Tales of the Jazz Age

"Tales of the Jazz Age" (1922) is a collection of eleven short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Divided into three separate parts, according to subject matter, it includes one of his better-known short stories, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Several of the stories had also been published earlier, independently, in either "The Metropolitan", "Saturday Evening Post", "Smart Set", "Collier's", "Chicago Tribune", or "Vanity Fair".

My Last Flappers

* "The Jelly-Bean"

This is a Southern story, with the setting laid in the small Lily of Tarleton, Georgia. Fitzgerald wrote that he had "a profound affection for Tarleton, but somehow whenever I write a story about it I receive letters from all over the South denouncing me in no uncertain terms." Written shortly after his first novel was published, the author also collaborated with his wife on certain scenes.

The story momentarily follows the life of a "jelly-bean", or an idler, of Jim Powell. An invitation to a dance with the old crowd revives his dreams of social advancement and love, until the consequences of drink and power of money come through and ruin them.

* "The Camel's Back"

In the short introduction to this short story, the Fitzgerald wrote, "I suppose that of all the stories I have ever written this one cost me the least travail and perhaps gave me the most amusement." The story, he confessed, was written "with the express purpose of buying a platinum and diamond wrist watch which cost six hundred dollars", and took seven hours to finish. Though it was the least-liked story by Fitzgerald in the volume, it was included in the O. Henry Memorial Collection (of the O. Henry Award) of 1920.

* "May Day"

Published as a novelette in the "Smart Set" in July, 1920, "May Day" relates a series of events which took place in the spring of the previous year, during the "general hysteria" which inaugurated the Jazz Age.

* "Porcelain and Pink"

Fantasies

The following short stories were written in what Fitzgerald called his "second manner". They were designed for the author's own amusement, as he states in his introduction to the volume.

* "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz"

* "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Fitzgerald's introduction captures the spirit of the book fairly:

This story was inspired by a remark of Mark Twain's to the effect thatit was a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and theworst part at the end. By trying the experiment upon only one man in aperfectly normal world I have scarcely given his idea a fair trial.Several weeks after completing it, I discovered an almost identicalplot in Samuel Butler's "Note-books."

The story was published in "Collier's" last summer and provoked thisstartling letter from an anonymous admirer in Cincinnati:
"Sir--
I have read the story Benjamin Button in Collier's and I wish to saythat as a short story writer you would make a good lunatic I have seenmany pieces of cheese in my life but of all the pieces of cheese Ihave ever seen you are the biggest piece. I hate to waste a piece ofstationary on you but I will."

* "Tarquin of Cheapside"

Written almost six years before being added to this collection, this story was written in Fitzgerald's undergraduate days at Princeton. Considerably revised, it was published in the"Smart Set" in 1921. At the time of its conception Fitzgerald had wanted to be a poet, and was interested in the ring of every phrase.

* "Oh Russet Witch!"

This story was written just after the author completed the first draft of his second novel. However it may seem, the story was supposed to be in the present time/tense. It was published in the "Metropolitan".

Unclassified Masterpieces

* "The Lees of Happiness"

* "Mr. Icky"

* "Jemina"

Written, like "Tarquin of Cheapside", at Princeton, this sketch was published years later in "Vanity Fair."

External links

* [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6695 "Tales of the Jazz Age"] at Project Gutenberg.
* [http://www.archive.org/details/talesofjazzage00fitzuoft "Tales of the Jazz Age"] . New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922. Scanned book from Internet Archive.