9 h 25 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 231 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 231 pagesAbout this book
What if you are raised to expect greatness, but cannot decide what kind of person to become?
Amory Blaine is handsome, clever, and certain he deserves admiration. Raised by his wealthy, theatrical mother, Beatrice, he carries that confidence into boarding school and Princeton. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise, clubs, books, parties, and courtship become testing grounds for a young man who wants distinction without knowing what might make his life worth living.
Beyond college, war and its confused aftermath unsettle the world Amory knows. Monsignor Thayer Darcy offers guidance, while Rosalind Connage brings questions of love, money, and security into sharp focus. Through Amory’s restless search for status and belief, Fitzgerald explores the distance between youthful promise and adult life—and the uncertainty beneath the glitter of the early Jazz Age.
What you’ll discover
- Princeton behind the charm Enter a campus world of clubs, student theatricals, and the uneasy pursuit of status.
- Love with a price See how attraction meets the fear of poverty and the wish for security.
- A flawed young dreamer Follow Amory as vanity and ambition collide with his hunger for a meaningful life.
- A generation without bearings Explore the unsettled hopes of young people who feel cut loose from older rules.
- A restless literary shape Discover poems and a stretch of drama within a loose, episodic coming-of-age story.
Who will love it
For readers who love campus novels, the early Jazz Age, and portraits of restless young people, and anyone curious about where Fitzgerald began before The Great Gatsby.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A boy raised to think himself special
- School teaches him how little charm buys
- Princeton: clubs, ambition, and distraction
- First loves and the games of attraction
- A priest who sees him clearly
- War, work, and a world turned upside down
- Rosalind and the price of love
- What the book is really about
Who’s who
- Amory BlaineA handsome, clever, vain young man from the Midwest who wants greatness and admiration but does not yet know what to do with himself.
- Beatrice BlaineAmory's wealthy, theatrical mother, who raises him on charm and self-regard and gives him a taste for drama and travel.
- Monsignor Thayer DarcyA learned and witty Catholic priest and family friend who sees Amory clearly and offers him guidance and a measure of faith.
- Rosalind ConnageA beautiful, quick-witted New York woman who loves Amory but fears poverty and wants security as well as passion.
- Tom D'InvilliersAmory's poet friend at Princeton, shabby and sharp, who loves books and sets a standard of honest taste.
- Alec ConnageA smooth, easygoing Princeton friend of Amory and brother of Rosalind, at home in the world of parties and pleasure.
- Isabelle BorgéA lively, flirtatious young woman who matches Amory in vanity and plays the game of courtship as well as he does.
- Burne HolidayA serious Princeton classmate who questions the college's social order and tries to live by his own conscience.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 5 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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This Side of Paradise in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
This Side of Paradise
by F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1920
At Princeton and in New York, Amory Blaine chases love and status, searching for a purpose worthy of his ambition.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
A young man is sure he is meant for greatness. He just does not know what for.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A boy raised to think himself special
Amory Blaine grows up in the Midwest with his mother, Beatrice. She is wealthy, theatrical and charming, and she treats her only surviving child as a small companion in her grand view of herself. The house has plenty of money and very little discipline.
Amory learns that charm opens doors and that being admired is a kind of achievement. He gets a taste for drama, a habit of watching himself from outside, and a mild contempt for ordinary effort.
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What is This Side of Paradise about?
It follows Amory Blaine, a vain and clever young man, from childhood through boarding school, Princeton, and the First World War into postwar New York. He chases status and love and slowly learns what he does and does not want.
Is This Side of Paradise based on a true story?
It is a novel, but it draws heavily on Fitzgerald's own life, including his Catholic upbringing, his years at Princeton, his army service, and a broken engagement caused by his lack of money. It was published in 1920.
Where does the title This Side of Paradise come from?
The title echoes a line from a poem by Rupert Brooke. It suggests a place of happiness that lies just out of reach, which fits Amory's search for a life that matches his dreams.
The author
F. Scott Fitzgerald
1896–1940 · American novelist
F. Scott Fitzgerald was an American novelist and short-story writer, born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1896. He lived in the United States and France. He published This Side of Paradise in 1920, The Beautiful and Damned in 1922, and The Great Gatsby in 1925. He died in Hollywood in 1940.
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