F. Scott Fitzgerald

出版者:Cypress House

作者:[美] F·Scott Fitzgerald

页数:167

出版时间:1996-11

价格:USD 19.95

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9781879384293

具体描述

In this first complete chronological collection of Fitzgerald's writings for two Princeton publications, we witness the young writer's dramatic growth. His word capture the spirit of an America about to enter Jazz Age, and the abundant, often-whimsical samplings of artwork cilled from back issues of The Tiger and Nassau Lit Provide a delightful visual appeal found in no other Fitzgerald book.

作者简介

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Inseparably associated with a point in history he claimed to despise, F. Scott Fitzgerald is both the quintessential Jazz-Age writer and perhaps the era’s harshest critic. However, the complexity and sheer timelessness of classics such as The Great Gatsby has ensured that Fitzgerald’s work will never be regarded as mere period pieces.

Biography

The greatest writers often function in multifaceted ways, serving as both emblems of their age and crafters of timeless myth. F. Scott Fitzgerald surely fits this description. His work was an undeniable product of the so-called Jazz Age of the 1920s, yet it has a quality that spans time, reaching backward into gothic decadence and forward into the future of a rapidly decaying America. Through five novels, six short story collections, and one collection of autobiographical pieces, Fitzgerald chronicled a precise point in post-WWI America, yet his writing resonates just as boldly today as it did nearly a century ago.

Fitzgerald's work was chiefly driven by the disintegration of America following World War I. He believed the country to be sinking into a cynical, Godless, depraved morass. He was never reluctant to voice criticism of America's growing legions of idle rich. Recreating a heated confrontation with Ernest Hemingway in a short story called "The Rich Boy," Fitzgerald wrote, "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different."

The preceding quote may sum Fitzgerald's philosophy more completely than any other, yet he also hypocritically embodied much of what he claimed to loathe. Fitzgerald spent money freely, threw lavish parties, drank beyond excess, and globe-trotted with his glamorous but deeply troubled wife Zelda. Still, in novel after novel, he sought to expose the great chasm that divided the haves from the have-nots and the hollowness of wealth. In This Side of Paradise (1920) he cynically follows opulent, handsome Amory Blaine as he bounces aimlessly from Princeton to the military to an uncertain, meaningless future. In The Beautiful and the Damned (1922) Fitzgerald paints a withering portrait of a seemingly idyllic marriage between a pair of socialites that crumbles in the face of Adam Patch's empty pursuit of profit and the fading beauty of his vane wife Gloria.

The richest example of Fitzgerald's disdain for the upper class arrived three years later. The Great Gatsby is an undoubted American classic, recounting naïve Nick Carraway's involvement with a coterie of affluent Long Islanders, and his ultimate rejection of them when their casual decadence leads only to internal back-stabbing and murder. Nick is fascinated by the mysterious Jay Gatsby, who had made the fatal mistake of stepping outside of his lower class status to pursue the lovely but self-centered Daisy Buchanan.

In The Great Gatsby, all elements of Fitzgerald's skills coalesced to create a narrative that is both highly readable and subtly complex. His prose is imbued with elegant lyricism and hard-hitting realism. "It is humor, irony, ribaldry, pathos and loveliness," Edwin C. Clark wrote of the book in the New York Times upon its 1925 publication. "A curious book, a mystical, glamorous story of today. It takes a deeper cut at life than hitherto has been essayed by Mr. Fitzgerald."

Gatsby is widely considered to be Fitzgerald's masterpiece and among the very greatest of all American literature. It is the ultimate summation of his contempt for the Jazz-Age with which he is so closely associated. Gatsby is also one of the clearest and saddest reflections of his own destructive relationship with Zelda, which would so greatly influence the mass of his work.

Fitzgerald only managed to complete one more novel -- Tender is the Night -- before his untimely death in 1940. An unfinished expose of the Hollywood studio system titled The Love of the Last Tycoon would be published a year later. Still The Great Gatsby remains his quintessential novel. It has been a fixture of essential reading lists for decades and continues to remain an influential work begging to be revisited. It has been produced for the big screen three times and was the subject of a movie for television starring Toby Stephens, Mira Sorvino, and Paul Rudd as recently as 2000. Never a mere product of a bygone age, F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest work continues to evade time.

用户评价

这本书，准确地说，是关于菲茨杰拉德这个人，而不是他写过的哪一部具体作品。我一直对这位“爵士时代”的代言人感到好奇，他的生活本身就如同他笔下的人物一样，充满了迷人的光彩和令人唏嘘的悲剧。翻开这本书，我仿佛踏入了他的世界，看到了他在巴黎的夜晚，在长岛的豪宅，在那些充满酒精、音乐和浮华的派对中穿梭。作者以一种极其细腻的笔触，勾勒出了菲茨杰拉德的心路历程，他年少得志的荣耀，他与泽尔达之间轰轰烈烈又充满痛苦的爱情，以及他在酒精和创作的双重泥沼中挣扎的岁月。这本书不仅仅是传记，更像是一面镜子，折射出那个时代美国社会的光怪陆离，以及一个艺术家在追逐梦想、渴望不朽的过程中，所付出的沉重代价。我被他身上那种近乎于自毁式的浪漫所打动，也为他最终的落寞感到惋惜。阅读的过程，就像是在品味一杯陈年的威士忌，初入口时辛辣，但回甘却悠长而复杂，让人久久不能忘怀。它让我更深刻地理解了“伟大的盖茨比”为何会成为经典，因为那背后，有着如此真实而动人的生命故事。

我一直认为，了解一位作家，最好的方式就是走进他的内心世界，而这本书恰恰做到了这一点。它以一种近乎于“心理传记”的方式，深入挖掘了菲茨杰拉德性格中复杂而矛盾的层面。童年时期的经历，家庭背景的烙印，他对社会地位的渴望，以及他对“美国梦”的执着，这些都构成了他独特的人生轨迹。作者在分析他的作品时，总是能巧妙地将笔触转向他本人，指出小说中某些情节、人物的设定，是如何直接或间接地源于他个人的生活体验。我被他与泽尔达之间那种既是灵魂伴侣又是相互毁灭的关系深深吸引，书中对他们爱情的描绘，既有浪漫的诗意，也有现实的残酷，让人不禁感叹命运的无常。这本书让我意识到，伟大的文学作品，往往是从一个极其个人化的角度出发，最终触及到更普遍的人类情感和生存困境。作者的笔法非常流畅，叙事性很强，读起来丝毫不会感到枯燥，反而充满了戏剧张力。

不得不说，这本书的切入点非常独特，它没有选择从时间线上梳理菲茨杰拉德的一生，而是以主题式的方式，层层剖析了他的创作与生活如何相互渗透、彼此影响。我印象最深刻的是关于他“失去的一代”的论述，作者通过大量史料和文学分析，展现了菲茨杰拉德如何敏锐地捕捉到第一次世界大战后，那些曾经怀揣理想却在现实中迷失的年轻人的精神状态。他笔下的人物，无论多么光鲜亮丽，背后总藏着难以言说的空虚和失落。这本书让我不再将菲茨杰拉德仅仅视为一个写爱情小说的作家，而是看到了他更深层次的社会洞察力和对人性幽暗面的挖掘。作者的语言风格也十分考究，时而如诗般优美，时而又带着一种冷静的批判，让我在阅读中不断思考。书中对菲茨杰拉德创作灵感的来源，以及他如何从个人经历中提炼出具有普遍意义的艺术母题，都进行了深入浅出的解读。我尤其喜欢关于他后期创作困境的分析，那种才华与现实的碰撞，以及对商业化写作的妥协，读来令人唏嘘不已。

这是一本充满思想火花的读物。它不只是在讲故事，更是在引导读者进行一场关于文学、关于时代、关于人生的深度对话。作者对菲茨杰拉德的解读，超越了简单的生平介绍，而是将其置于更广阔的文化语境中进行审视。他对“爵士时代”的社会变迁、经济繁荣与道德沦丧并存的现象，进行了深刻的剖析，而菲茨杰拉德正是这个时代的最佳代言人。书中关于他早期作品如何捕捉到这种时代精神，以及他的创作如何成为那个时代的一面镜子的论述，令我茅塞顿开。作者的学术功底扎实，但又不失文学的感染力，他引用了大量的文学批评、历史文献，并将它们融会贯通，形成了一种独特而有力的分析框架。我特别欣赏他对于菲茨杰拉德艺术追求的探讨，那种对完美主义的执着，以及在现实压力下的挣扎，都展现了一个艺术家灵魂的亮度与深度。这本书让我对菲茨杰拉德的文学成就有了更全面的认识，也对那个时代的美国文化有了更深刻的理解。

如果说之前我阅读的关于菲茨杰拉德的书，更多的是关注他的作品，那么这本书则将我带入了作家的灵魂深处。它没有回避菲茨杰拉德生活中的阴暗面，比如他与酒精的纠缠，他事业上的起伏，以及他在个人关系中的困境。作者以一种坦诚而富有同情心的笔触，呈现了一个真实而立体的菲茨杰拉德。我被他对生活的热爱，对美的追求，以及那种即使身处困境也永不放弃的艺术精神所打动。书中对他晚年漂泊生涯的描写，以及他在好莱坞的经历，都让人感到心酸。然而，即使在最艰难的时刻，他的文字依然闪耀着独特的光芒。作者的叙事节奏把握得非常好，时而舒缓，时而紧张，让我在阅读中情绪跌宕起伏。这本书不仅仅是对一个作家的回顾，更是一种对人生、对创作、对梦想的深刻反思。它提醒我，即使是那些最耀眼的明星，背后也可能藏着不为人知的伤痛，但正是这些经历，才让他们笔下的作品充满了震撼人心的力量。