A critical account of its own era introducing many themes which would be developed in later
works Fitzgerald's first novel was an instant critical and commercial success propelling him
into the limelight as a literary celebrity. This Side of Paradise charts the life of Amory
Blaine an ambitious young man loosely based on Fitzgerald himself as he moves from his
well-heeled Midwest home to study at Princeton and then starts frequenting the circles of high
society as an aspiring writer. Experiencing failure and frustration in love and in his career
Blaine finds his youthful enthusiasm gradually giving way to disillusionment cynicism and a
life of dissolution.
