This Side of Paradise

335 Pages·2014·0.68 MB·English

by  F. Scott Fitzgerald

This Side of Paradise
F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Title: This Side of Paradise
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Posting Date: August 6, 2008 [EBook #805]
Release Date: February, 1997
[Last updated: June 22, 2011]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
***STARTOFTHISPROJECTGUTENBERGEBOOKTHIS
SIDE OF PARADISE ***
Produced by David Reed, and Ken Reeder
THIS SIDE OF PARADISE
By F. Scott Fitzgerald
... Well this side of Paradise!...
There’s little comfort in the wise.
—Rupert Brooke.
Experience is the name so many people
give to their mistakes.
—Oscar Wilde.
To SIGOURNEY FAY
CONTENTS
BOOK ONE: The Romantic Egotist
1. AMORY, SON OF BEATRICE
2. SPIRES AND GARGOYLES
3. THE EGOTIST CONSIDERS
4. NARCISSUS OFF DUTY
[INTERLUDE: MAY, 1917-FEBRUARY, 1919. ]
BOOK TWO: The Education of a Personage
1. THE DEBUTANTE
2. EXPERIMENTS IN CONVALESCENCE
3. YOUNG IRONY
4. THE SUPERCILIOUS SACRIFICE
5. THE EGOTIST BECOMES A PERSONAGE
BOOK ONE—The Romantic Egotist
This text was converted to LaTeX by means of GutenMark
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Contents
1 CHAPTER 1. Amory, Son of Beatrice 1
2 A KISS FOR AMORY 6
3 SNAPSHOTS OF THE YOUNG EGOTIST 14
4 CODE OF THE YOUNG EGOTIST 17
5 PREPARATORYTOTHEGREATADVENTURE 19
6 THE EGOTIST DOWN 27
7 INCIDENT OF THE WELL-MEANING PRO-
FESSOR 29
8 INCIDENT OF THE WONDERFUL GIRL 31
9 HEROIC IN GENERAL TONE 34
10 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE SLICKER 35
11 CHAPTER 2. Spires and Gargoyles 40
12 A DAMP SYMBOLIC INTERLUDE 57
13 HISTORICAL 59
14 DESCRIPTIVE 64
15 ISABELLE 65
16 BABES IN THE WOODS 71
17 CARNIVAL 76
18 UNDER THE ARC-LIGHT 90
19 CHAPTER 3. The Egotist Considers 95
20 THE SUPERMAN GROWS CARELESS 101
21 AFTERMATH 105
22 FINANCIAL 107
23 THE DEVIL 118
24 IN THE ALLEY 123
25 AT THE WINDOW 126
26 CHAPTER 4. Narcissus Off Duty 130
27 AMORY WRITES A POEM 144
28 STILL CALM 146
29 CLARA 149
30 ST. CECILIA 153
31 AMORY IS RESENTFUL 159
32 THE END OF MANY THINGS 165
33 INTERLUDE 168
34 MY DEAR BOY: 169
35 EMBARKING AT NIGHT 173
36 DEAR BAUDELAIRE:— 175
37 BOOK TWO—The Education of a Personage 178
38 SEVERAL HOURS LATER 192
39 KISMET 199
40 A LITTLE INTERLUDE 200
41 BITTER SWEET 202
42 AQUATIC INCIDENT 204
43 FIVE WEEKS LATER 206
44 CHAPTER 2. Experiments in Convalescence 214
45 STILL ALCOHOLIC 218
46 AMORY ON THE LABOR QUESTION 223
47 A LITTLE LULL 225
48 TEMPERATURE NORMAL 228
49 RESTLESSNESS 232
50 TOM THE CENSOR 237
51 LOOKING BACKWARD 240
52 ANOTHER ENDING 242
53 MY DEAR BOY:— 243
54 CHAPTER 3. Young Irony 245
55 SEPTEMBER 254
56 THE END OF SUMMER 258
57 APOEMTHATELEANORSENTAMORYSEV-
ERAL YEARS LATER 264
58 CHAPTER 4. The Supercilious Sacrifice 267
59 THE COLLAPSE OF SEVERAL PILLARS 277
60 CHAPTER 5. The Egotist Becomes a Personage279
61 IN THE DROOPING HOURS 286
62 STILL WEEDING 289
63 MONSIGNOR 293
64 THE BIG MAN WITH GOGGLES 295
65 AMORY COINS A PHRASE 300
66 GOING FASTER 302
67 THE LITTLE MAN GETS HIS 305
68 Appendix: Production notes for eBook edition
11 313
69 EndofProjectGutenberg’sThisSideofParadise,
by F. Scott Fitzgerald 315
70 Section1. GeneralTermsofUseandRedistribut-
ing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works 317
71 Section2. InformationabouttheMissionofProject
Gutenberg-tm 324
72 Section 3. Information about the Project Guten-
berg Literary Archive Foundation 325
73 Section 4. Information about Donations to the
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation327
Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1. Amory,
Son of Beatrice
Amory Blaine inherited from his mother every trait, except the
stray inexpressible few, that made him worth while. His fa-
ther, an ineffectual, inarticulate man with a taste for Byron
andahabitofdrowsingovertheEncyclopediaBritannica,grew
wealthy at thirty through the death of two elder brothers, suc-
cessful Chicago brokers, and in the first flush of feeling that the
world was his, went to Bar Harbor and met Beatrice O’Hara.
In consequence, Stephen Blaine handed down to posterity his
heightofjustundersixfeetandhistendencytowaveratcrucial
moments, these two abstractions appearing in his son Amory.
Formanyyearshehoveredinthebackgroundofhisfamily’slife,
anunassertivefigurewithafacehalf-obliteratedbylifeless,silky
hair, continually occupied in “taking care” of his wife, continu-
allyharassedbytheideathathedidn’tandcouldn’tunderstand
her.
But Beatrice Blaine! There was a woman! Early pictures taken
on her father’s estate at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, or in Rome
attheSacredHeartConvent—aneducationalextravagancethat
in her youth was only for the daughters of the exceptionally
wealthy—showedtheexquisitedelicacyofherfeatures,thecon-
summateartandsimplicityofherclothes. Abrillianteducation
she had—her youth passed in renaissance glory, she was versed
in the latest gossip of the Older Roman Families; known by
name as a fabulously wealthy American girl to Cardinal Vi-
tori andQueen Margheritaand moresubtlecelebrities thatone
must have had some culture even to have heard of. She learned
in England to prefer whiskey and soda to wine, and her small
talk was broadened in two senses during a winter in Vienna.
All in all Beatrice O’Hara absorbed the sort of education that
will be quite impossible ever again; a tutelage measured by the
number of things and people one could be contemptuous of and
charming about; a culture rich in all arts and traditions, barren
of all ideas, in the last of those days when the great gardener
clipped the inferior roses to produce one perfect bud.
In her less important moments she returned to America, met
Stephen Blaine and married him—this almost entirely because
she was a little bit weary, a little bit sad. Her only child was
carried through a tiresome season and brought into the world
on a spring day in ninety-six.
When Amory was five he was already a delightful companion
for her. He was an auburn-haired boy, with great, handsome
eyes which he would grow up to in time, a facile imaginative
mind and a taste for fancy dress. From his fourth to his tenth
year he did the country with his mother in her father’s private
car, from Coronado, where his mother became so bored that
she had a nervous breakdown in a fashionable hotel, down to
Mexico City, where she took a mild, almost epidemic consump-
tion. This trouble pleased her, and later she made use of it
as an intrinsic part of her atmosphere—especially after several
astounding bracers.
So, while more or less fortunate little rich boys were defying
governesses on the beach at Newport, or being spanked or tu-
tored or read to from “Do and Dare,” or “Frank on the Missis-
sippi,” Amory was biting acquiescent bell-boys in the Waldorf,
outgrowing a natural repugnance to chamber music and sym-
phonies, and deriving a highly specialized education from his
mother.
“Amory.”
“Yes, Beatrice.” (Such a quaint name for his mother; she en-
couraged it.)
“Dear, don’t think of getting out of bed yet. I’ve always sus-
pectedthatearlyrisinginearlylifemakesonenervous. Clothilde
is having your breakfast brought up.”
“All right.”
“Iamfeelingveryoldto-day,Amory,” shewouldsigh,herfacea
rarecameoofpathos,hervoiceexquisitelymodulated,herhands
as facile as Bernhardt’s. “My nerves are on edge—on edge. We
must leave this terrifying place to-morrow and go searching for
sunshine.”
Amory’spenetratinggreeneyeswouldlookoutthroughtangled
hair at his mother. Even at this age he had no illusions about
her.
“Amory.”
“Oh, yes.”
“Iwantyoutotakeared-hotbathashotasyoucanbearit,and
just relax your nerves. You can read in the tub if you wish.”
She fed him sections of the “Fetes Galantes” before he was ten;
atelevenhecouldtalkglibly, ifratherreminiscently, ofBrahms
and Mozart and Beethoven. One afternoon, when left alone in
the hotel at Hot Springs, he sampled his mother’s apricot cor-
dial, and as the taste pleased him, he became quite tipsy. This
was fun for a while, but he essayed a cigarette in his exaltation,
andsuccumbedtoavulgar,plebeianreaction. Thoughthisinci-
dent horrified Beatrice, it also secretly amused her and became
part of what in a later generation would have been termed her
“line.”
“This son of mine,” he heard her tell a room full of awestruck,
admiring women one day, “is entirely sophisticated and quite
charming—but delicate—we’re all delicate; here, you know.”
Her hand was radiantly outlined against her beautiful bosom;
then sinking her voice to a whisper, she told them of the apri-
cot cordial. They rejoiced, for she was a brave raconteuse, but
manywerethekeysturnedinsideboardlocksthatnightagainst
the possible defection of little Bobby or Barbara....
Thesedomesticpilgrimageswereinvariablyinstate; twomaids,
the private car, or Mr. Blaine when available, and very often a
physician. WhenAmoryhadthewhooping-coughfourdisgusted
specialistsglaredateachotherhunchedaroundhisbed;whenhe
tookscarletfeverthenumberofattendants,includingphysicians