Flappers and Philosophers

Published soon after Fitzgerald"s debut novel This Side of Paradise, Flappers and Philosophers was the author"s first collection of short fiction, a form through which he had gained notoriety in newspapers and magazines. The familiar themes of aspiration and social satire already permeate his writing: in "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" the fashionable Marjorie attempts to turn her dowdy cousin into a debutante, before betraying her out of jealousy, while "The Ice Palace" features a Southern belle whose engagement to a Northerner finds her confronted with a cultural clash between tradition and modernity.



Also containing "The Offshore Pirate", "Head and Shoulders", "The Cut-Glass Bowl", "Benediction", "Dalyrimple Goes Wrong" and "The Four Fists", this volume of stories illustrates the early stages of Fitzgerald"s development as a writer and provides an entertaining chronicle of America in the 1910s.