This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel broke the wave of youthful energy pent-up and ready to explode in the United States after the First World War. Periods of High Romanticism tend to flourish in the wake of wars, and the character of that exuberant flowering of the self depends in large measure on whether the war was won or lost. In the 20’s America was victorious and wealthy and confident and young, and This Side of Paradise focuses its considerable energy and style on the victorious, the wealthy, the confident and the young. The story, a rewrite of Fitzgerald’s first manuscript with the working title, The Romantic Egoist, explores the life of Amory Blaine, Princeton University student, a literary young man in love with beauty and the women with family money and last names who descend to conquer those handsome, talented young men who, in their turn, aspire to lives above themselves on America’s invisible though very real class system. The tragedy inherent in Amory Blaine’s quest is the illusion of ascent. His initially innocent and well-intentioned efforts at love are damaged by the underside of his worldly ambitions: greed and the acquisition of social superiority. (Summary by Michael Hogan)

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