Short Synopsis
In this comprehensive biography, David S. Brown reexamines F. Scott Fitzgerald's childhood, first loves, and difficult marriage to Zelda Sayre.

Full Synopsis
Pigeonholed in popular memory as a Jazz Age epicurean, a playboy, and an emblem of the Lost Generation, F. Scott Fitzgerald was at heart a moralist struck by the nation's shifting mood and manners after World War I. In Paradise Lost, David Brown contends that Fitzgerald's deepest allegiances were to a fading antebellum world he associated with his father's Chesapeake Bay roots. Yet as a midwesterner, an Irish Catholic, and a perpetually in-debt author, he felt like an outsider in the haute bourgeoisie haunts of Lake Forest, Princeton, and Hollywood—places that left an indelible mark on his worldview.

In this comprehensive biography, Brown reexamines Fitzgerald's childhood, first loves, and difficult marriage to Zelda Sayre. He looks at Fitzgerald's friendship with Hemingway, the golden years that culminated with Gatsby, and his increasing alcohol abuse and declining fortunes which coincided with Zelda's institutionalization and the nation's economic collapse. In doing so, he reveals Fitzgerald as a writer with an encompassing historical imagination not suggested by his reputation as "the chronicler of the Jazz Age." Fitzgerald wrote powerfully about change in America, Brown shows, because he saw it as the dominant theme in his own family history and life.

"Carefully researched and a pleasure to read, Brown’s persuasive, original account will entice Fitzgerald fans and cultural historians alike." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"[An] engaging portrait . . . Brown draws extensively on the autobiographical aspects of Fitzgerald’s novels and stories." ---Kirkus

"Brown’s biography strives to forgo the well-known anecdotes to instead reinsert Fitzgerald into his historical context." ---Financial Times

"Brown gets closer to a real Fitzgerald than anyone else." ---The Herald

Publishers Weekly Review