THIS SIDE OF
PARADISE , by F. Scott
Fitzgerald.
With College Men
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
May 9, 1920
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THIS SIDE OF PARADISE
By F. Scott Fitzgerald. |
The
glorious spirit of abounding youth glows throughout this fascinating tale.
Amory, the romantic egotist, is essentially American, and as we follow him
through his career at Princeton, with its riotous gayety, its superficial
vices, and its punctilious sense of honor which will tolerate nothing less than
the standard set up by itself, we know that he is doing just what hundreds of
thousands of young men are doing in colleges all over the country. As a picture
of the daily existence of what we call loosely "college men," this
book is as nearly perfect as such a work could be. The philosophy of Amory, which
finds expression in ponderous observations, lightened occasionally by verse
that one thinks could have been evolved only in the cloistered atmosphere of
his age-old alma mater, is that of any other youth in his teens in whom
intellectual ambition is ever seeking an outlet. Amory's love affairs, too, are
racy of the soil, while the girls, whose ideas of the modern development of
their sex seem to embrace a rather frequent use of the word "Damn,"
and of being kissed by young men whom they have no thought of marrying, quite
obviously belong to Amory's world. Through it all there is the spirit of
innocence in so far as actual wrongdoing is implied, and one cannot but feel
that the sexes are well matched according to the author's presentment. Amory
Blaine has a well-to-do father and a mother who lives the somewhat idle,
luxurious life of a matron who has never known the pinch of even economy, much
less of poverty, and the boy is the creature of his environment. One knows
always that he will be safe at the end. So he is, for he does his bit in the
war, finds afterwards that his money has all gone and goes to work writing
advertisements for an agency. Also, he has his supreme love affair, with
Rosalind Connage, which is broken off because the nervous temperaments of both
would not permit happiness. At least, so the girl thinks. So Amory goes on the
biggest spree noted in the book-a spree which is colorfully described as taking
in everything in the alcoholic line from the Knickerbocker "Old King
Cole" bar to an out-of-the-way drinking den where Amory is "beaten
up" artistically and thoroughly. The whole story is disconnected, more or
less, but loses none of its charm on that account. It could have been written
only by an artist who knows how to balance his values, plus a delightful
literary style.
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