Marshall, Bruce, Luckypenny (1937)

Atkinson, M.E., The Compass Points North (1938)

Seredy, Kate, The Singing Tree (1939)

Sheean, Vincent, Bird of the Wilderness (1941)

Travers, P.L., I Go by Sea, I Go by Land (1941)

Lewis, Janet, Against a Darkening Sky (1942)

Caudill, Rebecca, Barrie and Daughter (1943)

Haycox, Ernest, Bugles in the Afternoon (1943)

White, E.B., Stuart Little (1945)

Langgässer, Elisabeth, The Quest (1950)

Gijsen, Marnix, Lament for Agnes (1951)

Ghose, Sudhin N., The Flame of the Forest (1955)

Nabokov, Vladimir, Lolita (1955)

Farrell, Michael, Thy Tears Might Cease (1963)

Ferguson, Ruby, Children at the Shop (1967)

Linklater, Eric, Fanfare for a Tin Hat * (1970)

1900 (40 titles)

Mitchell, Margaret, Lost Laysen (1916)

Chamson, André, Roux the Bandit (1925)

Ostenso, Martha, Wild Geese (1925)

Pollard, James, The Bushland Man (1926)

Desnos, Robert, Liberty or Love! (1927)

Dahlberg, Edward, Bottom Dogs (1929)

Wolfe, Thomas, Look Homeward, Angel (1929)

Márai, Sándor, The Rebels (1930)

Kesten, Hermann, Happy Man (1931)

Hinkson, Pamela, The Ladies’ Road (1932)

Mannin, Ethel, Love’s Winnowing (1932)

Nezval, Vitezslav, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1932)

Hilton, James, Lost Horizon (1933)

Baume, Eric, Burnt Sugar (1934)

Silone, Ignazio, Bread and Wine (1935)

Ardizzone, Edward, Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain (1936)

d’Alton, Louis, Death Is So Fair (1936)

Ó Faoláin, Seán, Bird Alone (1936)

Garnett, Eve, The Family from One End Street (1937)

Lindsay, Jack, The Blood Vote (1937)

Caldwell, Taylor, Dynasty of Death (1938)

Le Sueur, Meridel, The Girl (1939)

Holling, Holling C., Paddle-to-the-Sea (1941)

Heming, J.W., Time Marches Off (1942)

Rabon, Israel, The Street (1928)

de Saint-Exupéry, Antoine, The Little Prince (1943)

Seghers, Anna, The Excursion of the Dead Girls (1943)

Stern, Philip van Doren, The Greatest Gift (1943)

Goudge, Elizabeth, The Little White Horse (1946)

Weiskopf, F. C., Twilight on the Danube (1946)

Beck, Warren, The First Fish: and other stories (1947)

Chauncy, Nancen, They Found a Cave (1947)

Hobson, Laura Z., Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)

Sarraute, Nathalie, Portrait of a Man Unknown (1947)

Greener, Leslie, Moon Ahead (1951)

Shaw, Charles, Heaven Knows, Mr Allison (1952)

Apitz, Bruno, Naked among Wolves (1958)

Hughes, Richard, The Fox in the Attic (1961)

Green, Julien, The War at Sixteen *(1964)

Collis, John Stewart, Bound upon a Course * (1971)

Viganò, Renata, Partisan Wedding (1976)