Paru en 1925, "Gatsby le Magnifique" est le chef-d'oeuvre de l'écrivain américain F. Scott Fitzgerald.Au début des années 1920, dans une débauche de luxe, d'alcool et d'argent, un mystérieux personnage s'installe à Long Island dans un domaine incroyable d'extravagance. Qui est ce charmant et légendaire Gatsby, incarnation du pouvoir et de la réussite, dont les fêtes attirent toute la société locale? Les rumeurs les plus folles circulent. Un espion? Un gentleman anglais? Un héros de guerre? Un mythomane? Une vérité plus profonde se cache derrière l'orgueil et la magnificence de Gatsby, celle d'un ancien adolescent pauvre et d'un amant trahi qui ressemble beaucoup à Fitzgerald lui-même. Le vingtième siècle ne fait que commencer mais la fête semble déjà finie... "Gatsby le Magnifique" figure à la deuxième place dans la liste des cent meilleurs romans de langue anglaise du XXe siècle établie par la Modern Library en 1998.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s second novel, which brilliantly satirizes a doomed and glamorous marriage, anticipated the master stroke—The Great Gatsby—that would follow, and marks a key moment in the writer’s career. Would-be Jazz Age aristocrats Anthony and Gloria Patch embody the corrupt high society of 1920s New York: they are beautiful, shallow, pleasure-seeking, and vain. As presumptive heirs to a large fortune, they begin their married life by living well beyond their means. Their days are marked by endless drinking, dancing, luxury, and play. But when the expected inheritance is withheld, their lives become consumed with the pursuit of wealth, and their alliance begins to fall apart. Inspired in part by Fitzgerald’s own tumultuous union with his wife Zelda, hauntingly rendered and keenly observed, these characters evoke a vivid portrait of a lost world: a city steeped in vice, a society without direction, and the rootless and decadent generation that inhabited it.

The Great Gatsby by  F. Scott Fitzgerald. His third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s. The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of twentieth-century literature.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and short-story writer. During his lifetime, he published four novels, four collections of short stories, and 164 short stories. Although he temporarily achieved popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald only received wide critical and popular acclaim after his death. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald was born in Minnesota, but was primarily raised in New York. He attended Princeton University, but due to a failed relationship and a preoccupation with writing, he dropped out in 1917 to join the army. In the 1920s, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he was influenced by the modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, particularly Ernest Hemingway. His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him into the New York City elite. To maintain his lifestyle during this time, he also wrote several stories for magazines. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), was inspired by his rise to fame and relationship with his wife Zelda. Although it received mixed reviews, The Great Gatsby is now widely praised, with some even labeling it the "Great American Novel". While Zelda was placed at a mental institute for her schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934). Faced with financial difficulties due to the declining popularity of his works, Fitzgerald turned to Hollywood, writing and revising screenplays. After a long struggle with alcoholism, he died in 1940, at the age of 44. A fifth, unfinished novel.

This Side of Paradise is the debut novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1920. The book examines the lives and morality of post–World War I youth. Its protagonist Amory Blaine is an attractive student at Princeton University who dabbles in literature. The novel explores the theme of love warped by greed and status seeking, and takes its title from a line of Rupert Brooke"s poem Tiare Tahiti. The novel famously helped F. Scott Fitzgerald gain Zelda Sayre"s hand in marriage; its publication was her condition of acceptance. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American essayist, novelist, screenwriter, and short-story writer, although he was best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term which he coined. Although he temporarily achieved popular success and fortune, Fitzgerald did not receive much critical acclaim until after his death. He published four novels, four collections of short stories, as well as 164 short stories in magazines during his lifetime. Fitzgerald is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.

"If I wanted anything, I"d take it... I can"t be bothered resisting things I want." ~ The Beautiful and Damned. Fans of The Great Gatsby author are in for a treat! Included in this bundle: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. THIS SIDE OF PARADISE First published in 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s debut novel was a sizzling sensation that put the young American author on the map. Its initial printing of 3,000 copies sold out in three days. Virtually a record of the ‘Lost Generation’ in its college days, the novel explores Fitzgerald’s characteristic theme of true love blighted by money lust and is remarkable for its honest and detailed descriptions of the early Jazz Age. THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED First published in 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald"s second novel portrays the Eastern elite during the Jazz Age, exploring New York Café Society. The story is believed to be largely based on Fitzgerald"s stormy relationship with Zelda Fitzgerald. This is the tale of young couple Anthony and Gloria Patch living out their days to the hilt in New York City as they await the death of Anthony"s grandfather, Adam Patch from whom they expect to inherit his massive fortune. They drink and eat in the classiest restaurants and hotels, rent the most expensive apartments, travel out to the West in the spring time driving plush cars, wearing top-of-the-line clothing and just generally living it up high on the hog, as they wait. But as time goes on their lust for life and their similarities threaten to destroy their innocence and their relationship. THE DIAMOND AS BIG AS THE RITZ First published in the June 1922 issue of The Smart Set magazine, The Diamond as Big as The Ritz is one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s under-rated masterpieces. The story was initially rejected by publishers because of its not-so-subtle satirical messages about American capitalism. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON The classic short story was first published in Colliers Magazine on May 27, 1922. It was subsequently anthologized in Fitzgerald"s book Tales of the Jazz Age. This is the original version of the story used for the 2008 film starring Brad Pitt.

THE GREAT GATSBY is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession for the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald"s magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream. Fitzgerald-inspired by the parties he had attended while visiting Long Island"s north shore-began planning the novel in 1923, desiring to produce, in his words, "something new-something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." Progress was slow, with Fitzgerald completing his first draft following a move to the French Riviera in 1924. His editor, Maxwell Perkins, felt the book was vague and persuaded the author to revise over the next winter. Fitzgerald was repeatedly ambivalent about the book"s title and he considered a variety of alternatives, including titles that referenced the Roman character Trimalchio; the title he was last documented to have desired was Under the Red, White, and Blue. In its first year, the book sold only 20,000 copies. Fitzgerald died in 1940, believing himself to be a failure and his work forgotten. However, the novel experienced a revival during World War II, and became a part of American high school curricula and numerous stage and film adaptations in the following decades. Today, The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary classic and a contender for the title "Great American Novel". In 1998, the Modern Library editorial board voted it the 20th century"s best American novel and second best English-language novel of the same time period.

First published in 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald"s second novel The Beautiful and Damned portrays the Eastern elite during the Jazz Age, exploring New York Café Society. The story is believed to be largely based on Fitzgerald"s stormy relationship with Zelda Fitzgerald. This is the tale of young couple Anthony and Gloria Patch living out their days to the hilt in New York City as they await the death of Anthony"s grandfather, Adam Patch from whom they expect to inherit his massive fortune. They drink and eat in the classiest restaurants and hotels, rent the most expensive apartments, travel out to the West in the spring time driving plush cars, wearing top-of-the-line clothing and just generally living it up high on the hog, as they wait. But as time goes on their lust for life and their similarities threaten to destroy their innocence and their relationship. A fierce parable about the illusory quality of dreams, the intractable nature of reality, and the ruin wrought by time, The Beautiful and Damned eerily anticipates the dissipation and decline that would come to the Fitzgeralds themselves before the decade had run its course.

"It bears the impress, it seems to me, of genius. It is the only adequate study that we have had of the contemporary American in adolescence and young manhood." -Burton Rascoe of the Chicago Tribune THIS SIDE OF PARADISE is the debut novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Published in 1920, and taking its title from a line of the Rupert Brooke poem Tiare Tahiti, the book examines the lives and morality of post-World War I youth. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive Princeton University student who dabbles in literature. The novel explores the theme of love warped by greed and status seeking. The novel centers on Amory Blaine, a young Midwesterner who, convinced that he has an exceptionally promising future, attends boarding school and later Princeton University. He leaves behind his eccentric mother Beatrice and befriends a close friend of hers, Monsignor Darcy. While at Princeton he goes back to Minneapolis where he re-encounters Isabelle Borgé, a young lady whom he met as a little boy, and starts a romantic relationship with her at Princeton he repeatedly writes ever more flowery poems but they become disenchanted with each after meeting again at his prom . . .

Amory Blaine inherited from his mother every trait, except the stray inexpressible few, that made him worth while. His father, an ineffectual, inarticulate man with a taste for Byron and a habit of drowsing over the Encyclopedia Britannica, grew wealthy at thirty through the death of two elder brothers, successful Chicago brokers, and in the first flush of feeling that the world was his, went to Bar Harbor and met Beatrice O"Hara. In consequence, Stephen Blaine handed down to posterity his height of just under six feet and his tendency to waver at crucial moments, these two abstractions appearing in his son Amory. For many years he hovered in the background of his family"s life, an unassertive figure with a face half-obliterated by lifeless, silky hair, continually occupied in “taking care” of his wife, continually harassed by the idea that he didn"t and couldn"t understand her. But Beatrice Blaine! There was a woman! Early pictures taken on her father"s estate at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, or in Rome at the Sacred Heart Convent—an educational extravagance that in her youth was only for the daughters of the exceptionally wealthy—showed the exquisite delicacy of her features, the consummate art and simplicity of her clothes. A brilliant education she had—her youth passed in renaissance glory, she was versed in the latest gossip of the Older Roman Families; known by name as a fabulously wealthy American girl to Cardinal Vitori and Queen Margherita and more subtle celebrities that one must have had some culture even to have heard of. She learned in England to prefer whiskey and soda to wine, and her small talk was broadened in two senses during a winter in Vienna. All in all Beatrice O"Hara absorbed the sort of education that will be quite impossible ever again; a tutelage measured by the number of things and people one could be contemptuous of and charming about; a culture rich in all arts and traditions, barren of all ideas, in the last of those days when the great gardener clipped the inferior roses to produce one perfect bud. In her less important moments she returned to America, met Stephen Blaine and married him—this almost entirely because she was a little bit weary, a little bit sad. Her only child was carried through a tiresome season and brought into the world on a spring day in ninety-six.

First published in 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s debut novel This Side of Paradise was a sizzling sensation that put the young American author on the map. This heart-rending romance is about a brilliant Princeton University student full of potential whose life is thrown into turmoil by desire. While in school he goes back to Minneapolis where he re-encounters a young lady whom he met as a little boy, and starts a romantic relationship. The book"s initial printing of 3,000 copies sold out in three days. Virtually a record of the ‘Lost Generation’ in its college days, This Side of Paradise is a devastating treatment of Fitzgerald’s characteristic theme of true love blighted by money and lust.