Drawing together selected letters and photographs between 1918
(when they first met at a country club dance) and 1940 (the year of
his death) this collection details the passionate and often
traumatic relationship between F Scott Fitzgerald and his wife
Zelda. Many of the letters have been published previously, but this
is the first time they've been gathered together in one volume,
which is enhanced by an introduction from the couple's
granddaughter, Eleanor Lanahan. Their well-documented and often
sensationalized troubles are revisited here in a much more
sympathetic light, and the chronologically arranged correspondence
allows us to experience the high-profile courtship and marriage
from the viewpoint of the two central characters, who were as often
in conflict with each other as they were besotted. In particular,
the mental illness and alcoholism that plagued Zelda and Scott
respectively are considered more in terms of the diseases they are,
and not some kind of weakness or badness, an attitude that
permeated many previous biographies of the couple, from which
neither emerged particularly favourably. Another criticism - that
he repeatedly used Zelda's words to enhance his own writing - is
also considered, and the letters here contain examples of her
delightful prose that would find their way into his own. Zelda and
Scott's love informed much of what they wrote, and - especially in
the early years of their relationship - they lived the 1920s high
life that his writing captured so memorably, until the early joy
faded and 'the fairytale ended' in 1930, the year of her first
breakdown. Sometimes the parade of 'darling' and 'dearest' grates,
leaving the reader with that awkward feeling often experienced when
witnessing first-hand the gushings of an enamoured couple, but
overall this is a warm and compassionate look at two people and
their 'deep but tormented love'. (Kirkus UK)
This evocative collection of love letters chronicles one of the most legendary romances of all time. Much has been written about the fascinating marriage between Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Through his alcoholism and her mental illness, his career highs (and lows) and her institutional confinement, their devotion to each other lasted for more than twenty-two years. Their myth conjures up images of gleaming hotel lobbies, white suits, flappers, lavish parties and smoky speakeasies — a whole world of nostalgia for the Jazz age and the expatriate life in Europe.
The Fitzgeralds’ courtship and marriage was so tightly linked to their books that it has often been hard to distinguish between life and literature. Now, as a result of the meticulous work of Fitzgerald scholars Jackson R. Bryer and Cathy W. Barks, who have brought many previously unpublished letters together with those published separately in Scott and Zelda’s collected writings, the story of their love can be given in their own letters. Introduced by an extensive narrative of the Fitzgeralds, they are beautifully illustrated throughout with a selection of both familiar and unpublished photographs.
Click here to read a review.‘Heartbreaking ... love has seldom seemed more poignant’ —
Sunday Times‘A good source for uncovering the truth ... the correspondence speaks for itself and the editors allow readers to draw their own conclusions’ —
Daily Telegraph‘Superbly edited and evocatively illustrated’ —
Sunday Telegraph‘The letters are beautifully organised, with clear and illuminating biographical exposition in between. Readers are given the written evidence from which to make up their own minds about responsibility and blame’ —
Literary Review‘Scott and Zelda's letters make it clear that both of them knew they had wasted their youth, beauty and early success. And both of them understood that they were bound together’ —
Independent on Sunday
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