The American writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1890 – 1940) has made history thanks to his magnificent novels, such as The Great Gatsby, which have become the best portraits of the Roaring '20s before the Crash of '29 and the subsequent Great Depression.
Well, that wonderful and recognizable literary career had its starting point with the novel This Side of Paradise, the first published by the author in 1920. And As is often the case in many first books, in this one too one can sense notes that critics see as autobiographical traits of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The book stars a young Princeton University student who spends more time writing than in the classroom. His name is Amory Blayne and he has a very romantic view of the country and his life. In fact, the plot begins at a time before the First World War, when the protagonist is studying. However, he will be called up and there he will work as a bayonet instructor. When he ends the war, he settles in New York where he falls in love with a rich girl, who ends up leaving him and marrying another of his social class. A situation of depression that brings the most interesting reflections on love and society.
Everything in the story is dominated by an atmosphere that goes from illusion to disappointment, contrasting dream andreality, something that will be a constant in his books. Just as the confrontation between what is conventional and what is opulent and even bizarre is also present in the lifestyles of the richest classes. Somehow, the protagonist and the author himself show us how they are on a path to seek and form their own personality.
The publication of This Side of Paradise was an undeniable success on the literary scene in the United States. And that immediately catapulted him to fame, which was also helped by his marrying Zelda Sayre, a we althy southern heiress. With that situation he entered the world of parties and glamour. An environment of rich people, bankers, industrialists and also intellectuals. All this would be what would nourish many of his great novels. In which not only his description of these environments and these personalities shines, it is also very interesting to verify his critical point, since he does not ignore the enormous crisis of values that little by little settled among the we althiest, and how that crisis ethics ran wild in an economic meltdown.
