Dec 20, 2009

This Side of Paradise | Critical Overview

Although it took two years of revision before Fitzgerald finally obtained a publishing contract for his first novel, This Side of Paradise was an immediate critical and popular success. As the anonymous article, “With College Men” in the New York Times Book Review of May 9, 1920, read, “The glorious spirit of abounding youth glows throughout this fascinating tale,” and most reviews were similarly enthusiastic. Heywood Broun’s April 11, 1920, review in the New York Tribune found the novel little more than a “self-conscious . . . stunt,” but almost all...