F. Scott Fitzgerald

The inspiration for the major motion picture starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, plus eighteen other stories by the beloved author of The Great Gatsby In the title story of this collection by one of America’s greatest writers, a baby born in 1860 begins life as an old man and proceeds to age backward. F. Scott Fizgerald hinted at this kind of inversion when he called his era “a generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken.” Perhaps nowhere in American fiction has this “Lost Generation” been more vividly preserved than in Fitzgerald’s short fiction. Spanning the early twentieth-century American landscape, this original collection captures, with Fitzgerald’s signature blend of enchantment and disillusionment, America during the Jazz Age. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

May Day, Fitzgerald's first great novelette, mingles autobiographical details with events from contemporary history. In May 1919, after an interfraternity dance at Delmonico's, Fitzgerald was bounced out of the Fifty-ninth-Street Childs for a disturbance similar to the one created by Peter Himmel in the story. At the same time, the assault on the New York Trumpet by a mob of drunken soldiers parallels a raid on the socialist New York Call during the red scare of 1919. Like many of Fitzgerald's stories from Tales of the Jazz Age, May Day includes a "touch of disaster"--in this case the violent despair of down-and-out Yale man Gordon Sterrett--which is contrasted with the oblivious pursuit of pleasure by Gordon's double, his wealthy, man-about-town classmate, Philip Dean. May Day is a masterpiece from one of America's greatest writers. Newly designed and typeset in a modern 6-by-9-inch format by Waking Lion Press.

"He talked a lot about the past and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was . . ." The Great Gatsby (1925), F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, stands among the greatest of all American fiction. Jay Gatsby's lavish lifestyle in a mansion on Long Island's gold coast encapsulates the spirit, excitement, and violence of the era Fitzgerald named `the Jazz Age'. Impelled by his love for Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby seeks nothing less than to recapture the moment five years earlier when his best and brightest dreams - his `unutterable visions' - seemed to be incarnated in her kiss. A moving portrayal of the power of romantic imagination, as well as the pathos and courage entailed in the pusuit of an unattainable dream, The Great Gatsby is a classic fiction of hope and disillusion. This edition is fully annotated with a fine Introduction incorporating new interpretation and detailing Fitzgerald's struggle to write the novel, its critical reception and its significance for future generations. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), was a pivotal book in his career. A trenchant satire of the Jazz Age, it is very much a novel of its times. This edition is based on the surviving manuscript, the serialized version from Metropolitan magazine, the Scribners 1922 first American edition, and the Collins 1922 first British edition. The volume includes a detailed account of the composition of the novel, a textual apparatus, a chronology of composition, and, uniquely, three versions of the ending. Explanatory notes identify Fitzgerald's topical and historical references - to books and authors, Broadway shows and Manhattan cabarets, movie stars and sports heroes, statesmen and criminals, business tycoons and historical figures. These notes situate The Beautiful and Damned in its times and deepen the reader's understanding of Fitzgerald's sources for the novel.

Dick und Nicole Diver führen das Leben kultivierter Expatriates an der französischen Riviera. In ihrer Villa gehen Künstler und andere Exzentriker ein und aus. Darunter auch die hübsche Schauspielerin Rosemary. Jung und ehrgeizig, hat sie sich in den Kopf gesetzt, den Herrn des Hauses zu verführen. Allerdings weiß sie nicht, worauf sie sich dabei einläßt - welche Geheimnisse der Psychiater und seine zarte Frau verbergen.

Ihr Leben ist eine einzige Party, sie trinken und tanzen die Nächte durch. Gloria und Anthony sind ein Traumpaar - sie sind jung, schön, verschwenderisch... und verdammt. Bald schon müssen sie aus Geldnot New York verlassen. Unter dem weiten Himmel von Connecticut holt sie die Langeweile ein, und alles endet in einem fürchterlichen Kater. Gloria und Anthony - zwei Liebende, die "galant zur Hölle fahren".

New York 1922. Auf seinem Anwesen in Long Island gibt Jay Gatsby sagenhafte Feste. Er hofft, mit seinem neuerworbenen Reichtum, mit Swing und Champagner seine verlorene Liebe zurückzugewinnen. Zu spät merkt er, daß er sich von einer romantischen Illusion hat verführen lassen ...

Amory Blaine ist begabt und privilegiert. Von der Mutter hat er die Überzeugung, zu Höherem geboren zu sein. Er studiert in Princeton, und nach etlichen Flirts begegnet er Rosalind, seiner ersten großen Liebe. Als sie ihn für einen anderen verläßt, zerschellen Amorys jugendliche Ideale. Was bleibt, ist der Alkohol - aber trotz aller Trauer und Enttäuschung auch die Erkenntnis, daß das Leben, so pathetisch und lächerlich es oft scheint, doch lebenswert ist: nicht jenseits, sondern diesseits vom Paradies.

Er ist der letzte Hollywood-Produzent, der Mittelmaß und Klischees nicht duldet: Monroe Stahr verbringt Tag und Nacht in den Aufnahmestudios, Vorführräumen und Drehbuchschreiber-Büros, um die Arbeit an seinen Filmen zu überwachen. Als ein Gewitter nachts die Kulisse für eine Burma-Szene unter Wasser setzt, ist er sofort zur Stelle - und entdeckt dabei zwei Frauen, die sich unerlaubt auf das Gelände geschlichen haben. Eine davon ist Kathleen Moore - deren natürlicher Charme Monroe Stahr vom ersten Augenblick an in den Bann zieht.

Short Stories: The Timeless Collection features 20 well-loved and unabridged tales from the best-loved authors in the history of English literature, including the deliciously sardonic Saki and a brilliant semi-autobiographical tale by Charles Dickens, inspired by the railway. An array of well-known readers including Nigel Hawthorne, Martin Jarvis, Brian Cox, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. LISTINGS: The Windmill as I First Knew It by Alphonse Daudet, Boil Some Water Lots of It by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Disappearance of Crispina Umberleigh by Saki, Idle Thoughts on Babies by Jerome K. Jerome, The Schartz-Metterklume Method by Saki, A Photographer's Day Out by Lewis Carroll, Gentlemen and Players by E. W. Hornung, Mrs Amworth by E. F. Benson, Timber by John Galsworthy, Into the Sun by Robert Duncan Milne, No 1 Branch Line The Signalman by Charles Dickens, The Squaw by Bram Stoker, The Loathly Opposite by John Buchan, The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, The Mezzotint by M. R. James, Angela by W. S. Gilbert, The Barrister's Story by Sapper, Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet by O. Henry, Oh Whistle & I'll Come to You My Lad by M. R. James, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain.

'This story was inspired by a remark of Mark Twain's to the effect that it was a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end. By trying the experiment upon only one man in a perfectly normal world I have scarcely given his ideas a fair trial.' Fitzgerald's thought-provoking tale, 'THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON' is a fantastical satire about aging. It is the strange and haunting story of Benjamin Button who is born as an old man and ages backwards so that at the beginning of his life he is an old man and at the end of his life he is a baby.