F Scott Fitzgerald and the Great Gatsby

 Fitzgerald’s work in advertising helped to give him an income.   Still  Zelda was afraid that he wasn’t well off enough to support her.  Her family were dubious about him, because of his heavy drinking and his Catholicism, and were not sure that he was a suitable husband. She broke off the engagement, and he continued to write, in spite of his worries and problems.

However within a short time he managed to complete his first full novel This Side of Paradise and it was a bigger success than he might have hoped for.

They were able to marry and Zelda became pregnant.  

Fitzgerald based many of his brittle unstable socialite female characters on his wife, and in 1921, he was working on his second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned.”

Zelda gave birth to their only child, a daughter named “Scottie” in late 1921, but by now she and Fitzgerald were drinking heavily and her behaviour was a little erratic.  Their drunken antics were well known but at first people were indulgent and the couple were popular in writer’s circles.  The drinking  did not damage his writing.  It was beginning to tear at his marriage however.  The couple rowed frequently and were extravagant.. and Fitzgerald had to write short stories which he did not like much, to keep them solvent…

In 1924, after a disastrous attempt at writing plays, he and Zelda moved to France where he started to write The Great Gatsby.

Many American writers were living in Europe, particularly France after World War One.  Living was cheaper there and they felt that the old culture of Europe was more inspiring than that of America.  They were referred to as a “Lost Generation” - living away from their roots, drinking, and taking drugs, and losing themselves in wild behaviour. Some had served in France during the War, or had been involved in it somehow, like Hemingway and had seen the destruction of life and of conventional morality.. and felt that there was nothing to live for but pleasure, yet they desperately wanted to find meaning in life. American idealism and indeed puritanism were still alive within them, despite their frantic seeking after superfical enjoyments...