The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald’s most famous work and part of the American literary canon, The Great Gatsby is a profound and haunting examination of the American dream in the early 20th century. Amidst the glitz and glamour of the Jazz Age, Nick Carraway’s old friend, Jay Gatsby, embodies the excesses and emptiness of his, and America’s, hollow pursuits.

The Beautiful and Damned

Seemingly inspired by the fraught relationship between Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, this novel tracks the slow, destructive relationship between two damaged people. Unwilling to engage in self-examination and unable to change the course of their increasingly unhappy lives, either together or on their own, they accompany each other into ruin.

This Side of Paradise

Following the coming of age of Amory Blaine, this novel returns to Fitzgerald’s fascination with the worries and concerns of the moneyed class in American society. As Amory moves through the life he believes he is supposed to have, circumstances allow him to stray from the path, with mixed results.

Tender Is the Night

Fitzgerald’s preoccupation with rich, unhappy people is evident in this novel, which follows the multi-year doomed relationship between Rosemary and Dick. Their relationship is informed and mediated by Dick’s wife, Nicole, who is also his psychological patient. The remainder of the novel chronicles Dick’s eventual breakdown and the dissolution of their once-happy marriage. 

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

This short story was published in Collier’s magazine in 1922 and later included in Fitzgerald’s collection, Tales of the Jazz Age. Written at the height of Fitzgerald’s popularity, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” tells the story of a man who is born with the appearance of being seventy years old and ages backward in time. More humorous in nature than the novels for which Fitzgerald is best known, the tale also contains the author’s trademark lamentations on the highs and lows of a life hard lived.

“Babylon Revisited”

“Babylon Revisited” was written in 1930 and published in 1931 in The Saturday Evening Post. Although he is best known for his novels, Fitzgerald wrote about 160 short stories. The number is difficult to pin down precisely because many of his pieces blur the lines between story, essay, and article. Fitzgerald’s editor, Malcolm Cowley, wrote that in comparison with other stories of Fitzgerald’s, “Babylon Revisited” evidences “less regret for the past and more dignity in the face of real sorrow.”