Showing results by author "Des Fitzgerald" in All Categories

If the Roaring Twenties are remembered as the era of "flaming youth," it was F. Scott Fitzgerald who lit the fire. His semiautobiographical first novel, This Side of Paradise, became an instant bestseller and established an image of seemingly carefree, party-mad young men and women out to create a new morality for a new, post-war America.

In this emotional debut, a New York executive, restless in his success, is sent to West Virginia,where a small-town girl and her son open his eyes to a richer life than hecould have imagined. On the surface, Charlie Burden and Natty Oakes could not be more different: she, the daughter of many generations of rural farmers; he, an executive at a multinational engineering firm. But in each other they find the new lease on life they both so desperately need.

When sixteen-year-old Abigail’s mother dies in Scotland—leaving a faded photo, a weirdly cryptic letter, and a one-way ticket to America—she feels nothing. Why should she? Her mother abandoned her as a baby to grow up on an antinuclear commune and then in ugly foster homes. But the letter is a surprise in more ways than one: her father is living in California. What’s more, she has an eighteen-year-old sister, Becky. And the two are expecting Abigail to move in with them

In these four semi-autobiographical stories Fitzgerald highlights some of the absurdities of Hollywood. They feature Pat Hobby, a down-on-his-luck scriptwriter. In the course of his adventures neither the stars, producers nor, least of all, the writers are spared from Fitzgerald's demolishing wit. These superb examples of short fiction succeed in mocking both success and failure as they deliver their sting with deadly humour.

Toney Fitzgerald stands in front of the class with a message. There's little poetry in making money, he says, and there's even less in poverty. In one hand he holds the hammer of reality and, in the other, the gauntlet of defiance. Mixing fiction, experience and teaching, he leads them through ruthless self-examination, preparing them to break through the Bitch barrier to the richer world beyond.

The greatest short story writers strive to achieve a single, dramatic effect, a feature which the early masters of this genre perfected. Although the short story came from Europe, it was reborn in America and reached a pinnacle of superb form on these shores by the turn of the 20th century. In so many of our best writers, we hear echoes of a pioneer ethos that sustains the heart of a great literature. Here are 12 of America's best.

New York 1922. Auf seinem Anwesen in Long Island gibt Jay Gatsby sagenhafte Feste mit Swing und Champagner...

A girl with no home, a house in need of love... A beautiful romance set in the breathtaking Welsh mountain. Lark has been wandering the country for many years, with no real place to call home. Until she meets Matthew Williams, a Canadian who has inherited a run-down hill farm in North Wales. Young and enthusiastic, Matthew has no knowledge of farming and no experience of living in the countryside.

Ihr Leben ist eine ewige Party mit immer neuen Cocktails und Melodien des Jazz Age. Gloria und Anthony sind Dandys...

Er ist der letzte Hollywood-Produzent, der Mittelmaß und Klischees nicht duldet: Monroe Stahr verbringt Tag und Nacht in den Aufnahmestudios, Vorführräumen und Drehbuchschreiber-Büros, um die Arbeit an seinen Filmen zu überwachen. Als ein Gewitter nachts die Kulisse für eine Burma-Szene unter Wasser setzt, ist er sofort zur Stelle - und entdeckt dabei zwei Frauen, die sich unerlaubt auf das Gelände geschlichen haben. Eine davon ist Kathleen Moore - deren natürlicher Charme Monroe Stahr vom ersten Augenblick an in den Bann zieht.

Benediction tells the story of 19-year-old Lois, who spends an afternoon getting reacquainted with her 36-year-old brother, Keith who is training to become a Jesuit priest. It opens with Lois sending a telegram to her love interest, Howard, whom we never meet, but who is anxious whether she will end their relationship or continue it by meeting with him the next day.

"The Jelly Bean", "The Camel's Back", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "Mayday", and "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" comprise this collection of humorous, strange, and sometimes terrifying tales.

The Beautiful and Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 novel, introduced Fitzgerald fans to 22-year-old Gloria Gilbert, a drop-dead gorgeous, selfish, gumdrop-addicted beauty from Kansas City, and 25-year-old Anthony Patch, a handsome, heir-to-a-fortune, careless, spoiled Harvard graduate and New York bon vivant. The novel opens in 1913, a time of flappers, jazz clubs, silent movies, and, for those who could afford it, a 24/7 world of parties, booze, and social extravagances.

Cuando F. Scott Fitzgerald escribió El Gran Gatsby al principio de los años veinte, el sueño americano ya estaba en decadencia. Originalmente estaba basado en la idea de que la búsqueda de la felicidad no solo involucraba el éxito material sino también el crecimiento moral y espiritual. Para el tiempo de Fitzgerald el sueño se había enfocado increíblemente en el dinero y el placer - un fenómeno que le era muy familiar al rico escritor.

Commissario Alec Blume, on health leave, has retreated from Rome to central Italy. At the Villa Romanelli, he enrols in a natural remedies course conducted by a young woman named Silvana. But far from recuperating, a feverish Blume becomes isolated and sluggish with sickness. Increasingly ill at ease in the stifling environment, the dark history of the crumbling villa and its once-magnificent gardens draw him in.

This short story first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1920, and later became part of Flappers and Philosophers. Fitzgerald was the master of exposing the underbelly of the aristocracy and the pompous, and here, Horace the prodigy falls in love with Monica the dancer. Horace puts his lofty goals on hold to pursue a more lucrative career as an acrobat, while Monica writes a book.

The debut novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise takes its title from a line of the Rupert Brooke poem 'Tiare Tahiti'. The book examines the lives and morality of post-World War I youth. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive Princeton University student who dabbles in literature and conveys the book's theme of love warped by greed and status-seeking.

Charles Dickens once again gathers his favourite storytellers around him and 'conducts' the story of 'The Wreck of the Golden Mary'. Dickens leads, Percy Fitzgerald, Harriet Parr, Adelaide Anne Procter, and others follow....

Benjamin Button wird als alter Mann geboren und wird zusehends jünger. Fitzgeralds skurrile Geschichte wurde mit Brad Pitt in der Hauptrolle verfilmt.

Amory Blaine ist begabt und privilegiert. Von der Mutter hat er die Überzeugung, zu Höherem geboren zu sein. Er studiert in Princeton, und nach etlichen Flirts begegnet er Rosalind, seiner ersten großen Liebe. Als sie ihn für einen anderen verlässt, zerschellen Amorys jugendliche Ideale. Was bleibt, ist der Alkohol - aber trotz aller Trauer und Enttäuschung auch die Erkenntnis, dass das Leben, so pathetisch und lächerlich es oft scheint, doch lebenswert ist: nicht jenseits, sondern diesseits vom Paradies.