This Side of Paradise

New edition of Fitzgerald's famous novel, one of the most popular modern classics. Beautiful cover illustration by Art Deco artist George Barbier. Lavishly produced edition printed on Arctic paper with flaps, and four black-and-white plates. Contains notes and an extensive apparatus on Fitzgerald's life and works. This Side of Paradise charts the life of Amory Blaine, an ambitious young man loosely based on Fitzgerald himself, as he moves from his well-heeled Midwest home to study at Princeton and then starts frequenting the circles of high society as an aspiring writer. Experiencing failure and frustration in love and in his career, Blaine finds his youthful enthusiasm gradually giving way to disillusionment, cynicism and a life of dissolution. A critical account of its own era, introducing many themes which would be developed in later works, Fitzgerald s first novel was an instant critical and commercial success, propelling him into the limelight as a literary celebrity. Ideal as a gift.