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| This Side of Paradise (Modern Library Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Creator: Susan Orlean
Publisher: Modern Library
Category: Book
List Price: $5.95
Buy Used: $3.75
You Save: $2.20 (37%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  96 reviews
Sales Rank: 812147
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 3.9 x 0.9
ISBN: 0345481224
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780345481221
ASIN: 0345481224
Publication Date: May 31, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 horrible February 8, 2006
3 out of 21 found this review helpful
Don't think I'm stupid or don't get the "Roaring 'Twenties"... let me just tell you why it sucks.
Here goes: first of all, everyone in the book writes poetry. I don't even know why I bring this up first, but it bugs me. It's just like everyone reflects Amory. The only good one was by his friend who sooner or later seems to be stifled of his creativity by simply hanging out with the dull Amory.
Another point I have to make is that his one little affair with this country girl is so vague and unclearly written, the only things I understood about it was her poem and a horseback ride.
Honestly, it was good in the beginning, but soon enough, it slowly fell apart. By the end it was just a chaos of words. By the end, when he climbs into a car with a big man with goggles and begins a string of vignettes about his views on society which all go nowhere, the book is just analyzations.
Well anyway, it just had a horrible impact on my life and I hated his little encounter with the man with curly feet.
 A call-to-arms for the Lost Generation January 7, 2006
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Scott Fitzgerald's first novel and his depiction of the "lost generation" during their college days. Amory Blaine, wealthy and snobbish, but also purposeless, attends Princeton University, joins some clubs, writes for the literary magazine, flirts with a few vampish young women, experiences the typical collegeman's adventures - all the while acquiring the "refined sense of the proper 'social' values." But his mother dies and his wealth becomes depleted. He falls passionately in love with the honest but headstrong Rosalind Connage, but she rejects him to marry another man for his money. He has an affair with Eleanor Savage, an atheist, but it doesn't last longer than a few weeks. He flounders in NYC for a while, tasting poverty, and then pays a visit to Princeton again where he ponders his cloudy future in a cemetery, knowing he has "only himself."
Fitzgerald wrote the book quickly and much of it is autobiographical. It was a rallying cry for the WW I generation that suddenly felt all the old beliefs and systems were dead and gone. Very interesting was Fitzgerald's take on the relationship between Blaine and Rosalind, where he is rejected for one with greater wealth; it's similar to his own early relationship with Zelda. It's a wonderful novel - my second favorite of his after GATSBY.
give this from me October 25, 2005
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is a series of vignettes about Amory Blaine, the young, privileged and intelligent Midwesterner, as Fitzgerald skims his childhood and then steady focusses on his college years at Princeton, and then post-college barcrawling and womanizing in New York.
Fitzgerald thought of Paradise as a booklist. He gives some great ideas throughout the book of works that were on his mind, stuff by Wells, Butler, Dreiser, and Bernard Shaw. This is the ideal place to start for a Fitzgerald reader, because though he does not have a firm command over plot, he has brilliant patches, moments of extreme clarity. And to say this book is plotless is to lie. Amory has poignant moments that offer us a lure to his character. He slips into a deep depression, a three week binge of drinking, to get over a girl. Fitzgerald was a scientist of courtship, and this tale offers a prototype of that same story that Fitzgerald regurgitated over and over again. But what a good story it is, and one we all relate to and hope to eventually overcome.
 Its good but.... October 23, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Mentally taxing. I'm currently almost at the end of reading this book and, given that I have reached yet another confusing and frustrating segment in it, I have decided to put it down for a minute and write this review.
I am a growing fan of Fitzgerald. His style of writing is spectacular and magnetic, and it is for these very reasons that I am continuing to read "This Side of Paradise." The character that Fitzgerald paints of Amory Blane is impeccable, possibly one of the best characters I've ever encountered in a novel. Undoubtedly, I love the way F. Scott describes all of his characters. His endless use of descriptive phrases weaves this portait of a complex and human being with a completely individual personality that the reader can relate to in some way. We are drawn into them, as if they are our next door neighbors and we empathize with them as if they are our best friends. Simply put: Fitzgerald definitely deserves the recognition of being one of the best American writers.
Unfortunately, it's not the way he writes that is an issue for me. It's more or less the way he organizes what he writes that leaves me confused. Just when you are getting into some juicy portion of Amory's life, F. Scott suddently flips the switch and takes you on yet another turn, as if all of his ideas for the life of Amory seem rushed. I would have loved to have read more about Amory's days at St. Regents or about his relationship with Beatrice. It's as if each important segment in "Paradise" could become a book in of itself. Also, the sprinkling of poetry in every section of the book makes me a little annoyed. It's almost as if Fitzgerald wanted to show off his poetic talent in between telling the story of Amory and it further takes away from the already fragmented flow of the book, distracting the reader from the original storyline even more.
Nevertheless, in spite of its flaws, "This Side of Paradise" is a book I would recommend. Amory Blaine is such a relatable character and F. Scott Fitzgerald is totally an amazing writer that one can look past his missteps and easily see the gem that this book is. You become deeply concerned about Amory's wellbeing and that amount of emotional connection to a particular character is a rarity that I have hardly experienced. Instead of an impassive observation, you feel as if you have grown up with Amory and understand all of his eccentric characteristics. Fitzgerald definitely has a way with words, albeit a very unconventional way.
This Side of Paradise: A Summary and a Reaction. August 23, 2005
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel that tells the story of Amory Blaine from his youth to his twenties. As a youth Amory travels through out the country with his high class and extravagant mother, Beatrice. After living a life like no other he leaves his mother and enrolls in St.Regis prep school in the Northeast. There, Amory tries very hard to fit in, but with his unusual childhood it is very hard. He is very intelligent, but an underachiever in his work. From here, Amory attends Princeton and his primary concern there is to be popular. After he earns an "F" in a class he gives up this goal and becomes a wallflower. He decides to take nothing in from his classes and only learns through personal reading and discussions. Near the end of his stay at Princeton Amory joins up for World War I. Whilst over in the war fighting, Amory's mother passes away. When Amory comes back to America his heart falls girl named Rosalind Connage. She, as well, falls for him, but a problem comes in to play when Rosalind fins out that the Blaine's have made poor investments and Amory is no longer wealthy. Amory decides to work for an advertising agency to try and keep Rosalind from leaving him, but his efforts do not help. Rosalind breaks up with Amory to marry a much wealthier man. The result: Amory is so devastated he goes on a three-week spree of drinking. The only reason it is cut to three weeks is because of the beginning of Prohibition. After he gets in to a summer fling with a wild French girl named Eleanor. Things do not last and Amory moves on, still thinking of Rosalind. One night Amory joins his old Princeton friend Alec in Alec's hotel room. Alec is in politics and on this he has a girl in the room. He is caught, and to save his friend from the possibly devastating publicity Amory takes the blame. At this point Amory tries to contact his old father figure, Monsignor Darcy, but learns that he has passed away. Now Amory finds himself in a hole with no money and no close friends. He decides to walk to Princeton and while walking is picked up by the father of a friend from the war. Now with no money, Amory expresses his new socialist beliefs to this man. Finally he departs from the car and continues his walk. The novel closes with Amory's famous words of self-knowledge: "I know myself, but that is all--".
I found This Side of Paradise to be a very intriguing and entertaining work. It, as well, served as a very educational work. Like any writing there were some flaws in my opinion, but, overall, it got the job done. The novel took the reader inside the world of a teenager and young adult during the 1920's. Before reading this I had no idea how interesting the social life for this age group was in the 1920's. It showed how fun life could be one moment and than in an instant it could all be turned upside down. Through out the novel Amory was in search to understand the world, but in the end he realizes he does not need to, all he needs to know is himself. Being a senior in high school I feel that the lessons here on how one cannot rely on anything and that realizing one's self is of great importance are going to play a role in my life for years to come. The one biggest problem I found with this book was the "Debutante" section. It is written in screenplay form and this really does not flow well. Besides this one problem, This Side of Paradise is an unbelievable novel with great insight into the world of the 1920's that shows the reader lessons about life for the 21st century.
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