I bought this book for the short stories. They are like small diamonds on a necklace, sparkling in a row, each one a wonder. Fitzgerald's short stories are like that.

"The Off Shore Pirate" is hilarious. The "Ice Palace" is strange and beautiful. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is about a baby born very old who gets younger every year.

"The Diamond As Big As The Ritz" is classic Fitzgerald, about the rich.

The story that is missing is "The Rich Boy." This is the story that started the famous spat between Hemingway and Fitzgerald.

In this short story, Fitzgerald writes: "The rich are very different from you and me." Hemingway responds in his short story, "The Snows Of Kilimanjaro:" "Yes, they have more money."

But you will not find "The Rich Boy" in this book. Too bad.

Included with the short stories are two novels:: This Side Of Paradise and The Beautiful And Damned. They are very adolescent novels. High school students might enjoy them.

Maybe not.

The short stories do more to describe the Jazz Age than his novels.

If you are serious about this author, his greatest novel is The Great Gatsby. His next best novel is Tender Is The Night. "The Rich Boy" is his best short story.

This is a very attractive packaged, comprehensive collection of Fitzgerald's early work, containing his first two novels (This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful & Damned) and his first two short story collections. Included are some classic short stories such as May Day and The Diamond As Big As The Ritz. Some of the other stories are less than classic, but all are enjoyable. As is the case with all Library of America volumes, the book is very easy to handle and read. There is a useful set of notes and chronology of Fitzergald's life in the back. All in all, this is well worth the price.

This book is a gem and should be on the reading list of any fan of Fitzgerald or Hemingway. Much of the contents are anecdotal recollections of Hemingway regarding Fitzgerald who he regarded as immensely talented but weak and dominated (by Zelda and the bottle). A variety of letters between the two help to bring to life the closeness that was in evidence in the early friendship before Fitzgerald's decline and Hemingway's enormous success (followed by his growing intolerance of the waning and less successful like FSF). This book also does not attempt to hide the sometimes incomprehensible mean -spiritedness of Hemingway when despite all his success (largely aided by the early support of others he later cast aside) still felt enough threatened to throw his drowning friends an anchor.

This has new stuff that wasn't in Brucolli's previous book on the two authors SCOTT AND ERNEST. I read that one, and when starting FITZGERALD AND HEMINGWAY, thought I'd read the same book, but with a few added facts. Well, there are tons of new facts in F & H that are EXTREMELY interesting to the Fitzgerald and Hemingway fan. I recommend this book highly. I've read much of it more than once.

I have read this book three times and I can read it again. I really enjoyed this novel. I recomended to anyone who loves to read novels that include drama and suspense.

This is a novel of one man's heart wrenching battle to gain the love of a women who is emotionally blind. Gastby once turned down for being poor feels the same rejection now as he is rich. Throughout the whole novel his life is read aloud by his only friend who loves him for himself...the narrator. The compelling drama of this story brings ones own life into reality....do we actually form materialistic relatioships? That may be one question worth asking yourself at the closing of the novel. From the destruction of his massive parties inflicted by his "friends" to the destruction of himself from his beloved Daisy, one wishes they may reach in the book and and make Gatsby see what everyone but himself can see. His goal in life...his compelling love, is leading to his inevitable destruction.

This book is truly a work of art. The plot, the characters, the similes, and the quotes are superb. The story is about Jay Gatsby,the man who did everything to achieve love. But he still failed. The theme is illusion. This is a great classic which reflects upon the lives of American people. It is not at all slow and boring. U will definitly enjoy this book. Mark my words

F.S. Fitzgerald had successfully depicted the glamorous lives of the American upper class during the 1920s. The story centers on Jay Gatsby, a millionaire, whose past is a mystery, but with his tremendous wealth, he is able to attract everyone into his life circle. However, his entire motive is to win back his old lover, Daisy; his loyalty of love eventually leads to his tragic ending.

F. Scott Fitzgerald may be remembered most often as the author of "The Great Gatsby", but during his lifetime, he earned most of his income by writing short stories for magazines. This compilation includes many of his earlier classics, all dealing with the same wealthy class of people that appear in his novels. "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" is a delightful tale about the lengths (literally) that girls will go to in order to fit in socially. "The Offshore Pirate" is a compelling and romantic story with an exciting and climactic ending. In addition, "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz", a longer and quite famous story has a brilliant plot; a boy visits his wealthy friend's home, and while he enjoys himself immensely and even falls in love, he finds out that the visit may come at a hefty price. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a hilarious story about a man born looking like he is 70 years old, and looking progressively younger as he "ages", so that he eventually seems younger than his grandson. All in all, you cannot miss with any of his stories, and they make great evening reads - one a day will surely keep the doctor away!

Nostalgia has an inevitable foreshortening effect upon reputation. For most of us, Fitzgerald is the perenially young, perenially arch chronicler of the 1920s Jazz Age -- of bathtub gin, flappers, rumrunners and boats born ceaselessly back.

This collection of short stories does much to restore an unappreciated side of Fitzgerald the writer, most notably his willingness to experiment with technique, his almost existential grasp of human absurdity and his articulation of unease and pessimism about the possibilities of the American Dream.

The stories range widely in quality from precious parodies from his Princeton years ("Jemina") to profoundly moving glimpses of the human condition ("The Lees of Happiness"). Even the most insubstantial of the stories printed here are worth the read for, if nothing else, they show that even at his youngest and roughest, Fitzgerald had a keen grasp of voice and description and how to use it to breath life into wispy plot lines.

I take issue with some of the critical recommendations contained in Patrick O'Donnell's fine introduction to the collection. I did not, for instance, find "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" particularly impressive. I think the best stories are those that hew to a psychological theme prevalent in Fitzgerald's fiction and his adult life -- the dread of what comes after youth and a nostalgic fixation on youth as the best time in a person's life. The stories I liked most -- "The Lees of Happiness," "The Ice Palace," "The Cut Glass Bowl," "Benediction," "The Four Fists," "'O Russet Witch!'" -- all tackle this theme.

Many of the stories in this volume aren't profound, but are just a delightful read. I defy you, for instance, to read "The Camel's Back" without bursting out loud in laughter over its protagonist's gyrations and setbacks in quest of his true love.

There is a wistfulness at the center of Fitzgerald's prose and his life story that seems to have faded from our collective remembrance of him as a Great American Author. This volume does much to remind us of that winsome note and to remind us that Fitzgerald paid dearly for it in his personal life as it lit up his writing at the same time.

I have never been shooshed so much while reading a book - I was chuckling at Handler's wit every other page! Hoagy is a great character and the plot is a pretty twisty one as well. A great read! I've said it many a time to emphasize how good a book was, but this is the first time I actually FINISHED A BOOK IN ONE SITTING! I couldn't read it fast enough. GOOD STUFF!

Handler is a scream. His stories are orginal and his characters are very lively. No trends are spared from Handler's savage pen. I hope Handler enjoys writing the Hoagy series as much as I enjoy reading it

Looking for a great reference book on the JFK assassination? Tired of searching the bookstores? This book takes care of that. William Scott has written the most complete reference manual I have ever seen.

The book is broken down into two parts. Part One is people and places. From A to Z you find out a small snippet of information about everyone associated with JFK or the assassination.

Part 2 has 18 sections of reference information. From books to singed articles to unsigned articles you won't be able to find a more complete listing than right here. The amount of information is amazing.

This book is not a novel or a research project, rather it is a handy reference book that everyone, from novice to expert researcher should have with them at all times.

Sorting through all the extravagant theories of who killed JFK can become highly frustrating for the Kennedy enthusiast. So many wild ideas have circulated through our modern culture, most evident in Oliver Stone's JFK, that it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between possible truth and well conceived fiction. William Scott's new Reference Guide does just this for both the serious researcher and the interested hobbyist. Only the most reliable and historically accurate sources have been included in this research guide, so no longer does the JFK assassination enthusiast have to sort through the wild theories to discover the respectable facts. A must have for anyone serious about their research.

Of course, any of Fitzgerald's work edited by Mr. Bruccoli must be wonderful. These short stories, which appeared in various magazines from the 20s through the 40s are simply charming. Fitzgerald's elegant style of writing and sensuous story-telling techinque captivate the reader from the very first lines. Particularly appealing is Fitzgerld's use of humor - sometimes dry; sometimes understated - and well illustrated in the story, "The Pusher in the Face." Typical of early Fitzgerald, some of these stories end with an ironic twist of fate, such as the story, "Two for a Penny." Fitzgerald's themes are timeless and relevant to people living at the end of this century. These stories could have been written yesterday. If it is cold where you are, read these stories with a cup of hot cocoa by the fire; if warm, read them on your porch in the early evening with a pitcher of ice tea or lemonade.

Many American writers learn much about their craft by studying Fitzgerald. As Dorothy Parker said: Fitzgerald could write a bad story, but he couldn't write badly. Many of these stories, although unsuccessful by Fitzgerald's standards, are nonetheless instructive in their weakness: the strong parts stand out so clearly that they afford insights into what makes a given story truly work, and what makes one fall short. And: weak or not, there's beautiful writing in all of them. This collection is a treasure for Fitzgerald fans, and an important addition to a fiction writer's or writing student's bookshelf.

for anyone that wants an insiders look at the complicated emotions and life of f. scott fitzerald; this is a treasure. it connects many of the setting and scenes to the flamboyant but sometimes sad life of the auther himself. it gives one an insiders look at how the events in fitzgerald's life affected not only his way of thinking but significantly his writing. you come away with a greater understanding of how the author used his writings to describe his world; and in doing so provided some meager comfort. please read this to learn more about such a complicated and gifted man.

Even though this title appears to be out-of-print, I highly recommend taking Amazon's offer to track one down for you. It is by far Fitzgerald's best collection of shorter work, ranging from his younger Bazil stories to his more mature "semi-Hollywood" work. It also displays his various abilities with modernist literature (viz. the title story) that marks him as a writer truly ahead of his age.