F. Scott Fitzgerald and Rome

Abstract

"F. Scott Fitzgerald and Rome" focuses on Fitzgerald's view of Rome where, with Zelda, he spent a few weeks in 1921 and the whole winter of 1924–1925. As two little known sketches - "Three Cities" (1921) and "The High Cost of Macaroni" (1954) - show, that experience proved to be quite disappointing. In particular, Fitzgerald profoundly disliked the vulgar atmosphere of Fascist Rome. Thus, the dream of the eternal city - which he uses somewhat ironically in This Side of Paradise and in The Beautiful and Damned - was to reveal its tragic flaws in Tender Is the Night, where Rome plays a fatal role very much in the tradition of Hawthorne and James.