Critical Insights: F. Scott Fitzgerald

The introductory essay in this volume serves as a meditation on Fitzgerald’s enduring relevance, pointing out how the major themes persisting across his work—wealth, success, love, youth, and tragedy—are also enduring themes within the American consciousness. Other essays discuss Fitzgerald’s interpretation of the American dream, his place within American popular culture, and the critical reception of the novels and short stories to demonstrate the rise, fall, and resurgence of Fitzgerald’s reputation as a major American author. Finally, novelist and screenwriter Budd Schulberg offers a personal reminiscence of his brief, hectic friendship with Fitzgerald as the two struggled to complete a screenplay in the late 1930’s.