{"id":263,"date":"2005-08-13T20:50:57","date_gmt":"2005-08-13T20:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/?p=263"},"modified":"2010-05-08T20:51:22","modified_gmt":"2010-05-08T20:51:22","slug":"introducing-f-scott-fitzgerald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/introducing-f-scott-fitzgerald\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing F. Scott Fitzgerald"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m working hard on revising and expanding my 1998 book, <\/span>F. Scott Fitzgerald A to Z<\/span><\/a>, for Facts on File’s new series of Critical Companions.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was accepted to graduate school in 1989 and assigned an editorial assistantship with Matthew J. Bruccoli, the world’s leading Fitzgerald scholar, my first reaction, I must confess, was a bit of dismay.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t like<\/em> Fitzgerald . . . or so I thought.\u00a0 (A few years later I realized I must have had him mixed up with Hemingway in my memory.\u00a0 I have learned to appreciate Hemingway\u2019s literary genius . . . but I still don\u2019t particularly care for his material and not at all for the man himself.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the summer before my first year in grad school, I read all of Fitzgerald’s novels and a collection of his stories. I’m not sure at what point it dawned on me that I did<\/em> like Fitzgerald. But it didn’t take long to recognize the sheer brilliance of his writing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are a few of the things that attract me most about Fitzgerald\u2019s work:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014 his expertise as a social historian\u2014his ability to make you understand exactly what it was like in a particular time and place<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014 the warmth of his authorial voice (Despite\u00a0his usual classification as a modernist, Fitzgerald was at heart an old-fashioned storyteller.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014most of all, the beauty of his style, the rhythm of his sentences (In his later years, when he hit a writing roadblock, he would have his secretary read the King James Bible aloud to him for cadence.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, Fitzgerald’s personal life was problematic. Let’s just get that out of the way right now. Some of his characters are unpleasant and downright immoral. But he was a very moralistic author, constantly judging himself and his characters. Great material for thoughtful discussion with your older students or for your own literary education and enjoyment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mary Jo<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m working hard on revising and expanding my 1998 book, F. Scott Fitzgerald A to Z, for Facts on File’s new series of Critical Companions. When I was accepted to graduate school in 1989 and assigned an editorial assistantship with Matthew J. Bruccoli, the world’s leading Fitzgerald scholar, my first reaction, I must confess, was … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}