FROM MY COLLECTION
The Sun Also Rises (1926) Earnest Hemingway
The quintessential novel of the Lost Generation, The Sun Also Rises is one of Ernest Hemingway's masterpieces, and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. It is an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions. First published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises helped to establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.
Tender Is the Night (1934) F. Scott Fitzgerald
Set on the French Riviera in the late 1920s, Tender Is the Night is the tragic romance of the young actress Rosemary Hoyt and the stylish American couple Dick and Nicole Diver. A brilliant young psychiatrist at the time of his marriage, Dick is both husband and doctor to Nicole, whose wealth goads him into a lifestyle not his own, and whose growing strength highlights Dick's harrowing demise. A profound study of the romantic concept of character,Tender Is the Night is lyrical, expansive, and hauntingly evocative.
The Beautiful and Damned (1922) F. Scott Fitzgerald
First published in 1922, The Beautiful and the Damned followed Fitzgerald's impeccable debut, This Side of Paradise, thus securing his place in the tradition of great American novelists. Embellished with the author's lyrical prose, here is the story of Harvard-educated, aspiring aesthete Anthony Patch and his beautiful wife, Gloria. As they await the inheritance of his grandfather's fortune, their reckless marriage sways under the influence of alcohol and avarice. A devastating look at the nouveau riche, and the New York nightlife, as well as the ruinous effects of wild ambition, The Beautiful and the Damned achieved stature as one of Fitzgerald's most accomplished novels. Its distinction as a classic endures to this day. Pocket Book's Enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enhanced for the contemporary reader. Special features include critical perspectives, suggestions for further read, and a unique visual essay composed of period photographs that help bring every word to life
The Great Gatsby (1925) F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story is of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his new love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.
Tropic of Cancer (1934) Henry Miller
Now hailed as an American classic Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller’s masterpiece, was banned as obscene in this country for twenty-seven years after its first publication in Paris in 1934. Only a historic court ruling that changed American censorship standards, ushering in a
new era of freedom and frankness in modern literature, permitted the publication of this first volume of Miller’s famed mixture of memoir and fiction, which chronicles with unapologetic gusto the
bawdy adventures of a young expatriate writer, his friends, and the characters they meet in Paris in the 1930s. Tropic of Cancer is now considered, as Norman Mailer said, "one of the ten or twenty great novels of our century."
Nadja (1928) André Breton
“Beauty is like a train that ceaselessly roars out of the Gare de Lyon and which I know will never leave, which has not left. It consists of jolts and shocks, many of which do not have much importance, but which we know are destined to produce one Shock, which does...The human heart, beautiful as a seismograph...Beauty will be CONVULSIVE or will not be at all.”
― Andre Breton, Nadja
Memoirs of MontparnasseJohn Glassco (1969)
Mrs.Dalloway (1925) Virginia Wolfe
Vile Bodies (1930) Evelyn Waugh
The Bright Young Things of 1920s Mayfair, with their paradoxical mix of innocence and sophistication, exercise their inventive minds and vile bodies in every kind of capricious escapade, whether it is promiscuity, dancing, cocktail parties or sports cars. A vivid assortment of characters, among them the struggling writer Adam Fenwick-Symes and the glamorous, aristocratic Nina Blount, hunt fast and furiously for ever greater sensations and the hedonistic fulfilment of their desires. Evelyn Waugh’s acidly funny and experimental satire shows a new generation emerging in the years after the First World War, revealing the darkness and vulnerability beneath the glittering surface of the high life.
MOST WANTED
This Side of Paradise (1920) F. Scott Fitzgerald
This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald's romantic and witty first novel, was written when the author was only twenty-three years old. This semi-autobiographical story of the handsome, indulged, and idealistic Princeton student Amory Blaine received critical raves and catapulted Fitzgerald to instant fame.
Tales of the Jazz Age F. Scott Fitzgerald
A collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald's prized short stories. The stories include: My Last Flappers, The Jelly-Bean, The Camel's Back, May Day, Porcelain and Pink, Fantasies, The Diamond as Big as The Ritz, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Tarquin of Cheapside, "O Russet Witch!", Unclassified Masterpieces, The Lees of Happiness, Mr. Icky, and Jemina, The Mountain Girl.
Ulysses (1922) James Joyce
Loosely based on the Odyssey, this landmark of modern literature follows ordinary Dubliners in 1904. Capturing a single day in the life of Dubliner Leopold Bloom, his friends Buck Mulligan and Stephen Dedalus, his wife Molly, and a scintillating cast of supporting characters, Joyce pushes Celtic lyricism and vulgarity to splendid extremes. Captivating experimental techniques range from interior monologues to exuberant wordplay and earthy humor. A major achievement in 20th century literature.
A Farewell to Arms (1929) Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield - the weary, demoralized men marching in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto; the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion—this gripping, semiautobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep. Ernest Hemingway famously said that he rewrote his ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times to get the words right.
Twilight Sleep (1927) Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton's superb satirical novel of the Jazz Age, a critically praised best-seller when it was first published. Sex, drugs, work, money, infatuation with the occult and spiritual healing - these are the remarkably modern themes that animate Twilight Sleep. The extended family of Mrs. Manford is determined to escape the pain, boredom and emptiness of life through whatever form of 'twilight sleep' they can devise or procure. And though the characters and their actions may seem more in keeping with today's society, this is still a classic Wharton tale of the upper crust and its undoing - wittily, masterfully told.
The French
Paris Peasant (1926) Louis Aragon
Cherie (1920) Colette
Le Diable au corps / The Devil in the Flesh (1923) Raymond Radiguet
The Devil in the Flesh, one of the finest, most delicate love stories ever written, is set in Paris during the last year of the First World War. The narrator, a boy of sixteen, tells of his love affair with Martha Lacombe, a young woman whose soldier husband is away at the front. With an accuracy of insight that is almost ruthless, he describes his conflicting emotions—the pride of an adolescent on the verge of manhood and the pain of a child thrust too fast into maturity. The liaison soon becomes a scandal, and their friends, horrified and incredulous, refuse to accept what is happening—even when the affair reaches its tragic climax.
Les Enfants Terribles / The Holy Terrors Jean Cocteau (1929)
Last nights of Paris Philippe Soupault (1928)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Anita Loos (1924)
The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein (1925)
A Room of One’s Own (1929) Virginia Woolf
SET IN 20-30S PARIS
Quiet Days in Clichyhenry Miller1956 - It is based on his experience as a Parisian expatriate in the early 1930s,
A Moveable Feast: the…Ernest Hemingway (1964)
Exile's Return: A Liter…Malcolm Cowley (1994)
Paris Was Our MistressSamuel Putnam (1947)
The Crazy Years: Paris…William Wiser (1983)
Shakespeare and Company Sylvia Beach (1956)
the garden of edenErnest Hemingway 1986
Living Well Is the Best…Calvin Tomkins (1971)
Montparnasse: Paris…John Baxter (2017)
OTHERS I'D LIKE TO GET TO
Lady Chatterley's Lover D H Lawrence (1923)
Irenes Cunt Louis Aragon (1928)
So Big by Edna Ferber (1924)
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (1927)
Manhattan Transfer by Dos Passos (1925)
Paris France Gertrude Stein
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh (1928)
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1920)
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929)
Manhattan TransferJohn Dos Passos,1925)
Grand Hotel Vicki Baum1929)
This Must Be the Place:…Morrill Cody (1934)
Being Geniuses Togethe…Robert McAlmon1938
Comments