 The cover of the 1920 first edition | |
| Author | F. Scott Fitzgerald |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | W. E. Hill |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Short stories |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover &paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-1406509564 |
Flappers and Philosophers is a collection of eight short stories by American writerF. Scott Fitzgerald, published in1920 byCharles Scribner's Sons. Each of the stories had originally appeared, independently, in eitherThe Saturday Evening Post,Scribner's Magazine, orThe Smart Set.[1][2]
The volume includes "The Ice Palace", regarded as one of Fitzgerald's finest short works.[3]
The original periodical publication and date are indicated.[4][5]
The stories published inNassau Literary Review while Fitzgerald was attendingPrinceton University, as well as those that compriseFlappers and Philosophers, may be placed among his "apprenticeship fiction."[7][8]
In November 1919, Fitzgerald engagedHarold Ober as his literary agent. By early 1920, Ober had negotiated the sale of six of Fitzgerald's stories toThe Saturday Evening Post, one of several "high-paying mass-circulationslick-paper magazines". Fitzgerald was paid $400 for each story.[9][10] Fitzgerald's short fiction became identified with thePost in the following years, to whom he would sell sixty-five of his stories—"40 percent of his output."[9]
Literary critic and biographerMatthew J. Bruccoli notes that "during his lifetime, Fitzgerald was far better known and more widely read as a short story writer than as a novelist."[9]
The New York Times in its September 26, 1920 edition evaluated the collection in light of Fitzgerald's recently published first novelThis Side of Paradise (1920): "[H]is eight short stories range the gamut of style and mood with a brilliance, ajeu perle ["pearly tone"], so to speak, which is not to be found in the novel."[11] The reviewer compares the works favorably to the "Russian school" and to the American authorO. Henry, and closes by commending "Mr. Fitzgerald's talent and genius."[11]
Literary critic and biographerJohn Kuehl reports that the book reflects the social types identified in the collection's title:
Diverse characters and classes manifest themselves, yet Fitzgerald's fundamentally bourgeois world features the ubiquitoushomme manqué and thefemme fatale, for courtship and marriage comprise the all-important sexual element.[12]
Works related toFlappers and Philosophers at Wikisource
Flappers and Philosophers public domain audiobook atLibriVox