This Side of Paradise

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. Fitzgerald's debut novel, first published in 1920, describes life at Princeton among the glittering, bored, and disillusioned, and was an overnight success "Discovering that priests were infinitely more attentive when she was in process of losing or regaining faith in Mother Church, she maintained an enchantingly wavering attitude." Charting the life of Amory Blaine, an ambitious young man loosely based on Fitzgerald himself, this novels follow him 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.