Beyond Gatsby: How Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Writers of the 1920s Shaped American Culture

The 1920s, one of the more colorful decades of the 20th century, inspired a generation of writers who captured the changes in America following World War I. First called the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it was a time of new optimism and breaking the old Victorian taboos. In this carefully researched cultural history, McParland (English, Felician Coll.; Mark Twain's Audience) takes a new look at classics such as Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, and Willa Cather's O Pioneers!, showing how the works represented the era and reflected universal human concerns. He points out how Ernest Hemingway and others helped forge an American literature independent from older English writing. The impressive, unusual list of sources includes critical commentaries of the time and articles by readers, revealing how they reacted to the narratives and characters.