{"product_id":"9780807179345-taking-things-hard","title":"Taking Things Hard","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Trials of F. Scott Fitzgerald\u003cbr\u003eF. Scott Fitzgerald published \u003cem\u003eThe Great Gatsby\u003c\/em\u003e, at the age of twenty-eight. Despite this extraordinary early achievement, Fitzgerald finished just one novel in the next (and last) fifteen years of his life. This volume reveals the story behind \u003cem\u003eGatsby\u003c\/em\u003e, along with Fitzgerald’s struggle to write anything that matched its brilliance.\u003cbr\u003eF. Scott Fitzgerald published America's favorite novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Great Gatsby,\u003c\/i\u003e at the young age of twenty-eight. Despite this extraordinary early achievement, Fitzgerald finished just one novel in the next (and last) fifteen years of his life, ending as a mostly unemployed Hollywood screenwriter. \u003ci\u003eTaking Things Hard \u003c\/i\u003ereveals the story behind the now-iconic \u003ci\u003eGatsby,\u003c\/i\u003e along with Fitzgerald's struggle to write anything that matched its brilliance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Robert R. Garnett's new biographical study of Fitzgerald's life and work begins by constructing a portrait of the young man who would wholly and uniquely pour himself into writing \u003ci\u003eGatsby\u003c\/i\u003e. In the years following its publication, Fitzgerald continued penning stories, some of them among his finest, yet it took him nine years to complete another novel\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e The downward trajectory of his career had interweaving causes, among them arrogance, irresponsibility, his troubled marriage to Zelda Sayre, financial improvidence, and a destructive alcoholism. At the root of it all, though, lingered the simple fact that Fitzgerald's most intense and profound experiences had come early, during his truncated undergraduate years at Princeton and the months following his February 1919 discharge from the army.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eTaking Things Hard\u003c\/i\u003e provides a fresh look at the imaginative sources of Fitzgerald's fiction and considers the elements, drawn from the keen impressions and salient emotions of its author's youth, that make \u003ci\u003eGatsby\u003c\/i\u003e a book that still speaks powerfully to readers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55424806158710,"sku":"9780807179345","price":38.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/stand_37798758_76506df7-3c25-4f41-9188-3667c5b10b1b.jpg?v=1763022763","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9780807179345-taking-things-hard","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}