View source for This Side of Paradise

{{short description|1920 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald}}
{{other uses}}
{{use American English|date=December 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = This Side of Paradise
| image         = This Side of Paradise Cover 1920 Retouched.jpg
| alt           = Cover of Fitzgerald's 1920 novel, This Side of Paradise, by illustrator W. E. Hill. The cover's title text is in white font, and the background is dark yellow. The cover depicts a haughty young woman wearing a white dress and holding a hand fan with large white feathers. Behind her, a dashing young man in a dark suit, white shirt, and black bow tie is leaning forward as if to whisper in her ear.
| caption       = Dust jacket cover of the first edition
| author        = [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]
| cover_artist  = [[William Ely Hill|W. E. Hill]]
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| genre         = [[Bildungsroman]]
| publisher     = [[Charles Scribner's Sons]]
| published     = March 26, 1920
| media_type    = Print ([[hardcover]] & [[paperback]])
| followed_by   = [[The Beautiful and Damned]] ''(1922)''
| wikisource    = This Side of Paradise
}}

'''''This Side of Paradise''''' is the 1920 [[debut novel]] by American writer [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]. It examines the lives and morality of carefree American youth at the dawn of the [[Jazz Age]]. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is a handsome middle-class student at [[Princeton University]] who dabbles in literature and engages in a series of unfulfilling romances with young women.<!-- Do not replace "young women" with flappers. Only Rosalind is a flapper, not the others. --> The novel explores themes of love warped by greed and social ambition. Fitzgerald, who took inspiration for the title from a line in  [[Rupert Brooke]]'s poem ''Tiare Tahiti'',{{sfnm|Tate|1998|1p=252|Shinn|1920|2p=8A|Brooke|1918|3p=15}} spent years revising the novel before [[Charles Scribner's Sons]] accepted it for publication.

Following its publication in March 1920, ''This Side of Paradise'' became a sensation in the United States, and reviewers hailed it as an outstanding debut novel.{{sfnm|Mencken|1920|1p=140|Butcher|1920|2p=33|Kazin|1951|3p=119}}<ref name="Wild enthusiasm"/> The book went through twelve printings and sold 49,075 copies.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=136–137}} Although the book neither became one of the ten [[Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1920s|best-selling novels]] of the year nor made him wealthy,<ref name="Not rich"/><ref name="Novel income"/> F. Scott Fitzgerald became a household name overnight.<ref name="Household name"/><ref name="National Figure"/> His newfound fame enabled him to earn higher rates for his short stories,<ref name="Story Prices"/> and his improved financial prospects persuaded his fiancée [[Zelda Sayre]] to marry him.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=99–102, 127–28}} His novel became especially popular among young Americans,{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1pp=127–128|Kazin|1951|2p=119}} and the press depicted its 23-year-old author as the standard-bearer for "youth in revolt".{{sfn|''The Montgomery Advertiser''|1922|p=25}}<ref name="Youth Movement"/>

Although Fitzgerald wrote the novel about the [[youth culture]] of 1910s America, the work became popularly and inaccurately associated with the carefree social milieu of post-war 1920s America,{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=83–84, 127}} and social commentators touted Fitzgerald as the first writer to turn the national spotlight on the younger [[G.I. Generation|Jazz Age generation]]<!-- See Citations and Talk Page as "Lost Generation" and "Jazz Age generation" are conceptually distinct. -->,<ref name="Jazz Age Generation"/><ref name="Lost Generation As Younger"/><ref name="Post-War Generation"/> particularly their [[flapper]]s.<ref name="Sons and Daughters"/><ref name="Spotlighting the Flappers"/> In contrast to the older [[Lost Generation]] to which [[Gertrude Stein]] posited that [[Ernest Hemingway]] and Fitzgerald belonged,<ref name="Gray 1946"/><ref name="Lost Generation Label Rejected"/> the Jazz Age generation were younger Americans who had been adolescents during [[World War I|World War&nbsp;I]] and mostly untouched by the conflict's horrors.{{efn|name=World War I and the Jazz Age}}<ref name="Jazz Age Generation"/><ref name="Lost Generation As Younger"/> Fitzgerald's novel riveted the nation's attention on the leisure activities of this hedonistic younger generation and sparked debate over their perceived immorality.{{sfnm|1a1=Butcher|1y=1925|1p=11|2a1=Coghlan|2y=1925|2p=11}}<ref name="Change in Social Mores"/>

The novel created the widespread perception of Fitzgerald as a libertine chronicler of rebellious youth and proselytizer of Jazz Age hedonism which led reactionary societal figures to denounce the author and his work.{{sfnm|Broun|1920|1p=14|Kazin|1951|2pp=123–124}} These detractors regarded him as the outstanding aggressor in the rebellion of "[[Flaming Youth (film)|flaming youth]]" against the traditional values of the "old guard".<ref name="Outstanding aggressor"/> When Fitzgerald died in 1940, many [[Social conservatives in the United States|social conservatives]] rejoiced.{{sfn|Kazin|1951|pp=13, 123, 125}} Due to this perception of Fitzgerald and his works, the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore|Baltimore Diocese]] refused his family permission to bury him at [[Third Addition to Rockville and Old St. Mary's Church and Cemetery|St. Mary's Church]] in [[Rockville, Maryland]].{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1pp=490–491|Turnbull|1962|2p=321}}<ref name="Denied Catholic burial"/>

== Plot summary ==
{{quote box | quote = Here was a new generation, shouting the old cries, learning the old creeds, through a revery of long days and nights; destined finally to go out into that dirty gray turmoil to follow love and pride; a new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken. | author = —F. Scott Fitzgerald | source = ''This Side of Paradise'' (1920){{sfn|Fitzgerald|1921|p=304}} | width = 22em | align = right | style = padding:1.5em}}
<!-- As of December 25, 2024, the summary is 700 words. --->
Amory Blaine, a young [[Midwestern United States|Midwesterner]], believes that he has a great destiny, but the precise nature of this destiny eludes him. He attends a preparatory school where he becomes a football quarterback. He grows estranged from his eccentric mother Beatrice Blaine and becomes the protégé of Monsignor Thayer Darcy, a Catholic priest. During his sophomore year at Princeton, he returns to Minneapolis over Christmas break and falls in love with [[Ginevra King|Isabelle Borgé]], a wealthy debutante whom he first met as a boy. Amory and Isabelle embark upon a romance.

While at Princeton, Amory deluges Isabelle with letters, but she becomes disenchanted with him due to his criticism, and they break up on [[Long Island]]. Following their separation, Amory accompanies a Princeton classmate to an apartment occupied by two New York [[showgirl]]s of [[Promiscuity|easy virtue]]. He considers staying the night with the showgirls, but his conscience and an apparition compel him to leave. After four years<!-- See Citation and Talk Page. Fitzgerald writes that Amory attends Princeton for "four years". --> at Princeton,<ref>{{harvnb|Fitzgerald|1921|pp=166-167}}: Fitzgerald writes that early April of their final year has passed, "this was the last spring" at Princeton, and they have "raked the universe over the coals for four years".</ref> he enlists in the United States Army amid [[World War I|World War&nbsp;I]]. He ships overseas to serve in the [[Trench warfare|muddy trenches]] of the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western front]].{{efn|name=Deployment|Fitzgerald forever regretted not serving in combat on the Western front during World War&nbsp;I, as detailed in his 1936 short story "I Didn't Get Over".{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1p=93|Tate|1998|2p=126}}}} While overseas, his mother Beatrice dies, and most of his family's wealth disappears due to a series of failed investments.

After the [[Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)|armistice with Imperial Germany]] in November 1918, Amory settles in New York City amid the flowering of the [[Jazz Age]].{{efn|name=Jazz Age}} Rebounding from Isabelle, he becomes infatuated with [[Zelda Fitzgerald|Rosalind Connage]], a cruel and narcissistic [[flapper]].<!-- Only Rosalind is a flapper, not the other young women. --> Desperate for a job, Amory obtains employment with an advertising agency but detests the work. His relationship with Rosalind deteriorates as she prefers a rival suitor, Dawson Ryder, a man of wealth and status. Rejected by Rosalind due to his lack of financial prospects, Amory quits his advertising job and goes on a [[drinking binge]] until the start of [[prohibition in the United States]].
[[File:F. Scott Fitzgerald in Junior Class of Princeton University 1917.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Fitzgerald among Princeton junior classmen in 1917. (Top row, third from the left)]]
When Amory travels to visit an uncle in Maryland, he meets Eleanor Savage, a beautiful and reckless atheist. Eleanor chafes under the religious conformity and gender limitations imposed on her by contemporary society in [[Presidency of Woodrow Wilson|Wilsonian America]]. Amory and Eleanor spend a lazy summer conversing about love. On their final night together before Amory returns to New York City, Eleanor attempts suicide by riding her horse over a cliff in order to prove her disbelief in any deity. At the last moment, she leaps to safety as her horse plummets over the precipice, and Amory realizes that he does not love her.

Returning to New York City, Amory learns of Rosalind's engagement to his wealthy rival Dawson Ryder, and he declares that Rosalind is now dead to him. The death of his beloved mentor, Monsignor Darcy, further dispirits him. Homeless, Amory wanders from New York City to his alma mater Princeton. Accepting a car ride from a wealthy upper-class man driven by his working-class chauffeur in a [[Locomobile Sportif|Locomobile]], Amory speaks out in favor of [[socialism]] in the United States—although he admits he is still formulating his thoughts as he is talking.
[[File:Cleveland Tower, Princeton University Graduate College, NJ - pinnacles.jpg|thumb|right|[[Cleveland Tower|Princeton's gothic towers]] glimpsed by Amory in the final pages.]]
While riding in the Locomobile, Amory continues his argument about their time's societal ills and articulates his disillusionment with the current historical era. He announces his hope to stand alongside those in the younger generation and to bring forth [[Jazz Age|a new age]] in America. Both the upper-class and working-class men in the car denounce his views, but when Amory discovers that the upper-class man is the father of a Princeton classmate who died in World War&nbsp;I, they reconcile. Amory parts ways with his travel companions, and the upper-class man tells him: "Good luck to you and bad luck to your theories."

Approaching Princeton, Amory recognizes his selfishness as well as his overindulgence in drink and beauty. He realizes that he must transcend these flaws to become a better man. Wandering through a graveyard at twilight, he reflects upon his inevitable mortality and finds solace in the fact that future generations may one day ponder his life. He thinks of the next generation—inheriting disillusionment and a loss of faith, yet still chasing love and success. After midnight, he stands alone gazing at Princeton's [[Cleveland Tower|gothic towers]] and feels a newfound freedom. He stretches out his arms and proclaims, "I know myself . . . but that is all."{{sfn|Fitzgerald|1921|p=305}}

== Major characters ==
{{quote box | quote = I don't know what it is in me or that comes to me when I start to write. I am half feminine—at least my mind is.... Even my feminine characters are feminine Scott Fitzgeralds. | author = —F. Scott Fitzgerald | source = 1935{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|p=259}} | align = right | width = 24em | style = padding:1.5em}}
Fitzgerald based most of the novel's characters on persons from his life,{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=126–127}} although he often created composites and imbued his female characters with his own personality traits and thoughts.{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|p=259}}
{{multiple image
 | perrow = 2
 | total_width = 300
 | align = right
 | image1 = F. Scott Fitzgerald - World War I Uniform - 1917.jpg
 | alt1 = Photograph of F. Scott Fitzgerald in his World War I army uniform.
 | image2 = Ginevra King Photo circa 1916.jpg
 | alt2 = Photographic portrait of Chicago heiress Ginevra King as a young woman.
 | image3 = HobeyBakerPrinceton1.jpg
 | alt3 = Zelda Fitzgerald circa 1923
 | image4 = Zelda Fitzgerald (1923 Portrait) Retouched.jpg
 | alt4 = Photograph of Hobey Baker in football gear at Princeton
 | footer = [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]'s (first) romance with [[Ginevra King]] (second) inspired the shallow character of Isabelle Borgé. [[Hobey Baker|Hobey Amory Baker]] (third), a Princeton football hero, inspired the protagonist's name "Amory" and the character of Allenby. [[Zelda Sayre]] (fourth) inspired the cruel and selfish character of Rosalind Connage.
 | footer_align = left
}}
* '''Amory Blaine'''{{snd}} a handsome and egocentric Princeton student from the [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]] and later a World War&nbsp;I veteran who has a series of unfulfilling romances with young women. Fitzgerald based the character on an idealized version of himself and his disappointing romantic relationships.<ref>{{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|p=127}}: "Amory Blaine is a rather idealized Fitzgerald".</ref>{{sfn|Tate|1998|p=22}} The name "Amory" derives from Fitzgerald's football hero at Princeton, [[Hobey Baker|Hobart Amory Baker]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bernstein|2009|p=40}}: "Fitzgerald called Hobart Amory Hare (Hobey) Baker 'an ideal worthy of everything in my enthusiastic imagination' and named the protagonist of his novel ''This Side of Paradise'' Amory in his honor".</ref>{{sfn|Salvini|2005|p=49}}
* '''Isabelle Borgé'''{{snd}}a wealthy and shallow debutante<!-- Isabelle is not a flapper. --> who is Amory's first love.{{sfnm|Smith|2003|1p=E1|Tate|1998|2p=24}} [[Ginevra King]], a socialite upon whom Fitzgerald developed a life-long romantic obsession, inspired the character.{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1pp=125, 127|Noden|2003}}{{sfnm|Smith|2003|1p=E1|Tate|1998|2p=24}} Like Amory and Isabelle, an 18-year-old Fitzgerald fell in love with a 16-year-old King on Christmas break in Saint Paul, Minnesota, during his sophomore year at Princeton, and their relationship ended in a similar fashion.{{sfn|Smith|2003|p=E1}} Rumors circulated that Ginevra had kissed dozens of boys, all of whom fell in love with her.{{sfn|Donaldson|1983|p=48}} "I was too thoughtless in those days," Ginevra recalled, "and too much in love with love to think of consequences."{{sfn|Eble|1963|p=115}} Until his death, Fitzgerald remained forever in love with King and "could not think of her without tears coming to his eyes".<ref name="Lifelong Obsession">{{harvnb|Mizener|1972|p=28}}: "Ginevra gave substance to an ideal Fitzgerald would cling to for a lifetime; to the end of his days, the thought of her could bring tears to his eyes."</ref>{{sfnm|Stevens|2003|Noden|2003}}
* '''Rosalind Connage'''{{snd}}a cruel and selfish [[flapper]] whom Amory romances.{{sfn|Tate|1998|p=40}} Fitzgerald based Rosalind on 18-year-old [[Zelda Fitzgerald|Zelda Sayre]] and, to a lesser extent, on the fictional character of Beatrice Normandy in [[H. G. Wells]]' 1909 novel ''[[Tono-Bungay]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|p=127}}: "Rosalind is a combination of Zelda and Beatrice Normandy from Tono-Bungay."</ref>{{sfn|Tate|1998|p=40}} Mirroring Rosalind's materialistic relationship with Amory, Sayre ended her engagement with Fitzgerald due to his inability to support her privileged lifestyle as an idle<!-- See Wagner 2004 and Bruccoli 1981 citations for "idle". --> [[Southern belle]] of Montgomery's [[country club]] set.<ref name="Unwilling to wait"/><ref name="Idle Southern Belle"/> She resumed their engagement on the condition that he would provide her with luxury.<ref name="Affluent lifestyle"/>{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1pp=100-110|Turnbull|1962|2p=102|Milford|1970|3p=57}}
* '''Eleanor Savage'''{{snd}}a beautiful and reckless atheist whom Amory meets in Maryland.{{sfnm|Mizener|1951|1p=44|Tate|1998|2p=219}} Fitzgerald partly based Eleanor on a purported love of his mentor Father Sigourney Fay,{{sfnm|Mizener|1951|1p=44|Bruccoli|1981|2p=127}}  and, to a lesser extent, on 18-year-old Elizabeth Beckwith MacKie, a romantic interest he briefly knew.{{sfnm|Tate|1998|1p=219|MacKie|1970|2pp=16–27}}<ref>{{harvnb|MacKie|1970|p=20}}: Scott "was always trying to see how far he could go in arousing your feelings, but it was always with words... This was his first exposure to southern girls, who in turn had been exposed to less timid southern boys. The southern boys I knew, despite their verbal lethargy, at least understood what it was all about, and were more aggressive and emotionally satisfying. In 1917, I'm afraid, Scott just wasn't a very lively male animal."</ref> MacKie commented that the character "reminded me of how little he really knew me. His Eleanor loved to sit on a haystack in the rain reciting poetry. Forgive me, Scott: if that is the way you wanted it, then you missed the whole idea of what can happen atop a haystack."{{sfn|MacKie|1970|p=23}} 
* '''Thayer Darcy'''{{snd}}a jovial and impious Catholic priest who serves as Amory's spiritual mentor.{{sfnm|Fitzgerald|1921|1p=26|Tate|1998|2p=53}} Father Sigourney Fay, a possibly [[gay]] Catholic priest with whom Fitzgerald had an intimate and ambiguous relationship,<ref name="Sigourney Fay"/><ref name="Fay Sexuality"/> inspired the character.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=127}}{{sfnm|Turnbull|1962|1p=39|Tate|1998|2p=53}} While writing ''This Side of Paradise'', Fitzgerald quoted verbatim entire letters sent to him by Fay.<ref>{{harvnb|Mizener|1951|p=44}}: "Fitzgerald used three of Fay's letters and one of his poems in ''This Side of Paradise''".</ref> In addition to using Fay's private correspondence, Fitzgerald drew on anecdotes that Fay had told him in confidence about his personal life, including his purported failed romances with women.{{sfn|Mizener|1951|p=44}} When reading ''This Side of Paradise'', Fay wrote to Fitzgerald that the unapproved use of these experiences told in confidence to the author "gave him a queer feeling."{{sfn|Mizener|1951|p=44}}
* '''Beatrice Blaine'''{{snd}}an aging and eccentric matron who is Amory's mother. Based on the mother of one of Fitzgerald's friends.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=127}}
* '''Clara Page'''{{snd}}a widowed older cousin for whom Amory has unrequited affection. Based on Fitzgerald's cousin Cecilia Delihant Taylor.{{sfn|Tate|1998|p=186}}
* '''Cecelia<!-- The character is named Cecelia, not Cecilia. --> Connage'''{{snd}}Rosalind's cynical younger sister who steals cigarettes and envies her sibling's popularity among young men.{{sfnm|Fitzgerald|1921|1pp=192-193|Tate|1998|2p=40}}
* '''Allenby'''{{snd}}a heroic football captain at Princeton based on [[Hobey Baker]].{{sfn|Fitzgerald|1921|pp=41, 46}}{{sfnm|Tate|1998|1p=3|Mizener|1972|2p=9|Mizener|1951|3p=6}} The national press praised Baker as one of the greatest athletes of his time, and he embodied everything Fitzgerald aspired to be as a Princeton undergraduate.{{sfn|Salvini|2005|p=49}}{{sfnm|Tate|1998|1p=3|Mizener|1972|2p=9|Mizener|1951|3p=6}} He described Baker as "an ideal worthy of everything in my enthusiastic admiration, yet consummated and expressed in a human being who stood within ten feet of me."{{sfnm|Salvini|2005|1p=49|Bernstein|2009|2p=40}} After graduating from Princeton in 1914, Baker enlisted in the [[U.S. Army Air Service]] amid World War&nbsp;I and died in a plane crash in December 1918.{{sfn|''The New York Times''|1919}}{{sfn|Salvini|2005|pp=62, 94–101, 111–119}}
* '''[[Thomas Parke D'Invilliers]]'''{{snd}}a bespectacled and high-brow Princeton classmate who has a gift for poetry.{{sfn|Fitzgerald|1921|pp=55-57}} Fitzgerald based D'Invilliers on his Princeton friend, poet [[John Peale Bishop]].{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1p=127|Tate|1998|2p=21}} D'Invilliers becomes Amory's close friend and confidante in various subjects, among which are literature, love for young beauties, politics, and the meaning of the self. He becomes a journalist, developing his own perspectives apart from those he shares with Amory. The character reappears as a fictitious poet quoted on the title page of Fitzgerald's 1925 novel ''[[The Great Gatsby]]''.{{sfn|Tate|1998|p=21}}

== Background and composition ==
=== Love, war, and novel ambitions ===
{{multiple image
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 | image1 = F Scott Fitzgerald circa 1920.jpg
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 | footer = [[F. Scott Fitzgerald|Fitzgerald]] circa 1920, the year his novel debuted, and socialite [[Ginevra King]] circa 1918
 | footer_align = left
}}
Since childhood, F. Scott Fitzgerald aspired to become a famous novelist.{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|p=7}} "Three months before I was born," Scott later wrote, "my mother lost her other two children... I think I started then to be a writer."{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|p=7}} While attending Princeton University, his passion for writing literature began to solidify into a career choice, and he wrote fiction as an undergraduate for the [[Princeton Triangle Club]], the ''[[Princeton Tiger Magazine|Princeton Tiger]]'', and the ''Nassau Literary Review''.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=44–45, 65–75, 102–106}}{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|p=73}}

During his sophomore year at Princeton, Fitzgerald returned home to [[Saint Paul, Minnesota]] during Christmas break where the 18-year-old aspiring writer fell in love with 16-year-old Chicago debutante [[Ginevra King]].<!-- The New York Times erroneously states Fitzgerald was 19 years old on January 4, 1915. --><ref name="Ginevra King">{{harvnb|Smith|2003|p=E1}}: Fitzgerald confided to [[Frances Scott Fitzgerald|his daughter]] that Ginevra King "was the first girl I ever loved" and that he "faithfully avoided seeing her" to "keep the illusion perfect".</ref>{{sfn|West|2005|p=21}} They began a passionate romantic relationship spanning several years.{{sfnm|Smith|2003|1p=E1|West|2005|2p=104}} Although Ginevra loved him,{{sfn|West|2005|p=35}} her upper-class family belittled Scott's courtship because of his lower-class status compared to her other wealthy suitors.{{sfn|West|2005|p=42}} Rejected by Ginevra as a suitable match, Fitzgerald enlisted in the United States Army amid World War&nbsp;I.{{sfn|Mizener|1951|p=70}}<ref name="Suicidal Urge">{{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|p=84}}: "Like all infantry lieutenants at the time, Fitzgerald expected to be killed in battle. He began writing a novel in training camp, hoping to leave evidence of his genius."</ref>

In November 1917, hoping to have a novel published before his deployment to Europe and his anticipated death in the trenches of World War&nbsp;I,<ref name="Suicidal Urge"/> Fitzgerald began writing a 120,000-word manuscript titled ''The Romantic Egotist''.{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1pp=83–87|Tate|1998|2p=281}} Having never before undertaken a novel, he relied upon [[H. G. Wells]]' 1909 novel ''[[Tono-Bungay]]'' and Sir [[Compton Mackenzie]]'s 1913 novel ''[[Sinister Street]]'' as his literary templates.{{sfnm|Wilson|1952|1p=32|Fitzgerald|2004|2pp=41, 83|Kazin|1951|3pp=29, 48, 78}} He sought to write the story of America's younger generation from the perspective of himself as a conscious observer.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=84–85}} After obtaining a brief leave from the army in February 1918, Fitzgerald continued work on his unpublished manuscript at the [[University Cottage Club]]'s library in Princeton.{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1p=86|Tate|1998|2p=251}} Eighty-one pages of this revised manuscript appeared in the final version of ''This Side of Paradise''.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=103}}
{{multiple image
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 | image2 = For remembrance, soldier poets who have fallen in the war, Adcock, 1920 DJVU pg 10.jpg
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 | footer = Sir [[Shane Leslie]] (first), the first cousin of Sir [[Winston Churchill]], enclosed Fitzgerald's manuscript in a letter to [[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner's]], hailing Fitzgerald as the next [[Rupert Brooke]] (second). "Though Scott Fitzgerald is still alive it has a literary value," Leslie wrote in the letter, "Of course when he is killed, it will also have a commercial value."
 | footer_align = left
}}
In March 1918, Fitzgerald gave the revised manuscript to his acquaintance, Anglo-Irish journalist [[Shane Leslie]], to deliver to [[Charles Scribner's Sons]] in New York City.{{sfnm|Turnbull|1962|2p=82|Tate|1998|1p=251|Bruccoli|1981|3p=86}} Fitzgerald had met Leslie when the journalist visited America and toured the Newman School in New Jersey.{{sfn|Berg|1978|pp=12–13}} After proofreading ''The Romantic Egotist'', Leslie asked Scribner's to retain the manuscript no matter what they thought of it.{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|p=82}} He proclaimed that Fitzgerald, upon his presumed death in the trenches, would become the next [[Rupert Brooke]], a posthumously famous poet killed during World War&nbsp;I.{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|p=82}}{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=86}} "Though Scott Fitzgerald is still alive it has a literary value," Leslie wrote to Scribner's on May 6, 1918, "Of course when he is killed, it will also have a commercial value."{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=86}} 

Upon reading Fitzgerald's draft of ''The Romantic Egotist'', Scribner's editor [[Max Perkins]] urged his superiors to publish the manuscript, but senior editors [[Edward L. Burlingame]] and [[William C. Brownell]] disagreed with him regarding its quality and instructed him to reject the work.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=88–89}} In an August 19, 1918 letter to Fitzgerald, Perkins turned down the manuscript but praised the writer's talent. Although he had been instructed to reject the work, Perkins provided detailed guidance on how to revise it, suggesting that Fitzgerald add more significance and details about Amory's "affairs with girls."{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=88–89}} Perkins encouraged Fitzgerald to resubmit the manuscript after making these revisions.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=88–89}}

By June 1918, Fitzgerald served with the [[45th Infantry Regiment (United States)|45th]] and [[67th Infantry Regiment (United States)|67th Infantry Regiments]] at Camp Sheridan near Montgomery, Alabama.{{sfnm|Tate|1998|1pp=6, 32|Bruccoli|1981|p=86}} Attempting to rebound from Ginevra's rejection, a lonely Fitzgerald began courting young women, including [[Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald|Zelda Sayre]], an idle<!-- See Wagner 2004 and Bruccoli 1981 citations for "idle". --> [[Southern belle]],<ref name="Idle Southern Belle">Per {{harvnb|Wagner-Martin|2004|p=24}} and {{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|pp=192–193, 440–441}}, during her idle youth as a Southern belle in the [[Jim Crow]] South, Zelda's affluent family employed half a dozen domestic servants, many of whom were [[African Americans|African-American]]. Consequently, Zelda was unaccustomed to responsibilities of any kind.</ref><ref>Per {{harvnb|Milford|1970|pp=3–4}}, "if there was a Confederate establishment in the [[Deep South]], [[Zelda Sayre]] came from the heart of it." Her grandfather, [[Willis B. Machen]], served in the [[Confederate Congress]]. {{harvnb|Milford|1970|p=5}} states her father's uncle was [[John Tyler Morgan]], a Confederate general and—according to {{harvnb|Davis|1924|pp=45, 56, 59}} and {{harvnb|Svrluga|2016}}—a [[Grand Dragon]] of the [[Ku Klux Klan]] in Alabama.</ref> who reminded him of Ginevra.<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|1965|p=40}}: "Zelda was attractive and vivacious and reminded him in many ways of Ginevra King".</ref>{{sfn|West|2005|pp=65–66, 73}} At their first meeting, Fitzgerald told Zelda that she reminded him of Isabelle, the free-spirited character based on Ginevra in his unpublished manuscript.{{sfn|Piper|1965|p=40}} After sharing his ambitions, Zelda dismissed Fitzgerald's remarks as mere boastfulness and concluded that he would never become a famous writer.{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|p=102}} A romance blossomed,{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=87–89}} although Fitzgerald continued secretly writing to Ginevra, hoping in vain for a chance to resume their relationship.{{sfn|West|2005|pp=65–66}} Three days after Ginevra's [[arranged marriage]] to a wealthy Chicago polo player, a heartbroken Fitzgerald professed his affection for Zelda in September 1918.{{sfn|West|2005|pp=66–70, 73}} In October 1918, Fitzgerald submitted a revised version of ''The Romantic Egoist'' to Scribner's, but the publisher rejected the work a second time, and he captioned their telegram in his scrapbook: "{{mono|The end of a dream}}."{{sfn|Tate|1998|p=251}}

=== Despair and manuscript revisions ===
After his army discharge in February 1919, Fitzgerald moved to New York City amid the onset of the [[Jazz Age]].{{efn|name=Jazz Age|Fitzgerald settled in New York City amid the societal transformations of the Jazz Age,{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|pp=92–93}} an era he described as racing "along under its own power, served by great filling stations full of money" and characterized by moral permissiveness, disillusionment with social norms, and an obsession with hedonism.<ref name="Filling stations">{{harvnb|Fitzgerald|1945|p=18}}: "In any case, the Jazz Age now raced along under its own power, served by great filling stations full of money".</ref><ref name="Hedonism">{{harvnb|Fitzgerald|1945|p=15}}: The Jazz Age represented "a whole race going hedonistic, deciding on pleasure".</ref>}}{{sfnm|Turnbull|1962|1pp=92–93|Fitzgerald|1945|2p=15}} While seeking a breakthrough as an author of fiction, he turned to writing advertising copy for [[Barron Collier]] to sustain himself but the vacuity of the work irritated him.{{sfn|Milford|1970|p=39}}{{sfn|Tate|1998|p=282}} "Advertising is a racket, like the movies and the brokerage business," Fitzgerald complained. "You cannot be honest without admitting that its constructive contribution to humanity is exactly minus zero."{{sfn|Fitzgerald|1966|p=108}} Although Fitzgerald had not intended to marry Zelda in December 1918,<ref>{{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|p=94}}: Fitzgerald wrote on December 4, 1918, "My mind is firmly made up that I will not, shall not, can not, should not, must not marry".</ref> he changed his mind over the next three months, and the two became engaged by March 1919.{{sfnm|Milford|1970|1p=42|Turnbull|1962|2p=92}} As time passed, Fitzgerald continued living in poverty in New York City, and he could not convince Zelda that he could support her affluent lifestyle.<ref name="Affluent lifestyle">{{harvnb|Gallo|1978|p=6}}: "Even after Zelda fell in love with Scott, she would not settle for a marriage that promised only romance and poverty. She wanted luxury; and Scott would have to provide it."</ref> She broke off their engagement in June.<ref name="Unwilling to wait">{{harvnb|Tate|1998|p=82}}: "Unwilling to wait while Fitzgerald succeeded in the advertisement business and unwilling to live on his small salary, Zelda broke their engagement."</ref><ref name="Financial Success"/>{{sfn|Milford|1970|p=52}}
{{quote box | quote = <poem>Limbs that gleam and shadowy hair,
Or floating lazy, half-asleep.
Dive and double and follow after,
Snare in flowers, and kiss, and call,
With lips that fade, and human laughter
And faces individual,
Well this side of Paradise! . . .
There's little comfort in the wise.</poem> | source = —[[Rupert Brooke]], ''Tiare Tahiti'' (1914){{sfn|Brooke|1918|p=15}} | width = 22em | align = right | style = padding:1.5em}}
In the wake of Ginevra rejecting Fitzgerald two years prior, Zelda's rejection further dispirited him.{{sfn|Stern|1970|p=7}} Unable to earn a successful living in New York City, Fitzgerald carried a revolver while contemplating suicide,{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|pp=93–94}} and he threatened to jump to his death from a window ledge of the [[Yale Club of New York City|Yale Club]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|p=98}}: "When he climbed out on a window ledge and threatened to jump, no one tried to stop him."</ref> According to biographer [[Andrew Turnbull (biographer)|Andrew Turnbull]], "one day, drinking martinis in the upstairs lounge, [Fitzgerald] announced that he was going to jump out of the window. No one objected; on the contrary, it was pointed out that the windows were French and ideally suited for jumping, which seemed to cool his ardor."{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|pp=93–94}} Despite Zelda's rejection, Fitzgerald hoped that his success as an author might change her mind, and he told a friend, "I wouldn't care if she died, but I couldn't stand to have anybody else marry her."{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=101}}

In July 1919, Fitzgerald quit his advertising job in New York and returned to St. Paul.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=100–101}} Returning to his hometown as a failure, Fitzgerald became a recluse and lived on the top floor of his parents' home at [[F. Scott Fitzgerald House|599&nbsp;Summit Avenue]].{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=100–101}} He decided to make one last attempt to become a novelist and to stake everything on the success or failure of a book.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=100–101}} Abstaining from alcohol,{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=101}} he worked day and night to revise ''The Romantic Egotist'' as ''This Side of Paradise''—an autobiographical account of his Princeton years and his romances with Ginevra King, Zelda Sayre, and other young women.{{sfnm|Milford|1970|1p=55|West|2005|2pp=65, 74, 95}}{{sfnm|Tate|1998|1p=22|MacKie|1970|2p=23}} Fitzgerald chose the new title based on a line in [[Rupert Brooke]]'s poem ''Tiare Tahiti'', "Well this side of Paradise!... There's little comfort in the wise."{{sfnm|Tate|1998|1p=252|Shinn|1920|2p=8A|Brooke|1918|3p=15}}

While revising the manuscript, Fitzgerald drew upon the correspondence of friends and acquaintances.{{sfn|Mizener|1951|p=44}}{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=95}} He quoted verbatim three letters and one poem by Father Sigourney Fay,{{sfn|Mizener|1951|p=44}} a possibly [[gay]] Catholic priest with whom Fitzgerald had a close relationship.<ref name="Sigourney Fay">{{harvnb|Fessenden|2005|p=28}}: "Biographers describe Fay as a '[[fin-de-siècle]] aesthete' of considerable appeal; 'a dandy, always heavily perfumed,' who introduced the teenaged Fitzgerald to [[Oscar Wilde]] and good wine".</ref><ref name="Fay Sexuality">{{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|p=278}}: "If Fay was a homosexual, as has been asserted without proof, Fitzgerald was presumably unaware of it".</ref>{{sfnm|Turnbull|1962|1p=39|Tate|1998|2p=53}} He also used a quote from Zelda's letters for a [[soliloquy]] by the narrator in the final pages.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=95}} Zelda had written a letter eulogizing the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate soldiers]] who died during the [[American Civil War]]. "I've spent today in the graveyard," she wrote to Scott, "Isn't it funny how, out of a row of Confederate soldiers, two or three will make you think of dead lovers and dead loves—when they're exactly like the others, even to the yellowish moss."{{sfn|Fitzgerald|Fitzgerald|2002|p=96}} In the novel's final pages, Fitzgerald altered Zelda's [[neo-Confederate]]<!-- See Cline 2002 and Turnbull 1962 citations for Zelda's neo-Confederate views. --> sentiments to refer to [[Union Army|Union]] soldiers instead of Confederates.{{sfnm|Cline|2002|1p=65|Turnbull|1962|2p=102|Fitzgerald|1991|3p=vii}}<ref>Per {{harvnb|Cline|2002|p=13}}, Zelda claimed that she drew her strength from Montgomery's Confederate past.</ref>

[[File:Maxwell_Perkins_NYWTS_cropped.jpg|thumb|right|[[Max Perkins]] threatened to resign from [[Scribner's]] if the company did not publish Fitzgerald's novel. "If we're going to turn down the likes of Fitzgerald," Perkins stated, "I will lose all interest in publishing books."]]
Fitzgerald sent the revised manuscript to Scribner's on September 4, 1919.{{sfn|Tate|1998|p=252}} Although the manuscript again impressed Perkins who wished to publish the novel, senior executives at the publishing house again disagreed with Perkins and disliked the novel on the grounds of indecency.{{sfn|Berg|1978|pp=15–19}} At the monthly meeting of Scribner's editorial board, an elderly [[Charles Scribner II]], the company's president, grumbled that the work lacked "literary merit," and senior editor William C. Brownell dismissed it as "frivolous."{{sfnm|Berg|1978|1pp=15–22|Bruccoli|1981|2p=103|Turnbull|1962|3p=118|Tate|1998|4p=191}}<ref name="Editorial Insurrection">{{harvnb|Turnbull|1962|p=118}}: "Charles Scribner, Sr. had hesitated to put his imprint on ''This Side of Paradise'', which struck him as frivolous. When he yielded to the enthusiasm of Maxwell Perkins, his most far-seeing editor, the monarchy of Scribners went over to the revolution."</ref>

As the lone voice supporting the publication of Fitzgerald's novel at the editorial board meeting, a frustrated Perkins threatened to resign unless the company agreed to publish it.{{sfn|Berg|1978|pp=15–19}}{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=103}} "My feeling is that a publisher's first allegiance is to talent. And if we aren't going to publish a talent like this, it is a very serious thing," Perkins declared at the meeting. "If we're going to turn down the likes of Fitzgerald, I will lose all interest in publishing books."{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=103}} Despite the fact that Fitzgerald's manuscript repelled older employees at Scribner's, the executives relented out of fear of losing Perkins as a gifted editor and literary talent scout.{{sfnm|Berg|1978|1pp=15–22|Bruccoli|1981|2p=103|Turnbull|1962|3p=118|Tate|1998|4p=191}}<ref name="Editorial Insurrection"/>

On September 16, eight days before Fitzgerald's 23rd birthday, Scribner's accepted the novel for publication.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=103}}{{sfn|Tate|1998|p=252}} Now able to express their opinions, lower-ranking editors at Scribner's opined that they believed Fitzgerald's novel represented the "voice of a new age".{{sfn|Berg|1978|pp=15–22}} Soon after Scribner's decision, Perkins wrote a congratulatory letter to Fitzgerald that omitted his threat to resign if the company failed to publish the novel: "I am very glad, personally, to be able to write to you that we are all for publishing your book ''This Side of Paradise''... I think that you have improved it enormously... The book is so different that it is hard to prophesy how it will sell but we are all for taking a chance and supporting it with vigor."{{sfn|Berg|1978|pp=15–22}}

=== Publication and meteoric success ===
{{multiple image
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 | footer = After F. Scott Fitzgerald informed Zelda Sayre of his novel's upcoming publication, she agreed to marry him. "I hate to say this," Zelda wrote contritely, "but I don't think I had much confidence in you at first... It's so nice to know you really ''can'' do things".
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Upon receiving Perkin's letter and learning of his first novel's impending publication, Fitzgerald became euphoric.{{sfn|Tate|1998|p=252}} "The postman rang, and that day I quit work and ran along the streets, stopping automobiles to tell friends and acquaintances about it⁠—my novel ''This Side of Paradise'' was accepted for publication," he recalled, "I paid off my terrible small debts, bought a suit, and woke up every morning with a world of ineffable top-loftiness and promise."{{sfn|Tate|1998|p=252}} After Scott informed Zelda of his novel's upcoming publication, a shocked Zelda replied contritely: "I hate to say this, but I don't think I had much confidence in you at first.... It's so nice to know you really ''can'' do things".{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|p=102}} 

''This Side of Paradise'' debuted on March 26, 1920, with a dust jacket illustrated by [[William Ely Hill|W. E. Hill]].{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=136–137}} Advertised in newspapers with the slogan, "A Novel About Flappers Written For Philosophers,"{{sfn|Tate|1998|p=252}} the initial printing of 3,000 copies sold out in three days.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=136–137}} Although not among the ten [[Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1920s|best-selling novels]] of the year,{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=136–137}} the 23-year-old F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel proved to be his most popular work and became a cultural sensation across the United States, making him a household name.<ref name="Household name">{{harvnb|Buller|2005|p=3}}: "The appearance of the novel... made him a household name".</ref>{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=136–137}}<ref name="Brilliant success">{{harvnb|Milford|1970|p=66}}: "''This Side of Paradise'' was... a brilliant success..."</ref> The book went through twelve printings in 1920 and 1921, totaling 49,075 copies.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=136–137}} Despite this success, the novel provided only modest income for Fitzgerald.{{sfn|Mizener|1951|p=87}}<ref name="Novel income">{{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|p=137}}: "The sales of ''This Side of Paradise'' did not make Fitzgerald rich."</ref> Copies sold for $1.75 ({{Inflation|US|1.75|1920|fmt=eq}}), and he earned 10% on the first 5,000 copies and 15% thereafter, totaling $6,200 in 1920 ({{Inflation|US|6200.00|1920|fmt=eq}}).{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=137}}

Although Fitzgerald complained to his friend [[Burton Rascoe]] that ''This Side of Paradise'' didn't make him wealthy,<ref name="Not rich">{{harvnb|Mizener|1951|p=87}}: Fitzgerald complained that "the book didn't make me as rich as I thought it would".</ref> his new fame enabled him to earn much higher rates for his short stories,<ref name="Story Prices">{{harvnb|Fitzgerald|1945|p=89}}: "My story price had gone from $30 to $1,000. That's a small price to what was paid later in the Boom, but what it sounded like to me couldn't be exaggerated."</ref> and Zelda resumed their engagement as he could now afford her privileged lifestyle.<ref name="Financial Success">{{harvnb|Mizener|1951|pp=85, 89, 90}}: "Zelda would question whether he was ever going to make enough money for them to marry", and Fitzgerald was thus compelled to prove that "he was rich enough for her."</ref>{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1pp=100–110|Turnbull|1962|2p=102|Milford|1970|3p=57}}<ref name="Idle Southern Belle"/> By the time of their wedding in April 1920, Fitzgerald claimed neither he nor Zelda still loved each other,<ref name="Ebb of Passion">{{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|p=482}}: Fitzgerald wrote in 1939, "You [Zelda] submitted at the moment of our marriage when your passion for me was at as low ebb as mine for you.&nbsp;... I never wanted the Zelda I married. I didn't love you again till after you became pregnant."</ref><ref name="Lost Love">{{harvnb|Turnbull|1962|p=102}}: "Victory was sweet, though not as sweet as it would have been six months earlier before Zelda had rejected him. Fitzgerald couldn't recapture the thrill of their first love".</ref> and the early years of their marriage proved a disappointment.<ref name="Marriage Reservations">{{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|p=441}}: In July 1938, Fitzgerald wrote to his daughter that, "I decided to marry your mother after all, even though I knew she was spoiled and meant no good to me. I was sorry immediately I had married her but, being patient in those days, made the best of it".</ref><ref name="Emotional distance">{{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|p=133}}: Describing his marriage to Zelda, Fitzgerald said that—aside from "long conversations" late at night—their relations lacked "a closeness" which they never "achieved in the workaday world of marriage."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Turnbull|1962|p=102}}: "Fitzgerald couldn't recapture the thrill of their first love".</ref> Despite his disappointing marriage, Fitzgerald had achieved the peak of his fame and cultural salience, and he recalled traveling in a taxi one afternoon through the streets of New York City and weeping when he realized he that he would never be as happy again.{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|p=115}}

== Reception ==
=== Cultural sensation ===
{{Quote box | align = right | width = 26em | quote = ''This Side of Paradise'' was the flaming skyrocket of its season... [Fitzgerald's] photograph appeared in all of the exclusive journals as the picture of the hope of young America, the first person to turn the spotlight on the flapper in the back seat on a lonely road... | author = —Fanny Butcher | source = ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', 1925{{sfn|Butcher|1925|p=11}}}}
{{Quote box | align = right | width = 26em | quote = ''This Side of Paradise'' focused the thought of the whole nation on the problems of 'flappers and parlor snakes' which it had known before simply as its daughters and sons. Some of the old-lady magazines are still debating these problems with tiresome gravity. | author = —Ralph Coghlan | source = ''[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]]'', 1925{{sfn|Coghlan|1925|p=11}}}}
Upon its publication, Fitzgerald's ''This Side of Paradise'' caused a cultural sensation that sparked societal debate,{{sfnm|1a1=Butcher|1y=1925|1p=11|2a1=Coghlan|2y=1925|2p=11}} and, overnight, he became a national figure.<ref name="National Figure">{{harvnb|Tate|1998|p=4}}: "With the publication of ''This Side of Paradise'' in 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald became a national literary figure."</ref><ref name="Generational Consciousness">{{harvnb|Weaver|1922|p=3}}: "But what the first book principally did was to introduce new material; it made this wild, keen, enthusiastic younger generation self-conscious; it encourage them to self-expression; to open revolt against the platitudes and pollyannalysis {{sic}} of precedent. In a literary way, Fitzgerald's influence is so great that it cannot be estimated."</ref><ref name="Change in Social Mores">{{harvnb|Rascoe|1920|p=11}}: "As a picture of contemporary life and as an indication of codes of conduct obtaining among the American young, the novel is revelatory and valuable. It is a comment upon the times. It shows definitely that whatever the teachings of our elders, the [[Victorian morality|Victorian checks]], taboos, and reticences {{sic}} are no longer in force among the flappers, the debutantes, and the collegians of the present [Jazz Age] generation."</ref> He riveted the public's attention on the promiscuous activities of their sons and daughters cavorting in the [[rumble seat]]s of [[Stutz Bearcat|Bearcat roadsters]] and prompted a national conversation over the perceived immorality of this hedonistic younger generation.<ref name="Sons and Daughters">{{harvnb|Coghlan|1925|p=11}}: "''This Side of Paradise'' focused the thought of the whole nation on the problems of 'flappers and parlor snakes' which it had known before simply as its daughters and sons. Some of the old-lady magazines are still debating these problems with tiresome gravity".</ref><ref name="Spotlighting the Flappers">{{harvnb|Butcher|1925|p=11}}: ''This Side of Paradise'' made him "the first person to turn the spotlight on the flapper in the backseat on a lonely road".</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Fitzgerald|Fitzgerald|2002|p=184}}: "...where young men in [[Stutz Bearcat|bear-cat roadsters]] are speeding to whatever Genevra {{sic}} [King] Mitchell's dominate the day".</ref> Despite the fact that Fitzgerald had composed the work several years earlier and his novel chronicled the more restrained social milieu of pre-war 1910s America, the work became popularly and inaccurately associated with the wild carefree atmosphere of post-war 1920s America immortalized in [[John Held, Jr.]]'s satirical drawings.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=83–84, 127}}

With this debut novel, critics touted Fitzgerald as the first writer to turn the national spotlight on the [[G.I. Generation|Jazz Age generation]],<ref name="Jazz Age Generation"/><ref name="Lost Generation As Younger"/><ref name="Post-War Generation">{{harvnb|Fitzgerald|2004|p=118}}: "The [[G.I. Generation|Post-War generation]] is an utterly disrupted one. Youth suffered with interrupted educations. Mr. Fitzgerald finds this generation essentially weak, and much inclined to be looking to the two older groups for guidance, without being certain of which to follow as a standard. There is no vitality in this group, and it is best described in fiction by books like ''[[The Plastic Age]]'' and ''[[Flaming Youth (novel)|Flaming Youth]]''."</ref> especially their young [[flapper]]s.<ref name="Sons and Daughters"/><ref name="Spotlighting the Flappers"/> In contrast to the older [[Lost Generation]] to which [[Gertrude Stein]] posited that [[Ernest Hemingway]] and Fitzgerald belonged,<ref name="Gray 1946">{{harvnb|Gray|1946|p=59}}: "They were the most conspicuous representatives of that 'lost generation,' fragments of which Gertrude Stein was forever stumbling upon in the byways of Paris."</ref><ref name="Lost Generation Label Rejected">{{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|p=281}}: "...Fitzgerald's rebuttal to Gertrude Stein's 'lost generation' catch phrase that had achieved currency through Hemingway's use of it as an epigraph for ''The Sun Also Rises''. Whereas Stein had identified the lost generation with the war veterans, Fitzgerald insisted that the lost generation was the prewar group and expressed confidence in 'the men of the war.'"</ref> the Jazz Age generation were those Americans younger than Fitzgerald who had been adolescents during World War&nbsp;I and largely untouched by the conflict.{{efn|name=World War I and the Jazz Age|Fitzgerald argued that World War&nbsp;I neither created the Jazz Age nor influenced young Americans, asserting the conflict had no lasting impact.{{sfn|Fitzgerald|2004|pp=6–7}}}}<ref name="Jazz Age Generation">{{harvnb|Fitzgerald|1945|p=15}}: "The generation which been adolescent during the confusion of the War, brusquely shouldered my contemporaries out of the way and danced into the limelight. This was the generation whose girls dramatized themselves as flappers, the generation that corrupted its elders and eventually overreached itself less through lack of morals than through lack of taste."</ref><ref name="Lost Generation As Younger"/> Fitzgerald described this younger generation as the true "lost" generation which shouldered his generational contemporaries out of the way: "This was the generation whose girls dramatized themselves as flappers".{{sfn|Fitzgerald|1945|pp=14–15}}<ref name="Lost Generation As Younger">{{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|p=451}}: Fitzgerald insisted "the real lost generation... were those who were young right after the war because they were the ones with infinite belief."</ref>

Due to its focus on liberated flappers and college life, Fitzgerald's novel became a cultural phenomenon among young Americans.{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1pp=127–128|Kazin|1951|2p=119}}<ref>{{harvnb|Gallo|1978|p=16}}: "''This Side of Paradise'' was acclaimed as their book by Fitzgerald's enthusiastic youthful readers."</ref> According to writer [[John O'Hara]], half a million young men and women "fell in love with the book,"{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=127}} and, according to essayist [[Glenway Wescott]], Fitgerald's novel became the rallying banner of the "youth movement".{{sfn|Kazin|1951|p=119}} The novel's immense popularity among American youth stemmed from its frank portrayal of their chafing under the outdated social mores of Wilsonian America.{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1pp=127–128|Kazin|1951|2p=119}} Although earlier works about collegiate life had been published such as [[Owen Johnson (writer)|Owen Johnson]]'s ''[[Stover at Yale]]'' (1912), Fitzgerald's work became heralded as "the first realistic American college novel", and young American men viewed the novel as a guide for social conduct.{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1pp=127–128|Rascoe|1920|2p=11}} Newspapers reported that young American women imitated the rebellious behavior of the novel's women characters, and some writers miscredited Fitzgerald's novel with creating the cultural archetype of the flapper.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=127–128}}

=== Youth in revolt ===
{{CSS image crop|Image=Krazy Kat LOC npcc.04658.jpg|bSize=500|cWidth=300|cHeight=180|oTop=150|oLeft=90|Location=right|Description=A flapper and patrons in front of ''[[Krazy Kat Klub|The Krazy Kat]]'', a [[Jazz Age]] speakeasy, in 1921. Critics touted Fitzgerald's ''This Side of Paradise'' as turning the national spotlight on the [[G.I. Generation|Jazz Age generation]]⁠—those Americans younger than Fitzgerald who had been adolescents during World War&nbsp;I and whom Fitzgerald regarded as the true "lost" generation.}}
With his photograph appearing in many newspapers,{{sfn|Butcher|1925|p=11}}<ref>{{harvnb|Bruccoli|1981|p=119}}: "Fitzgerald's appearance accelerated his elevation to celebrity status. His striking good looks combined with his youth and brilliance to complete the image of the novelist as a romantic figure. He photographed handsomely, especially in profile; and, though never a dandy, he dressed well in Brooks Brothers collegiate style. During the Twenties he often carried a cane, as did many young men. It was frequently remarked that Fitzgerald looked like a figure in a collar ad."</ref> the national press depicted Fitzgerald as the standard-bearer for "youth in revolt".{{sfn|''The Montgomery Advertiser''|1922|p=25}}<ref name="Youth Movement">Per [[Glenway Wescott]]'s 1941 essay, collected in {{harvnb|Kazin|1951|p=119}}: "''This Side of Paradise'' haunted the decade like a song, popular but perfect. It hung over an entire youth movement like a banner, somewhat discolored and windworn now; the wind has lapsed out of it. But a book which college boys really read is a rare thing, not to be dismissed idly or in a moment of severe sophistication."</ref> "'Behold a new prophet is risen, who speaketh for Youth in Revolt!" wrote ''[[The Montgomery Advertiser]]'', describing the reaction to Fitzgerald's novel.{{sfn|''The Montgomery Advertiser''|1922|p=25}} "All things formerly held to be beautiful, good and true are now become futile, fatuous and fabulous, and worthy of respect no more. The bob-haired girl and the mop topped boy shall teach you the Facts of Life. Go to, ye elders, hearken unto them!'"{{sfn|''The Montgomery Advertiser''|1922|p=25}} Such articles fostered the widespread impression of Fitzgerald as championing the revolt by young Americans against traditional norms and as the outstanding aggressor in the rebellion of "[[Flaming Youth (film)|flaming youth]]" against the "old guard".<ref name="Outstanding aggressor"/>

Capitalizing on his new standing as a national figure with his finger on the pulse of young America, Fitzgerald gave interviews discoursing on the revolt by youth culture.{{sfn|Fitzgerald|2004|p=7}} Declaring that World War&nbsp;I "had little or nothing to do" with the change in morals among young Americans and did not leave "any real lasting effect,"{{sfn|Fitzgerald|2004|p=7}}{{sfn|Fitzgerald|1945|pp=14, 18}} Fitzgerald attributed the [[sexual revolution]]<!-- "Sexual revolution" is the correct phrase and later appropriated by 1960s writers for the so-called second sexual revolution. --> among young adults to a combination of popular literature by [[H. G. Wells]] and other intellectuals criticizing repressive social norms, [[Sigmund Freud]]'s sexual theories gaining salience, and the invention of the automobile allowing youths to escape parental surveillance in order to engage in [[premarital sex]].{{sfnm|Fitzgerald|1945|1pp=15, 18|Fitzgerald|2004|2p=7}}

As a result of Fitzgerald's new fame as a celebrated author chronicling young Americans defiance towards traditional values, [[social conservatives]] attacked the author in newspaper columns. [[Heywood Broun]] decried Fitzgerald's use of modern slang and attempted to discredit him by claiming the author fabricated his novel's depiction of young people engaging in drunken sprees and premarital sex.{{sfn|Broun|1920|p=14}} An amused Fitzgerald ridiculed such allegations,{{sfnm|Wilson|1952|1pp=143–144|Fitzgerald|1945|2p=16}} and he opined that such critics wished to discredit his work in order to retain their outdated conceptions of American society.{{sfn|Fitzgerald|1945|pp=15–16}}

=== Critical reaction ===
[[File:H. L. Mencken - The Borzoi Cropped Retouched.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.7|alt=Photographic portrait of H. L. Mencken|Critics such as [[H. L. Mencken]] hailed ''This Side of Paradise'' as an outstanding debut novel.]]
The majority of critics lauded Fitzgerald's debut novel with "wild enthusiasm",<ref name="Wild enthusiasm">{{harvnb|Wilson|1952|p=29}}: "...one can understand the wild enthusiasm with which ''This Side of Paradise'' was hailed."</ref> and the most enthusiastic reviewers went so far as to hail the young Midwestern writer as a literary genius.{{sfnm|Rascoe|1920|1p=11|Bryer|1978|2pp=xii-xiii}}{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1pp=119–121|Mencken|1920|2p=140|Ford|1920|3p=52|Butcher|1920|4p=33}} In his April 1920 review, critic [[Burton Rascoe]] of ''[[The Chicago Tribune]]'' urged his readers to "make a note of the name, F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is borne by a 23 year old novelist who will, unless I am much mistaken, be much heard of hereafter."{{sfn|Rascoe|1920|p=11}} Rascoe asserted that Fitzgerald's first novel bore "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."{{sfnm|Rascoe|1920|1p=11|Bruccoli|1981|2p=120}} 

"The prize first novel of a decade is F. Scott Fitzgerald's ''This Side of Paradise''," critic [[Fanny Butcher]] raved in her June 1920 column for ''The Chicago Tribune'', singling out Fitzgerald for particular praise amid other competitors that included the U.S. publication of [[Virginia Woolf]]'s first novel ''[[The Voyage Out]]'' and [[Zane Grey]]'s novel ''A Man for the Ages''.{{sfn|Butcher|1920|p=33}}  Butcher declared Fitzgerald's book to be "the living, palpitant being of the youth of the hour, a book which, I haven't a doubt in the world, will have a serious and far reaching effect on American literature."{{sfn|Butcher|1920|p=33}} 

Perhaps the most influential review of Fitzgerald's novel came from critic [[H. L. Mencken]], the editor of the [[literary magazine]] ''[[The Smart Set]]''.{{sfnm|Kronenberger|1934|1p=50|Mizener|1951|2pp=112–113|Bruccoli|1981|3p=138}} Mencken's authoritative opinions on the latest literary endeavors often lifted their authors upward toward greater success or cast them down into cultural oblivion.{{sfnm|Kronenberger|1934|1p=50|Mizener|1951|2pp=112-113|Bruccoli|1981|3p=138}} In his August 1920 review of ''This Side of Paradise'', Mencken described Fitzgerald's work as an amazing debut and lavished praise on its author:

{{Quote|The best American novel that I have seen of late is also the product of a neophyte, to wit, F. Scott Fitzgerald... He offers a truly amazing first novel—original in structure, extremely sophisticated in manner, and adorned with a brilliancy that is as rare in American writing... The young American novelist usually reveals himself as a naive, sentimental and somewhat disgusting ignoramus—a believer in [[Prohibition in the United States|Great Causes]], a snuffler and eye-roller, a spouter of stale philosophies out of [[Kensington Palace|Kensington drawing rooms]], the doggeries of French [[Hackney carriage|hack-drivers]], and the lower floor of the [[Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München|Munich Hofbräuhaus]]... Fitzgerald is nothing of the sort. On the contrary, he is... an artist—an apt and delicate weaver of words...{{sfn|Mencken|1920|p=140}}}}

Mencken declared the first half of ''This Side of Paradise'' to be superior to the second half, perceiving that Fitzgerald's novel became more "thin" as the young author followed less autobiographical plot strands.{{sfn|Mencken|1920|p=140}} Fitzgerald concurred with Mencken's low opinion of certain later chapters, particularly Amory's relations with Eleanor.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=125}} In his annotated copy of ''This Side of Paradise'', Fitzgerald deemed his Eleanor subplot to be unintentionally hilarious and admitted he could not "even bear to read it."{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=125}} Believing that Fitzgerald's protagonist began to elude the author in the second half, Mencken criticized Fitzgerald for dropping "his Amory Blaine as [[Mark Twain]] dropped [[Huckleberry Finn]], but for a less cogent reason."{{sfn|Mencken|1920|p=140}} Despite this critique, he commended most of the novel, particularly up to and including the section detailing the love story with Rosalind.{{sfn|Mencken|1920|p=140}}

Whereas some critics praised the novel's form and structure as highly original, others criticized the work for the same reasons.{{sfnm|Wilson|1952|1p=28|Mencken|1925|2p=9|Ford|1920|3p=52}} Lillian C. Ford in ''[[The Los Angeles Times]]'' complained "the construction is odd and the book has two parts, the first with four chapters and the second with five. The chapters have unexpected topical divisions and when the author feels so inclined he throws his story into drama form and then again it jogs along as plain narrative."{{sfn|Ford|1920|p=52}} Similarly, many reviewers commented that Fitzgerald's structural craftsmanship left much to be desired.{{sfnm|Stagg|1925|1p=9|Mencken|1925|2p=9}} He could write entertainingly, they conceded, but he paid scant attention to form and construction.{{sfn|Mencken|1925|p=9}} Having read these criticisms of his debut novel, Fitzgerald sought to improve on his form and construction in his next work, ''[[The Beautiful and Damned]]'', and to venture into a new genre of fiction altogether.{{sfn|Wilson|1952|p=32}}

=== Princeton backlash ===
[[File:Portrait of John Grier Hibben.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|[[John Grier Hibben]], the president of Princeton University, criticized the novel in a letter to Fitzgerald. "Very frankly," Hibben wrote, "your characterization of Princeton has grieved me."]]
Despite the novel's warm reception by critics and readers, many of [[Princeton University]]'s faculty and alumni reacted with hostility towards Fitzgerald's ''This Side of Paradise'', much to Fitzgerald's surprise and dismay.{{sfn|Fitzgerald|1945|pp=88–89}} Although Fitzgerald's mentor [[Christian Gauss]], a Professor of French Literature, lauded the novel as "a work of art,"{{sfn|Campus Critic|1920|p=2}} other Princetonians attacked the book in the pages of the ''[[Princeton Alumni Weekly]]'' and ''[[The Daily Princetonian]]''.{{sfnm|Fitzgerald|1945|1pp=88–89|Campus Critic|1920|2p=2|Kent|1920|3p=3}} They despised his popular novel for fostering an unfavorable impression of their school as a snobbish milieu focused on idle pleasures.{{sfnm|''The Daily Princetonian''|1922|1p=2|Bruccoli|1981|2p=128}} In a typical review, Ralph Kent, a senior editor of the ''Nassau Literary Review'', disparaged the work as impugning Princeton's reputation due to its superficial depiction of undergraduate life.{{sfn|Kent|1920|p=3}}

Fitzgerald's novel soon attracted the attention and displeasure of [[John Grier Hibben]], a [[Presbyterian]] minister and educational reformer who succeeded [[Woodrow Wilson]] as the president of Princeton University.{{sfnm|Bruccoli|1981|1p=128|''Time'' Magazine|1931}} In a private letter to Fitzgerald dated May 27, 1920, Hibben expressed his profound disappointment with Fitzgerald's depiction of the school and informed the young author that his novel had wounded him:{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=128}}

{{Quote|It is because I appreciate so much all that is in you of artistic skill and [a] certain elemental power that I am taking the liberty of telling you very frankly that your characterization of Princeton has grieved me. I cannot bear to think that our young men are merely living for four years in a country club and spending their lives wholly in a spirit of calculation and snobbishness... I have always had a belief in Princeton and in what the place could do in the making of a strong vigorous manhood. It would be an overwhelming grief to me, in the midst of my work here and my love for Princeton's young men, should I feel that we have nothing to offer but the outgrown symbols and shells of a past whose reality has long since disappeared.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=128}}}}
{{quote box | quote = These weeks in the clouds ended abruptly a week later when Princeton turned on the book—not undergraduate Princeton but the [[black mass]] of faculty and alumni. There was a kind but reproachful letter from [[John Grier Hibben|President Hibben]], and a room full of classmates who suddenly turned on me with condemnation... The ''Alumni Weekly'' got after my book and only [[Christian Gauss|Dean Gauss]] had a good word to say or me. The unctuousness and hypocrisy of the proceedings was exasperating and for seven years I didn't go to Princeton. | author = —F. Scott Fitzgerald | source = "Early Success," October 1937{{sfn|Fitzgerald|1945|pp=88–89}} | width = 22em | align = right | style = padding:1.5em}}
In response to Hibben's chastising letter, Fitzgerald wrote a respectful but uncompromising reply that denied any attempt to disparage Princeton and defended his novel's depiction of the university.{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=129}}{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|p=108}} "I have no fault to find with Princeton that I can't find with [[Oxford University|Oxford]] and [[Cambridge University|Cambridge]]," Fitzgerald explained. "I simply wrote out of my own impressions, wrote as honestly as I could a picture of its beauty. That the picture is cynical is the fault of my temperament.... I must admit however that ''This Side of Paradise'' does over accentuate the gaiety and country club atmosphere of Princeton. For the sake of the readers interest that part was much over-stressed, and of course the hero, not being average, reacted rather unhealthily I suppose to many perfectly normal phenomena. To that extent the book is inaccurate."{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=129}}

As a result of this unexpected backlash by the faculty and alumni, Fitzgerald's joy at becoming a famous novelist proved short-lived.{{sfn|Fitzgerald|1945|pp=88–89}} Although undergraduates across the country touted the novel as a realistic portrayal of college life,{{sfn|Kazin|1951|p=119}}{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=127}} Princeton alumni and former classmates continued to treat the author with contempt in social settings over the ensuing months.{{sfnm|Fitzgerald|1945|1pp=88–89|Turnbull|1962|2p=108}} In one instance, Fitzgerald visited Princeton's [[University Cottage Club]] and faced a room full of alumni and former classmates who condemned him for tarnishing their school's reputation.{{sfnm|Fitzgerald|1945|1pp=88–89|Turnbull|1962|2p=108}} After informing Fitzgerald that he had been suspended from the club, they symbolically ejected him from the building via a rear window.{{sfn|Turnbull|1962|p=108}} Exasperated by the contemptuousness and sanctimoniousness of Princeton's faculty and alumni, a dispirited Fitzgerald did not return to visit his alma mater for many years, presumably until their hostility had lessened.{{sfn|Fitzgerald|1945|pp=88–89}}

{{quote box | quote = When, shortly after his death, Zelda Fitzgerald attempted to sell her husband's papers to Princeton for $3,750, the librarian declined the offer. The university had no obligation, he commented, to support the widow of a second-rate Midwestern hack who'd been lucky enough to attend Princeton. | author = —Scott Donaldson | source = ''F. Scott Fitzgerald: Fool for Love'' (1983){{sfn|Donaldson|1983|p=40}} | width = 22em | align = left | style = padding:1.5em}}
After a 44-year-old Fitzgerald died of a heart attack due to occlusive [[coronary arteriosclerosis]] in December 1940, many Princeton staff and alumni continued to privately and publicly belittle the author and his literary ''oeuvre''.{{sfn|Donaldson|1983|p=40}} According to biographer Scott Donaldson, after Fitzgerald's death, his widow Zelda Fitzgerald attempted to sell the entirety of her late husband's papers to Princeton University for the modest sum of $3,750 ({{Inflation|US|3750.00|1940|fmt=eq}}), but the Princeton librarian spurned the offer.{{sfn|Donaldson|1983|p=40}} The Princeton librarian explained that the university felt no obligation to pay such a sum for the papers of a mediocre author who had been fortunate enough to attend their prestigious institution.{{sfn|Donaldson|1983|p=40}}

One year later, in 1941, literary critic [[Edmund Wilson]], a close friend of Fitzgerald and a fellow Princetonian, attempted to use his considerable influence to persuade the university to publish a book honoring F. Scott Fitzgerald but proved unsuccessful.{{sfn|Donaldson|1983|p=40}} In 1956, when the [[Princeton University Library]] released a collection of Fitzgerald's writings titled ''Afternoon of an Author'', many alumni wrote letters of complaint arguing that Princeton should neither celebrate its connection to the author nor describe him as "most Princetonian."{{sfn|Donaldson|1983|p=40}}

== Critical analysis ==
=== Contemporary analysis ===
==== Innovative style ====
{{multiple image
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 | footer = Fitzgerald used ''[[Tono-Bungay]]'' (1909) by [[H. G. Wells]] (first) and ''[[Sinister Street]]'' (1913) by Sir [[Compton Mackenzie]] (second) as templates for his novel.
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For his first novel, Fitzgerald used as his literary templates [[H. G. Wells]]' 1909 realist work ''[[Tono-Bungay]]'' and Sir [[Compton Mackenzie]]'s 1913 novel ''[[Sinister Street]]'',{{sfnm|Wilson|1952|1p=32|Fitzgerald|2004|2pp=41, 83|Kazin|1951|3pp=29, 48, 78}} which chronicles a college student's [[coming of age]] at [[Oxford University]].{{sfn|Wilson|1952|pp=28–29}} The influence of these two particular novels upon ''This Side of Paradise'' proved apparent to perceptive readers such as Fitzgerald's friend Edmund Wilson who, upon finishing the novel, described Fitzgerald's work as "an exquisite burlesque of Compton Mackenzie with a pastiche of Wells thrown in at the end."{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|p=105}}

Although Fitzgerald imitated these novels, his debut work differed due to its experimental style.{{sfnm|Milford|1970|1p=67|Weaver|1922|2p=3}} He discarded the traditional narrative of most novels and instead unspooled the plot in the form of intermingled textual fragments, letters, and poetry, even incorporating a [[Stream of consciousness|stream-of-consciousness]] passage.{{sfn|Berg|1978|p=14}} This approach resulted from combining ''The Romantic Egotist'', his earlier novel attempt, with various short stories and poems he had written but never published.{{sfn|Prigozy|2002|pp=48–56}} 

This atonal blend of different fictive<!-- Do not change "fictive" to "fictional" as "fictive" is the correct form in this instance. --> elements prompted critics to fête Fitzgerald as a trailblazer whose work modernized a staid literature that had fallen "as far behind modern habits as behind modern history."{{sfn|Kazin|1951|p=128}} "''This Side of Paradise'' may not seem like much now," writer [[Dorothy Parker]] attested decades later, "but in 1920 it was considered an experimental novel; it cut new ground."{{sfn|Milford|1970|p=67}}

==== Prose anomalies ====
More so than most contemporary writers of his era, Fitzgerald's authorial voice evolved and matured over time,{{sfnm|McCardell|1926|1p=6|Mencken|1925|2p=9|Butcher|1925|3p=11|Van Allen|1934|4p=83}} and each of his novels represented a discernible progression in literary quality.{{sfn|Van Allen|1934|p=83}} Although critics eventually regarded him as possessing "the best narrative gift of the century," they did not perceive this narrative gift as evident in ''This Side of Paradise''.{{sfn|Kazin|1951|pp=13, 122}} Believing that prose had a basis in [[Lyric poetry|lyric verse]],{{sfn|Wilson|1952|p=638}} Fitzgerald crafted his sentences by ear and, consequently, ''This Side of Paradise'' contains numerous malapropisms and descriptive [[Formal fallacy|non sequiturs]] which annoyed readers and reviewers.{{sfnm|Wilson|1952|1p=29|Wilson|1952|2p=638}} Reflecting on these copious defects, critic [[Edmund Wilson]] remarked that Fitzgerald's first novel exhibited nearly every possible fault and weakness a novel can possess.{{sfn|Wilson|1952|p=28}}

=== Posthumous analysis ===
{{quote box | quote = I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again. | author = —F. Scott Fitzgerald | source = ''This Side of Paradise'' (1920){{sfn|Fitzgerald|1921|p=278}} | width = 22em | align = right | style = padding:1.5em}}
In more recent years, the underlying themes of [[narcissism]] and [[feminism]] in the novel have been examined in a variety of scholarly essays.{{sfnm|Tanaka|2004|1pp=123–140|Riccardo|2012|2pp=26–57}}  Scholar Saori Tanaka's argues that "Amory comes to know himself through Beatrice and his four lovers, which are like five [[Plate glass|sheets of glass]]. They are his reflectors... reflecting his narcissism and the inner side."{{sfn|Tanaka|2004|p=126}}

The first three women in the book allow Amory to dream in a narcissistic way. After participating in the war and losing his financial foundation, the last two women he meets, Rosalind and Eleanor, "make him not dream but awake" in postwar America.{{sfn|Tanaka|2004|p=131}} "With Beatrice and Isabelle, Amory activates the grandiose self," Tanaka states, "with Clara and Rosalind, he restricts narcissism, and with Eleanor, he gains a realistic conception of the self."{{sfn|Tanaka|2004|p=134}}

Others have analyzed [[feminist]] themes in the work. Scholar Andrew Riccardo views several characters to be feminist templates.{{sfn|Riccardo|2012|pp=26–57}} Eleanor's character serves as a "love interest, therapeutic friend, and conversational other".{{sfn|Riccardo|2012|p=36}} Highly educated in discussing poetry and philosophy, "Eleanor not only posits her desires in juxtaposition to the lingering expectations of women in her day but also serves as soothsayer to the demands which would be placed on females".{{sfn|Riccardo|2012|p=36}}

== Legacy and influence ==
{{See also|Echoes of the Jazz Age}}
{{multiple image
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 | image2 = Gertrude Stein 1935-01-04.jpg
 | width2 = 150
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 | footer = [[John V. A. Weaver]] (first) claimed the literary influence of Fitzgerald's ''This Side of Paradise'' on young writers to be inestimable, while [[Gertrude Stein]] (second) wrote that his novel created a new generation of young writers in the public's mind.
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{{quote box | quote = [Fitzgerald] has been to post-war American letters what [[Victor Hugo]] was to his time; and ''This Side of Paradise''... was the manifesto of the 'younger generation'... It made this wild, keen, enthusiastic younger generation self-conscious; it encouraged innumerable beginners to open revolt against the platitudes and [[Pollyanna|pollyannalysis]] {{sic}} of precedent. In a literary way, Fitzgerald’s influence is so great that it cannot be estimated. | author = —[[John Van Alstyne Weaver|John V. A. Weaver]] | source = 1922{{sfn|Weaver|1922|p=3}} | width = 25em | align = right | style = padding:1.5em}}
As an experimental novel, ''This Side of Paradise'' influenced the next generation of upcoming American writers, and critics such as [[John Van Alstyne Weaver|John V. A. Weaver]] likened Fitzgerald's impact on post-war American literature to [[Victor Hugo]]'s vast influence on French letters.{{sfnm|Butcher|1920|1p=33|Weaver|1922|2p=3|Milford|1970|3p=67}}<ref name="Wilson Paraphrasing Weaver">{{harvnb|Wilson|1952|p=142}}: "There were a lot of people writing before ''This Side of Paradise''—but the Younger Generation never really became self-conscious till then nor did the public at large become conscious of it. My slogan is that I am the man who made America Younger-Generation-conscious {{sic}}."</ref> Within two years, in the wake of young imitators writing in more experimental styles and discarding the traditional story structure, Weaver declared Fitzgerald's influence on younger writers to be so great as to be inestimable.{{sfn|Weaver|1922|p=3}} In her memoir ''[[The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas]]'', [[Gertrude Stein]] wrote that Fitzgerald's novel created this new generation of young writers in the public's mind.<ref name="Stein on This Side of Paradise">{{harvnb|Stein|1933|p=268}}: "Stein had been very much impressed by ''This Side of Paradise''. She read it when it came out and before she knew any of the young American writers. She said of it that it was this book that really created for the public the new generation."</ref>

In addition to its literary influence on young writers, social commentators credited Fitzgerald's novel with having a profound cultural impact, purportedly inspiring the younger generation of Americans to rebel against the social norms and cultural standards of their elders.{{sfnm|Kazin|1951|1p=119, 123|''The Montgomery Advertiser''|1922|2p=25}} Remarking upon the popular association between Fitzgerald and the [[Flaming Youth (film)|flaming youth]]<!-- Popularized by Colleen Moore's film of the same name, the phrase "flaming youth" refers to the Jazz Age generation and is used in many historical works. --> of the Jazz Age,  critic Burke Van Allen wrote in 1934 that "no generation of Americans has had a chronicler so persuasive and unmaudlin" as Fitzgerald, and no author became so closely identified with the generation he recorded.{{sfn|Van Allen|1934|p=83}}

The popular identification of Fitzgerald as the chronicler of carefree youth and proselytizer of Jazz Age hedonism earned him the enmity of reactionary societal figures.{{sfnm|Broun|1920|1p=14|Kazin|1951|2pp=123–124}}<ref name="Outstanding aggressor">Per [[Glenway Wescott]]'s 1941 essay, collected in {{harvnb|Kazin|1951|p=123}}: "Fitzgerald, the outstanding aggressor in the little warfare which divided our middle classes in the twenties—warfare of moral emancipation against moral conceit, flaming youth against old guard—definitely has let his side down. The champion is as dead as a doornail. Self-congratulatory moral persons may crow over him if they wish."</ref> When he died in 1940, social conservatives rejoiced over his death.{{sfn|Kazin|1951|pp=13, 123, 125}} Writing in ''[[The New York World-Telegram]]'', columnist [[Westbrook Pegler]] wrote that Fitzgerald's death a few weeks prior reawakened "memories of a queer bunch of undisciplined and self-indulgent brats who were determined not to pull their weight in the boat and wanted the world to drop everything and sit down and bawl with them. A kick in the pants and a clout over the scalp were more like their needing."{{sfn|Kazin|1951|p=125}} Due to this widespread perception of Fitzgerald and his literary works, the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore|Baltimore Diocese]] denied him a Catholic burial and refused his family permission to intern him at [[Third Addition to Rockville and Old St. Mary's Church and Cemetery|St. Mary's Church]] in [[Rockville, Maryland]].{{sfn|Bruccoli|1981|pp=490–491}}<ref>{{harvnb|Turnbull|1962|p=321}}: "Fitzgerald had wanted to be buried with his family in the Catholic cemetery in Rockville, but since he had died a non-believer the Bishop raised objections, and he was buried in the Union Cemetery not far away."</ref><ref name="Denied Catholic burial">{{harvnb|Alexander|2025}}: "He was denied burial at the Catholic Church because he was not considered a good Catholic,” said [Jackson] Brier. "He was not thought of as the way he is now, he was remembered as a kind of radical writer... It was the novel he wrote in 1920 called ''This Side of Paradise'', which was all about the high jinks of young people, college age kids kissing and holding all sorts of liquor soaked parties, which was a big revelation in 1920."</ref>

Observing the joyful vitriol expressed by social conservatives after Fitzgerald's death, essayist [[Glenway Wescott]] opined that such persons could never erase the impact of Fitzgerald's ''This Side of Paradise'' on 1920s America and young Americans.{{sfn|Kazin|1951|pp=119–123}} "Self-congratulatory moral persons may crow over him if they wish," Wescott wrote in a February 1941 essay two months after Fitzgerald's death, but "''This Side of Paradise'' haunted the decade like a song, popular but perfect. It hung over an entire youth movement like a banner, somewhat discolored and windworn now; the wind has lapsed out of it. But a book which college boys really read is a rare thing, not to be dismissed idly or in a moment of severe sophistication."{{sfn|Kazin|1951|pp=119–123}}

== References ==
=== Notes ===
{{notelist}}

=== Citations ===
{{reflist}}

=== Works cited ===
{{refbegin|indent=yes|30em}}
* {{Citation | author = <!-- No author --> | title = A Disciple of Fitzgerald | date = February 11, 1922 | newspaper = [[The Daily Princetonian]] | location = Princeton, New Jersey | volume = 42 | number = 185 | page = 2 | edition = Saturday | url = https://papersofprinceton.princeton.edu/princetonperiodicals/?a=d&d=Princetonian19220211-01.2.15 | via = Princeton University Library | access-date = October 26, 2022 | ref = {{harvid|''The Daily Princetonian''|1922}}}}
* {{Cite news | last = Alexander | first = Jimmy | title = Why F. Scott Fitzgerald was buried in Rockville, Maryland — twice | 
date = April 13, 2025 | work = [[WTOP-FM|WTOP News]] | url = https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2025/04/why-f-scott-fitzgerld-was-buried-in-rockville-maryland-twice/ | access-date = July 10, 2025}}
* {{Citation | last = Berg | first = A. Scott | author-link = A. Scott Berg | title = Max Perkins: Editor of Genius | year = 1978 | publisher = [[Simon & Schuster]] | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/maxperkinsedito000berg | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive | isbn = 0-671-82719-7}}
* {{Citation | last = Bernstein | first = Mark F. | title = Princeton Football | publisher = [[Arcadia Publishing]] | location = Charleston, South Carolina | year = 2009 | isbn = 978-0-7385-6584-2 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jboJTyrkJagC | url-access = subscription | via = Google Books}}
* {{Citation | last = Brooke | first = Rupert | author-link = Rupert Brooke | title = The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke | year = 1918 | chapter = Tiare Tahiti | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.45743/page/n177/mode/2up | page = 15 | publisher = [[Sidgwick & Jackson]] | location = London | url = https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.45743 | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = Broun | first = Heywood | author-link = Heywood Broun | title = Books | date = April 14, 1920 | newspaper = [[The New York Tribune]] | page = 14 | edition = Wednesday | location = New York City | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/470033257/ | url-access = subscription | access-date = December 7, 2021 | via = Newspapers.com}}
* {{Citation | last = Bruccoli | first = Matthew J. | author-link = Matthew J. Bruccoli | title = Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald | year = 1981 | edition = 1st | publisher = [[Harcourt Brace Jovanovich]] | location = New York and London | isbn = 0-15-183242-0 | url = https://archive.org/details/somesortofepicgr0000bruc | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | editor-last = Bryer | editor-first = Jackson R. | title = F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Critical Reception | year = 1978 | publisher = Burt Franklin & Co. | lccn =  78-8268 | isbn = 0-89102-111-6 | url = https://archive.org/details/fscottfitzgerald0000unse_z9s5  | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = Buller | first = Richard | title = F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lois Moran, and the Mystery of Mariposa Street | year = 2005 | journal = The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review | publisher = [[Penn State University Press]] | location = University Park, Pennsylvania | volume = 4 | pages = 3–19 | doi = 10.1111/j.1755-6333.2005.tb00013.x | jstor = 41583088 | url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/41583088 | url-access = subscription }}
* {{Citation | last = Butcher | first = Fanny | author-link = Fanny Butcher | title = New Fitzgerald Book Proves He's Really a Writer | date = April 18, 1925 | newspaper = [[The Chicago Tribune]] | page = 11 | edition = Saturday | location = Chicago | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/354939548/ | url-access = subscription  | access-date = December 7, 2021 | via = Newspapers.com}}
* {{Citation | last = Butcher | first = Fanny | author-link = Fanny Butcher | title = Tabloid Book Review | newspaper = [[The Chicago Tribune]] | date = June 13, 1920 | page = 33 | edition = Sunday | location = Chicago| url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/355019322/ | url-access = subscription | access-date = December 8, 2021 | via = Newspapers.com | author-mask = 6}}
* {{Citation | author = Campus Critic | title = Diogenes' Lamp | date = April 16, 1920 | newspaper = [[The Daily Princetonian]] | location = Princeton, New Jersey | page = 2 | volume = 41 | number = 38 | edition = Friday | url = https://papersofprinceton.princeton.edu/princetonperiodicals/?a=d&d=Princetonian19200416-01.2.14 | access-date = October 26, 2022 | via = Princeton University Library}}
* {{Citation | last = Cline | first = Sally | title = Zelda Fitzgerald: Her Voice in Paradise | year = 2002 | publisher = [[Arcade Publishing]] | location = New York | isbn = 1-55970-688-0 | url = https://archive.org/details/zeldafitzgeraldh00clin | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = Coghlan | first = Ralph | title = F. Scott Fitzgerald | date = April 25, 1925 | newspaper = [[The St. Louis Post-Dispatch]] | location = St. Louis, Missouri | page = 11 | edition = Saturday | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/140285649/ | url-access = subscription | access-date = December 7, 2021 | via = Newspapers.com}}
* {{Citation | last = Davis | first = Susan Lawrence | title = Authentic History Ku Klux Klan, 1865–1877 | year = 1924 | publisher = Anonymous Publisher | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/authentichistor00davi | url-access = registration | lccn = 24004514 | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | author = <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> | title = Died in Farewell Flight. 'Hobey' Baker Was on the Eve of Leaving for America | date = January 23, 1919 | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | location = New York City | edition = Thursday | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/01/23/97062137.pdf | url-access = subscription | access-date = October 8, 2024 | ref = {{harvid|''The New York Times''|1919}}}}
* {{Citation | last = Donaldson | first = Scott | title = Fool for Love: F. Scott Fitzgerald | year = 1983 | publisher = [[Congdon & Weed]] | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/foolforlovefscot0000dona_e3g1 | url-access = registration | isbn = 0-312-92209-4 | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = Eble | first = Kenneth E. | title = F. Scott Fitzgerald | year = 1963 | publisher = [[Twayne Publishers]] | location = Boston, Massachusetts | url = https://archive.org/details/fitzgerald0000unse_w0e5 | url-access = registration | lccn = 63-10953 | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = Fessenden | first = Tracy | year = 2005 | title = F. Scott Fitzgerald's Catholic Closet |journal  = U.S. Catholic Historian | location = Washington, D.C. | publisher = [[The Catholic University of America Press]] |volume = 23 | issue = 3 | pages = 19–40 | jstor = 25154963}}
* {{Citation | last = Fitzgerald | first = F. Scott | author-link = F. Scott Fitzgerald | editor1-last = Bruccoli | editor1-first = Matthew J. | editor1-link = Matthew J. Bruccoli | editor2-last = Baughman | editor2-first = Judith | title = Conversations with F. Scott Fitzgerald | year = 2004 | publisher = [[University Press of Mississippi|University of Mississippi Press]] | location = Jackson, Mississippi | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=M_BObJAl0lIC | url-access = subscription | isbn = 1-57806-604-2 | via = Google Books}}
* {{Citation | last = Fitzgerald | first = F. Scott | author-link = F. Scott Fitzgerald | editor-last = Wilson | editor-first = Edmund | editor-link = Edmund Wilson | title = The Crack-Up | year = 1945 | publisher = [[New Directions Publishing|New Directions]] | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/cerackup0000fsco/ | url-access = registration | lccn = 45035148 | via = Internet Archive | author-mask = 8}}
* {{Citation | last = Fitzgerald | first = F. Scott | author-link = F. Scott Fitzgerald | editor-last = Turnbull | editor-first = Andrew | editor-link = Andrew Turnbull (biographer) | title = The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald | date = July 1966 | orig-date = January 1940 | publisher = [[Charles Scribner's Sons]] | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/lettersoffscottf00fitz | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive | author-mask = 8}}
* {{Citation | last = Fitzgerald | first = F. Scott | author-link = F. Scott Fitzgerald | title = This Side of Paradise | year = 1921 | orig-year = 1920 | publisher = [[Charles Scribner's Sons]] | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/thissideparadis01fitzgoog | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive | author-mask = 8}}
* {{Citation | last1 = Fitzgerald | first1 = F. Scott | last2 = Fitzgerald | first2 = Zelda | author-link = F. Scott Fitzgerald | author-link2 = Zelda Fitzgerald | editor-last = Bryer | editor-first = Jackson R. | editor-last2 = Barks | editor-first2 = Cathy W. | title = Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald | year = 2002 | orig-year = 1985 | publisher = [[St. Martin's Press]] | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/dearscottdearest00fitz | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-1-9821-1713-9 | via = Internet Archive | author-mask = 8}}
* {{Citation | last = Fitzgerald | first = Zelda | author-link = Zelda Fitzgerald | editor-last = Bruccoli | editor-first = Matthew J. | editor-link = Matthew J. Bruccoli | title = The Collected Writings of Zelda Fitzgerald | year = 1991 | publisher = [[Charles Scribner's Sons]] | location = New York | isbn = 0-684-19297-7 | url = https://archive.org/details/collectedwriting00fitz_0 | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = Ford | first = Lillian C. | title = Sheaf of Fiction | date = May 9, 1920 | newspaper = [[The Los Angeles Times]] | location = Los Angeles | page = 52 | edition = Sunday | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/380562459/ | url-access = subscription | access-date = September 23, 2022 | via = Newspapers.com}}
* {{Citation | last = Gallo | first = Rose Adrienne | title = F. Scott Fitzgerald | year = 1978 | publisher = [[Frederick Ungar Publishing]] | location = New York | isbn = 0-8044-2225-7 | lccn = 76-15650 | url = https://archive.org/details/fscottfitzgerald00gall | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = Gray | first = James | title = On Second Thought | year = 1946 | publisher = [[University of Minnesota Press]] | location = Minneapolis | url = https://archive.org/details/onsecondthought0000jame | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | editor-last = Kazin | editor-first = Alfred | editor-link = Alfred Kazin | title = F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Man and His Work | year = 1951 | url = https://archive.org/details/fscottfitzgerald00kazi | via = Internet Archive | url-access = registration | publisher = [[World Publishing Company]] | location = New York City | edition = 1st}}
* {{Citation | last = Kent | first = Ralph | title = Undergraduate Frowns on 'This Side of Paradise' | date = April 15, 1920 | newspaper = [[The Daily Princetonian]] | location = Princeton, New Jersey | volume = 41 | number = 37 | page = 3 | edition = Thursday | url = https://papersofprinceton.princeton.edu/princetonperiodicals/?a=d&d=Princetonian19200415-01.2.19 | access-date = October 26, 2022 | via = Princeton University Library}}
* {{Citation | last = Kronenberger | first = Louis | author-link = Louis Kronenberger | title = The Smart Set's Palmy Days | newspaper = [[The New York Times Book Review]] | location = New York | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/12/09/93434637.html | date = December 9, 1934 | page = 2 | edition = Sunday | access-date = November 26, 2024}}
* {{Citation | last = MacKie | first = Elizabeth Beckwith | editor-last = Bruccoli | editor-first = Matthew J. | editor-link = Matthew J. Bruccoli | title = My Friend Scott Fitzgerald | year = 1970 | periodical = Fitzgerald/Hemingway Annual | publisher = [[University of South Carolina Press]] | location = Columbia | pages = 16–27 | url = https://archive.org/details/fitzgeraldheming0000unse_d7l5 | url-access = registration | access-date = September 30, 2022 | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = McCardell | first = Lee | title = Short Stories From the Maturing Pen of Scott Fitzgerald | date = March 13, 1926 | newspaper = [[The Baltimore Sun|The Evening Sun]] | location = Baltimore, Maryland | page = 6 | edition = Saturday | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/369552192/ | url-access = subscription | access-date = December 7, 2021 | via = Newspapers.com}}
* {{Citation | last = Mencken | first = H. L. | author-link = H. L. Mencken | title = Books More or Less Amusing | date = August 1, 1920 | magazine = [[The Smart Set]] | location = New York | page = 140 | volume = 62 | number = 4 | url = https://modjourn.org/issue/bdr567877/ | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220928171350/https://modjourn.org/issue/bdr567877/ | archive-date = September 28, 2022 | access-date = September 25, 2022 | via = Modernist Journals Project}}
* {{Citation | last = Mencken | first = H. L. | author-link = H. L. Mencken | title = Fitzgerald, the Stylist, Challenges Fitzgerald, the Social Historian | date = May 2, 1925 | newspaper = [[The Baltimore Sun|The Evening Sun]] | location = Baltimore, Maryland | page = 9 | edition = Saturday | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/369590381/ | url-access = subscription | access-date = December 7, 2021 | via = Newspapers.com | author-mask = 7}}
* {{Citation | last = Milford | first = Nancy | author-link = Nancy Milford | title = Zelda: A Biography | year = 1970 | publisher = [[Harper & Row]] | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/zeldabiography00milf/ | url-access = registration | lccn = 66-20742 | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = Mizener | first = Arthur | author-link = Arthur Mizener | title = Scott Fitzgerald and His World | year = 1972 | publisher = [[G.P. Putnam's Sons]] | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/scottfitzgeraldh00mize | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-0-500-13040-7 | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = Mizener | first = Arthur | author-link = Arthur Mizener | title = The Far Side of Paradise: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald | year = 1951 | publisher = [[Houghton Mifflin]] | location = Boston | url = https://archive.org/details/thefarsideofpara0000unse | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive | author-mask = 7}}
* {{Citation | last = Noden | first = Merrell | title = Fitzgerald's First Love: A Young Debutante Who Became the Model for Gatsby's Daisy | date = November 5, 2003 | magazine = [[Princeton Alumni Weekly]] | volume = 93 | number = 8 | location = Princeton, New Jersey | url = https://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_new/PAW03-04/04-1105/feature1.html | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200104031915/http://www.princeton.edu:80/~paw/archive_new/PAW03-04/04-1105/feature1.html | archive-date = January 4, 2020 | access-date = September 2, 2021}}
* {{Citation | last = Piper | first = Henry Dan | title = F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Critical Portrait | year = 1965 | publisher = [[Holt, Rinehart, and Winston]] | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/fscottfitzgerald0000henr | url-access=registration | lccn = 65-14435 | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | editor-last = Prigozy | editor-first = Ruth | title = The Cambridge Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald | year = 2002 | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | location = Cambridge, UK | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=S8ge74PaZdwC | url-access = subscription | isbn = 978-0-521-62447-3 | via = Google Books}}
* {{Citation | last = Rascoe | first = Burton | author-link = Burton Rascoe | title = A Youth in the Saddle | date = April 3, 1920 | newspaper = [[The Chicago Tribune]] | location = Chicago, Illinois | page = 11 | edition = Saturday | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/349276155/ | url-access = subscription | access-date = September 25, 2022 | via = Newspapers.com}}
* {{Citation | last = Riccardo | first = Andrew | title = Anticipative Feminism in F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise and Flappers and Philosophers | date = January 1, 2012 | journal = The Oswald Review | publisher = [[University of South Carolina Aiken]] | location = Aiken | volume = 14 | issue = 1 | pages = 26–57 | url = https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/tor/vol14/iss1/4}}
* {{Citation | last = Salvini | first = Emil R. | author-link = Emil Salvini | title = Hobey Baker: American Legend | date = April 2005 | publisher = [[Hobey Baker|Hobey Baker Memorial Foundation]] | location = St. Paul, Minnesota | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mocbzPmUjSMC | lccn = 2005921385 | isbn = 0-9763453-0-7 | via = Google Books}}
* {{Citation | last = Shinn | first = Charles H. | author-link = Charles Howard Shinn | title = Weekly Comments | date = May 23, 1920 | newspaper = [[The Fresno Morning Republican]] | location = Fresno, California | page = 8A | edition = Sunday | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/607200432/ | url-access = subscription | access-date = September 23, 2022 | via = Newspapers.com}}
* {{Citation | last = Smith | first = Dinitia | author-link = Dinitia Smith | title = Love Notes Drenched In Moonlight: Hints of Future Novels In Letters to Fitzgerald | date = September 8, 2003 | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | location = New York City | edition = Monday | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/08/books/love-notes-drenched-in-moonlight-hints-of-future-novels-in-letters-to-fitzgerald.html | url-access = subscription | access-date = December 7, 2021}}
* {{Citation | author = <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> | title = Some Late Books | date = March 12, 1922 | newspaper = [[The Montgomery Advertiser]] | location = Montgomery, Alabama | page = 25 | edition = Sunday | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/412915679/ | url-access = subscription | via = Newspapers.com | ref = {{harvid|''The Montgomery Advertiser''|1922}} | access-date = November 11, 2024}}
* {{Citation | last = Stagg | first = Hunter | title = Scott Fitzgerald's Latest Novel is Heralded As His Best | date = April 18, 1925 | newspaper = [[The Baltimore Sun|The Evening Sun]] | location = Baltimore, Maryland | page = 9 | edition = Saturday | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/369584850/ | url-access = subscription | access-date = December 7, 2021 | via = Newspapers.com}}
* {{Citation | last = Stein | first = Gertrude | author-link = Gertrude Stein | title = The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas | year = 1933 | publisher = [[Harcourt, Brace and Company|Quinn & Boden Company]] | location = Rahway, New Jersey | url = https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.58613 | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = Stern | first = Milton R. | author-link = Milton R. Stern | title = The Golden Moment: The Novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald | year = 1970 | publisher = [[University of Illinois Press]] | location = Champaign | url = https://archive.org/details/goldenmomentno00ster | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-0-252-00107-9 | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = Stevens | first = Ruth | url = https://pr.princeton.edu/pwb/03/0907/1c.shtml | title = Before Zelda, There Was Ginevra | magazine = [[Princeton Alumni Weekly|Princeton Weekly Bulletin]] | volume = 93 | number = 1 | location = Princeton, New Jersey | date = September 7, 2003 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200801091337/https://pr.princeton.edu/pwb/03/0907/1c.shtml | archive-date = August 1, 2020 | access-date = December 17, 2022}}
* {{Citation | last = Svrluga | first = Susan | title = Calls to change U. of Alabama building name to honor Harper Lee instead of KKK leader | date = February 22, 2016 | newspaper = [[The Washington Post]] | location = Washington, D.C. | edition = Monday | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/02/22/petition-calls-for-changing-u-of-alabama-building-name-to-honor-harper-lee-instead-of-a-kkk-leader/ | url-access = subscription | access-date = December 21, 2021}}
* {{Citation | last = Tanaka | first = Saori | title = Mirror Images Reflecting Self: Narcissism in F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise | date = December 24, 2004 | journal = Osaka Literary Review | publisher = [[Osaka University]] | location = Osaka, Japan | volume = 43 | pages = 123–140 | doi = 10.18910/25224 | hdl = 11094/25224 | url = https://ir.library.osaka-u.ac.jp/repo/ouka/all/25224/OLR43-123.pdf}}
* {{Citation | last = Tate | first = Mary Jo | title = F. Scott Fitzgerald A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work | year = 1998 | orig-year = 1997 | publisher = [[Facts On File]] | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/fscottfitzgerald0000tate | url-access = registration | isbn = 0-8160-3150-9 | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = Turnbull | first = Andrew | author-link = Andrew Turnbull (biographer) | title = Scott Fitzgerald | year = 1962 | orig-year = 1954 | publisher = [[Charles Scribner's Sons]] | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/scottfitzgeralda0000turn | url-access = registration | lccn = 62-9315 | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | last = Van Allen | first = Burke | title = Almost a Masterpiece: Scott Fitzgerald Produces a Brilliant Successor to 'The Great Gatsby' | date = April 22, 1934 | newspaper = [[The Brooklyn Daily Eagle]] | location = Brooklyn, New York | page = 83 | edition = Sunday | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/59996513 | url-access = subscription | access-date = December 7, 2021 | via = Newspapers.com}}
* {{Citation | last = Wagner-Martin | first = Linda | title = Zelda Sayre, Belle | date = Summer 2004 | journal = [[Southern Cultures]] | volume = 10 | issue = 2 | pages = 19–49 | publisher = [[University of North Carolina Press]] | location = Chapel Hill| doi = 10.1353/scu.2004.0029 | jstor = 26390953 | s2cid = 143270051 | url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/26390953 | url-access = subscription }}
* {{Citation | last = Weaver | first = John V. A. | author-link = John Van Alstyne Weaver | title = Better Than 'This Side of Paradise' | date = March 4, 1922 | newspaper = [[The Brooklyn Daily Eagle]] | location = Brooklyn, New York | page = 3 | edition = Saturday | url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/60005533/ | url-access = subscription | access-date = December 7, 2021 | via = Newspapers.com}}
* {{Citation | last = West | first = James L. W. III | title = The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King, His First Love | year = 2005 | publisher = [[Random House]] | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/perfecthourroman00west | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-1-4000-6308-6 | via = Internet Archive}}
* {{Citation | author = <!-- No author --> | title = Whitest Man | date = January 19, 1931 | magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | location = New York City | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,740894,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081215025051/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,740894,00.html | archive-date =  December 15, 2008 | access-date = November 23, 2024 | ref = {{harvid|''Time'' Magazine|1931}}}}
* {{Citation | last = Wilson | first = Edmund | author-link = Edmund Wilson | title = The Shores of Light: A Literary Chronicle of the Twenties and Thirties | year = 1952 | publisher = [[Farrar, Straus, and Young]] | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/shoresoflight030291mbp | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Wikisource|This Side of Paradise|''This Side of Paradise''}}

{{Commons category|This Side of Paradise}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/f-scott-fitzgerald/this-side-of-paradise}}
* {{Gutenberg|no=805|name=This Side of Paradise}}
* [https://archive.org/details/thissideofparadi00fitzuoft ''This Side of Paradise''] at [[Internet Archive]]
* {{librivox book | title = This Side of Paradise | author = F. Scott Fitzgerald}}

{{Fitzgerald}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:This Side Of Paradise}}
[[Category:1920 American novels]]
[[Category:Modernist novels]]
[[Category:Novels by F. Scott Fitzgerald]]
[[Category:1920 debut novels]]
[[Category:Novels set in Minneapolis]]
[[Category:Charles Scribner's Sons books]]