HAPPY BIRTHDAY – F. Scott Fitzgerald, born 24 September 1896
“Draw your chair up close to the edge of the precipice, and I’ll tell you a story.”
F Scott Fitzgerald, 1921
Is The Great Gatsby the great American novel? Perhaps not the very greatest, but it is definitely up there in the top two or three. It is an immensely powerful novel, with its complex narration. Do we ever ‘get’ Gatsby, or are we seeing Nick’s Gatsby, Daisy’s Gatsby or a man who has tried to re-make himself?
F. Scott Fitzgerald lived the high life and earned a fortune, but he squandered it all and his marriage with the wild and crazy Zelda collapsed. I find his life story a fascinating one, and feel, like Hemingway, that Fitzgerald “prostituted” his talent with much of what he wrote. But he left us with The Great Gatsby which is no mean legacy to leave behind. One of the houses that he and Zelda lived in, in Montgomery, Alabama, is now an excellent museum – well worth a visit.
F. Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack at age 44.
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Brief Encounters: Literary Travellers in Australia 1836-1939 by Susannah Fullerton
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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