This Side of Paradise
First published 1920 · English · 160 pages
- Novels
- War
- Love and romance
Fitzgerald's first novel follows Amory Blaine, a charming, self-regarding young man from the Midwest, through boyhood, a prep school, Princeton and the years just after the First World War. Along the way he falls in and out of love, chases status and reads widely, trying to work out who he is.
The book's frank picture of young people, their romances and their restlessness caught the mood of a new generation and made the author famous almost overnight. It is loosely autobiographical and mixes narrative with verse and playlike scenes.
Quotes
I'm a slave to my emotions, to my likes, to my hatred of boredom, to most of my desires.
The idea, you know, is that the sentimental person thinks things will last — the romantic person has a desperate confidence that they won't.
and pride; a new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success;
Faint winds, and far away a fading laughter... And the rain and over the fields a voice calling...