- May Day (short story)
-
"May Day" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald published in Smart Set in 1920.
Contents
Plot
The story uses the May Day Riots of 1919 as historical backdrop. During these events, as the lower-class is fighting for certain causes, a group of privileged Yale alumni meet for a dance.
History
May Day was sold directly to Smart Set before Fitzgerald had a literary agent (later Harold Ober). It is noted that Fitzgerald based some of the events on those he experienced in New York City.[1] The city is detailed as both a source of unfathomable creative inspiration and horrid realities.
The story is noteworthy for its length, the familiar themes of lost youth and wealth as well as two distinct yet interrelated plots. All were aspects Fitzgerald would revisit throughout his literary career. Fitzgerald described the story as illustrating a "general hysteria...that inaugurated the Jazz Age..."
During the story a Jewish man is beat up by a crowd as he expounds socialist rhetoric. Fitzgerald, however, was not an anti-semite, and his characterizing of the Jewish man can be seen as a commentary of the brutality of the crowd contrasted with the man's wit and fervor.[2]
When asked if some of the story was autobiographical, Fitzgerald was evasive. He is attributed with saying "there are no good biographies of novelists because they are so many people."[3]
References
- ^ May Day: An Introduction
- ^ Notes on F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Passing of the Great Race M Gidley - Journal of American Studies, 1973
- ^ Some sort of epic grandeur: the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald MJ Bruccoli, SF Smith - 2002
External link
Works by F. Scott Fitzgerald Novels Short story
collectionsFlappers and Philosophers
(1920)"The Offshore Pirate" · "The Ice Palace" · "Head and Shoulders" · "The Cut-Glass Bowl" · "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" · "Benediction" · "Dalyrimple Goes Wrong" · "The Four Fists"Tales of the Jazz Age
(1922)"The Jelly-Bean" · "The Camel's Back" · "May Day" · "Porcelain and Pink" · The Diamond as Big as the Ritz · "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" · "Tarquin of Cheapside" · "Oh Russet Witch!" · "The Lees of Happiness" · "Mr. Icky" · "Jemina"All the Sad Young Men
(1926)"The Rich Boy" · "Winter Dreams" · "The Baby Party" · "Absolution" · "Rags Martin-Jones and the Pr-nce of W-les" · "The Adjuster" · "Hot and Cold Blood" · "The Sensible Thing" · "Gretchen's Forty Winks"Taps at Reveille
(1935)"The Scandal Detectives" · "The Freshest Boy" · "He Thinks He's Wonderful" · "The Captured Shadow" · "The Perfect Life" · "First Blood" · "A Nice Quiet Place" · "A Woman with a Past" · "Crazy Sunday" · "Two Wrongs" · "The Night of Chancellorsville" · "The Last of the Belles" · "Majesty" · "Family in the Wind" · "A Short Trip Home" · "One Interne" · "The Fiend" · "Babylon Revisited"Posthumous works Babylon Revisited and Other Stories (1960) · The Basil and Josephine Stories (1962) · The Pat Hobby Stories (1973) · The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1989)Plays The Vegetable, or From President to PostmanBooks Categories:- Short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- 1920 short stories
- Works originally published in The Smart Set
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.