Note on "The Side of Paradise" by Scott Fitzgerald.

"The Side of Paradise" is an important novel by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald which was published in 1920. Fitzgerald was an American fiction writer who explored the them time society through his writing. In this novel, he examines the lives and morality of the youth generation of post World War I. 

The title of the book was taken from a line of Rupert Brooke's important poem, "Tiare Tahiti". This novel explores the theme of love which is destroyed by greed and the seeking of status. The novel is autobiographical in tone, because its protagonist Amory Blaine is completely based on Fitzgerald. The other important characters of this novel are- Beatrice Blaine, mother of Amory Blaine who is actually based on the mother of one of Fitzgerald's friends; Isabelle Borge, Amory's first love interest who is based on Fitzgerald's first love, Ginevra King; Monsignor Darcy, Blaine's spiritual mentor; Rosalind Connage, Blaine's second love based on Zeldo Sayre; Cecilia Connage; Clara Page etc.

Thomas Park D'Invilliers is another character of this novel who is one of Blaine's close friends. He is also the fictitious author of the poem at the start of  "The Great Gatsby". Another important character of this novel is Eleanor Savage who served the role of "love interest, therapeutic friend and conversational other." 

The book has three parts---

        1. "Book One: The Romantic Egoist"

        2. "Interlude"

        3. "Book Two: The Education of a Personage"

H. L. Mencken wrote about this novel that "The Side of Paradise" was the "best American novel that I have seen of late". Not only Mencken, John Grier Hibben, the president of Princeton University said, "I cannot bear to think that our young men are living four years in a country club and spending their lives wholly in a spirit of calculation and snobbishness."