Description

This classic collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald works contains eight short stories. Each story is a fine example of early 20th century fiction and gives you a glimpse into the 1910'-1920's. Among the stories found here are: The Offshore Pirate, The Ice Palace, Head and Shoulders, Bernice Bobs Her Hair, and Benediction. "The Offshore Pirate" is a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1920. It is one of eight short stories included in Fitzgerald's first published collection, Flappers and Philosophers. The story is about a spoiled young woman named Ardita Farnam, who is on a trip to Florida with her uncle. Their boat is eventually captured by "pirates," and she falls in love with their captain. The story was first published in the May 29, 1920 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, his work's third appearance in the magazine that month. It demonstrates his rapid development as a versatile fiction writer. It is the first story that develops Fitzgerald's recurrent plot idea of a heroine won by her lover's performance of an extraordinary deed. The story was adapted to film as The Off-Shore Pirate in 1921, which starred Viola Dana as Ardita.[1] In 2010 an operatic version by Joel Weiss premiered at Christopher Street Opera in New York City. "The Ice Palace" is a modernist short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published in The Saturday Evening Post, 22 May 1920. It is one of eight short stories originally published in Fitzgerald's first collection, Flappers and Philosophers (New York City: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920), and is also included in the collection Babylon Revisited and Other Stories (New York City: Charles Scribner's Sons. Sally Carrol Happer, a young southern woman from the fictional city of Tarleton, Georgia, is bored with her unchanging environment. Her local friends are dismayed to learn she is engaged to Harry Bellamy, a man from an unspecified Northern town. She brushes off their concerns, alluding to her need for something more in her life, a need to see "things happen on a big scale." "Head and Shoulders" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald written and published in 1920. It was first published in The Saturday Evening Post, with the help of Fitzgerald's agent, Harold Ober. It later appeared in his short story collection Flappers and Philosophers. It tells the story of a young prodigy at Princeton who falls for a spirited dancer in spite of himself. "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, written in 1920 and first published in the Saturday Evening Post in May of that year. It appeared shortly thereafter in the collection Flappers and Philosophers. The story was based on letters Fitzgerald sent to his younger sister, Annabel, advising her on how to be more attractive to young men. The original text was much longer, but Fitzgerald cut nearly 3000 words and changed the ending to make the story more attractive to publishers. The story concerns Bernice, a wealthy girl from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who goes to visit her cousin Marjorie for the month of August. Marjorie feels that Bernice is a drag on her social life, and none of the boys wants to dance with Bernice. Bernice overhears a conversation between Marjorie and Marjorie's mother in which the younger girl complains that Bernice is socially hopeless. The next morning, Bernice threatens to leave town, but when Marjorie is unfazed, Bernice relents and agrees to let Marjorie turn her into a society girl. Marjorie teaches Bernice how to hold interesting conversations, how to flirt with even unattractive or uninteresting boys to make herself seem more desirable, and how to dance. Bernice's best line is teasing the boys with the idea that she will soon bob her hair, and they will get to watch.