Overview

"During his Roaring Twenties heyday, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote three stories about the belles of Tarleton, Georgia, a setting readers recognized as a thinly veiled version of his wife Zelda Sayre's hometown of Montgomery, Alabama. In different ways, the heroines of these tales—Sally Carol Happer in ""The Ice Palace,"" Nancy Lamar in ""The Jelly-Bean,"" and Allie Calhoun in ""The Last of the Belles""—rebel against Southern expectations of women, revel in the newfound freedoms young people enjoyed at the outset of the modern age, and ultimately discover that home is far harder to run away from than they ever expected. Remarkably, although these minor masterpieces have long been regarded as among the very best of the 160-plus short stories Fitzgerald published during his short life, the stories have never (until now) been published as a trio. Gathered here to commemorate the centennial of both Scott and Zelda's 1920 marriage and the beginning of the Jazz Age they symbolize, All of the Belles captures all the winsome qualities readers love about F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing: the keen observation of manners, the comic insights, the lyricism, and the poignant, powerful sense of loss."

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9781588384232

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Reviews

How wonderful to have Sally Carrol, Nancy, and Ailie together in this smart new collection! All three were Southern belles who understood quite well the complexities of their time and place. In these three stories they will live on and on and delight a new generation of readers. -- James L. W. West III, General Editor Emeritus, Cambridge Fitzgerald Edition All of the Belles is an extraordinary gift, not only to devotees of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald but readers, historians, and book-lovers everywhere. Dr. Kirk Curnutt's masterful introduction alone is worth the price, providing not only a refresher course in the enduring mystique of the Fitzgeralds but also a reminder of Zelda's profound influence on Scott's work. Although the stories of this collection are tender and lyrical on the surface, the underlying theme of change and loss brands them as uniquely Fitzgerald. -- Cassandra King, award-winning author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy F. Scott Fitzgerald's three stories set in the fictional Southern town of Tarleton depict the contrast between North and South (most evident in the figure of the Southern belle--the author's tribute to his wife, Zelda) and exemplify Fitzgerald's theme of love frustrated by social boundaries. Gathered together here for the first time, along with Kirk Curnutt's authoritative and graceful introduction, they evocatively show Fitzgerald's evolution from youthful romanticism in The Ice Palace to disenchantment in The Jelly-Bean to the mature understanding of reality in The Last of the Belles. -- Jackson R. Bryer, President of The F. Scott Fitzgerald Society

How wonderful to have Sally Carrol, Nancy, and Ailie together in this smart new collection! All three were Southern belles who understood quite well the complexities of their time and place. In these three stories they will live on and on and delight a new generation of readers. -- James L. W. West III, General Editor Emeritus, Cambridge Fitzgerald Edition

How wonderful to have Sally Carrol, Nancy, and Ailie together in this smart new collection! All three were Southern belles who understood quite well the complexities of their time and place. In these three stories they will live on and on and delight a new generation of readers. -- James L. W. West III, General Editor Emeritus, Cambridge Fitzgerald Edition All of the Belles is an extraordinary gift, not only to devotees of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald but readers, historians, and book-lovers everywhere. Dr. Kirk Curnutt's masterful introduction alone is worth the price, providing not only a refresher course in the enduring mystique of the Fitzgeralds but also a reminder of Zelda's profound influence on Scott's work. Although the stories of this collection are tender and lyrical on the surface, the underlying theme of change and loss brands them as uniquely Fitzgerald. -- Cassandra King, award-winning author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy F. Scott Fitzgerald's three stories set in the fictional Southern town of Tarleton depict the contrast between North and South (most evident in the figure of the Southern belle--the author's tribute to his wife, Zelda) and exemplify Fitzgerald's theme of love frustrated by social boundaries. Gathered together here for the first time, along with Kirk Curnutt's authoritative and graceful introduction, they evocatively show Fitzgerald's evolution from youthful romanticism in The Ice Palace to disenchantment in The Jelly-Bean to the mature understanding of reality in The Last of the Belles. -- Jackson R. Bryer, President of The F. Scott Fitzgerald Society A revelatory read for Fitzgerald fans and Southern studies buffs alike. All of the Belles is beautifully drawn. In these pages, the modern belle was born. Invaluable insights into both Zelda and Scott are here presented in stories of Southern folkways and mores, encountered by both Fitzgeralds during their mythic time in Montgomery. -- Lee Smith, award-winning author of Guests on Earth and Fair and Tender Ladies

Author Information

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1896, F. Scott Fitzgerald first came to Alabama in the summer of 1918 as an Army lieutenant stationed at Camp Sheridan while training for the Great War. According to legend, he met Montgomery belle Zelda Sayre at a country-club dance. The pair married on April 3, 1920, and, thanks to the success of Fitzgerald's debut novel--published eight days before the wedding--instantly became symbols of the Roaring Twenties. Over the next two decades, Fitzgerald published three more novels--including his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby--and 160-plus short stories. He died in 1940, having fallen out of public favor. Within a decade, however, readers rediscovered his brilliance and he continues to be celebrated as one of America's greatest authors today. Kirk Curnutt is executive director of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society and serves as managing editor of The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review. He is professor and chair of English at Troy University. His office in downtown Montgomery looks out toward Pleasant Avenue, where Zelda Fitzgerald was raised. Curnutt is the author of The Cambridge Introduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald, among other books, and the editor of The Oxford Historical Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald.

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