"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 . . . (more on: www.wisehouse-classics.com)