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The Last Tycoon
A mysterious woman stands and smiles at Monroe Stahr, the last of the great Hollywood princes. Enchanted by one another, they begin a passionate but hopeless love affair. The novel's tragic tycoon hero is caught in the crossfire of his own cynicism and vulnerability he inhabits a world dominated by business, alcohol and promiscuity. This is a novel of the glittering decade
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Published
August 17th 2009
by AudioGO
(first published 1941)
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Oh, Fitzgerald, Fitzy, Scott, F. I kept putting this one off because I knew exactly how it would leave me, and I was exactly right. As much as I love Gatsby, as much as I love
Tender is the Night
and the short stories and the essays and every wastebasket scrap he’s written, this would have been It. Capital-I It. It still almost is, even terribly unfinished.
Now what? The other woman was more missed in her absence. They were alone and on too slim a basis for what had passed already. They existed...more
Now what? The other woman was more missed in her absence. They were alone and on too slim a basis for what had passed already. They existed...more
I'm not precisely sure why this book effected me the way it did, but it certainly did. Fitzgerald finished writing the fifth chapter of this book before he had a heart attack and died. When you get to the end of this unfinished novel, you find the last word one of the greatest American writers ever wrote. Something about this is chilling. And despite the fact that one can not make any substantial investment in characters who we know in advance we'll never know completely or whose stories we won'...more
This is Fitzgerald's last work before he died, and is incomplete. This authorised text version comes with a lot of preface and appendices, all designed to be extremely helpful to the Fitzgerald enthusiast.
That ain't me.
Aside from a couple of neat lines in The Great Gatsby, I was incredibly bored by that book and haven't bothered with anything else of his.
I don't think I'd even heard of this book before, but I had to read it for one of my bookclubs. It's very short, at only 127 pages, and ends ab...more
That ain't me.
Aside from a couple of neat lines in The Great Gatsby, I was incredibly bored by that book and haven't bothered with anything else of his.
I don't think I'd even heard of this book before, but I had to read it for one of my bookclubs. It's very short, at only 127 pages, and ends ab...more
Clearly his unfinished masterpiece - full of Scott's usual skill at conveying those little essences of life for which there really is no word. Also his best of all works in terms of describing a situation so vividly with so little verbiage. The notes are published at the end of this copy, showing other phrases and concepts he intended to include but had not yet integrated. His notes reveal that the plot would get somewhat more harsh, bringing in plots of murder, communism, unions, and a plane cr...more
I can only be brief here because of how unmemorable a read this book was. I was honestly disappointed by the quality of prose and story I observed in this novel. Sadly diminished as it was from Fitzgerald's usual quality. However to be fair the story was incomplete due to his untimely death and he may have gone back and edited it later. Still I found it to be rather dry and boring.
It seemed that he attempted to write another moral tale in the vein of The Great Gatsby yet failed to produce a tale...more
It seemed that he attempted to write another moral tale in the vein of The Great Gatsby yet failed to produce a tale...more
Another Fitzgerald novel that I read in French a long time ago, and have just rediscovered with wonder by reading it in English. There's something about Fitzgerald's writing style that is really unique and that no translation, as good as it may be, can communicate. Because The Last Tycoon is unfinished, and is a work in progress that will always stay this way, it can come across as frustrating not to have the complete novel, and to read sentences and paragraphs that the author may have rewritten...more
Monroe Stahr, the hero of Fitzgeralds final (and unfinished) novel, is perhaps the most realistic of all Fitzgerald's heroes. He is, when you get down to it, a realistic Jay Gatsby. The novel itself are mere smatterings of episodes and chapters, edited together to create a narrative that is cut off in it's middle. Luckily, the editor (whose name escapes me) copied Fitzgerald's notes almost verbatum so that we can glimpse into the mind of the great American novelist's ending of the story.
Using th...more
Using th...more
"vamos a suponer que debe de construirse un camino a través de una montaña... para tender la vía del tren, y dos o tres topógrafos, más otras personas, te dan sus informes y tu tienes confianza en unos sí y en otros no, y parece haber una media docena de posibilidades para abrir ese camino, y hasta donde puedes apreciar son tan buenas unas como otras-; supongamos que tu eres el jefe y hay un punto donde ya no te es posible usar tu intelecto de la manera habitual, sino que debes recurrir a la sim...more
This is a terrific half novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course being obsessed with "making pictures" myself didn't hurt my appreciation of the story. But even if I wasn't movie-crazed, the book would still appeal just as strongly--Fitzgerald has a wonderful way of balancing his lyricism with character and action, creating suspense and then letting that suspense carry you through the more peaceful moments, while adding a healthy dollop of humor for good measure.
Fitzgerald was a certified r...more
Fitzgerald was a certified r...more
First, I was surprised that Fitzgerald chose a woman as his narrator; a different tack from Gatsby, Tender is the Night, etc. (However, if I remember correctly, some of his short stories were from the point of view of young women - written in the third person, if not first.) It has been a long time since I read Tender is the Night and even longer since The Beautiful and Damned, but I remember thinking that those seemed like variations on, or distorted versions of, Gatsby's perfection and its the...more
There are some really great scraps in this manuscript: complex, well-drawn characters; witty dialogue; a vivid sense of setting, both time and place; rare insight into the workings of the studio system; and frequent passages of gorgeous prose. It seems that if F. Scott could have kept working on it, he could have reclaimed his talent and turned it into another great novel, maybe going on to write many more.
Unfortunately, he died before he finishing a whole draft; this book has no end--and worse-...more
Unfortunately, he died before he finishing a whole draft; this book has no end--and worse-...more
3.5 stars.
too bad fitzgerald didn't finish his book. the story is ambitious, one of those the author may have aimed for it to be greater than his last best story (the great gatsby), but alas, he didn't get to finish it. the story started and progress, but much is left to be desired and filled in... it is still great in that it has fitzgerald's signature take on romance, beauty, responsibility, complex characters, and we would come to know more of Monroe than we ever would of Gatsby... and the v...more
too bad fitzgerald didn't finish his book. the story is ambitious, one of those the author may have aimed for it to be greater than his last best story (the great gatsby), but alas, he didn't get to finish it. the story started and progress, but much is left to be desired and filled in... it is still great in that it has fitzgerald's signature take on romance, beauty, responsibility, complex characters, and we would come to know more of Monroe than we ever would of Gatsby... and the v...more
Juillet 1935, tremblement de terre en Californie, les studios d'Hollywood sont inondés.
Le jeune producteur prodige Monroe Stahr assiste au sauvetage de deux promeneuses égarées.
L'une d'elles ressemble étrangement à son épouse disparue, la star Minna Davis.
Puis le travail reprend avec les scénaristes, les acteurs, les réalisateurs, dans un climat de passion, d'extrêmes tensions.
Amoureux fou de son métier et du milieu sur lequel il règne en despote, Monroe Stahr l'est aussi de cette femme aper...more
Le jeune producteur prodige Monroe Stahr assiste au sauvetage de deux promeneuses égarées.
L'une d'elles ressemble étrangement à son épouse disparue, la star Minna Davis.
Puis le travail reprend avec les scénaristes, les acteurs, les réalisateurs, dans un climat de passion, d'extrêmes tensions.
Amoureux fou de son métier et du milieu sur lequel il règne en despote, Monroe Stahr l'est aussi de cette femme aper...more
May 22, 2009
Curtis
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Fitzgerald aficionados
Shelves:
novel
It's unfortunate that Fitzgerald never had the chance to finish this book. He got as far as offering an aromatic sniff and minuscule taste of the meal he was preparing, but nothing more. Based on the notes provided in the edition I have, it sounds like it would have been a wonderfully tragic tale.
In many ways, Monroe Stahr - the story's Hollywood producer protagonist - can be likened to Hank Reardon in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged . Stahr, like Reardon, is a self-made man, working his way through t...more
In many ways, Monroe Stahr - the story's Hollywood producer protagonist - can be likened to Hank Reardon in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged . Stahr, like Reardon, is a self-made man, working his way through t...more
This book is about Hollywood. The fame, glamour, the struggles for publicity, popularity and everything that happens behind the filming. This book had awkward wording and used complicated words for description which made it difficult to understand. The author's style of writing is really noticeable and is unique, as Fitzgerald writes with 2 people's point of views and stories. After Stahr receives a letter from Kathleen saying she got married, it turns out that their relationship gets stronger a...more
Confusing at first -- if you know nothing about the film business like me -- but definitely worth the read. F. Scott Fitzgerald creates an image of a revered film producer named Monroe Stahr (based on Hollywood's Irving Thalberg) through the eyes of a young woman in love. Throughout the story, Fitzgerald includes the personal side of Stahr's life instead of making it merely a professional account of how he runs Hollywood. It is a broken and somewhat lonely portrayal, but a beautiful one as well....more
The paragraph transitions are a little choppy, but for an uncompleted manuscript this is extremely polished and honed. Sometimes one will simply forget this detail because of the quality of the story-telling. I am quickly falling in love with the book that is the unfinished jewel at the pinnacle of a master's career.
I grew up in Southern California, not far from Hollywood, and has always despised the movie industry in a way from the familiarity. I lost the sense of glow and glamor, but Fitzgera...more
I grew up in Southern California, not far from Hollywood, and has always despised the movie industry in a way from the familiarity. I lost the sense of glow and glamor, but Fitzgera...more
with an unfinished manuscript, the story is bound to be a bit muddled, which The Last Tycoon absolutely was. However, the read poignancy of the book lies in the last 40 or so pages where the editors have included all of Fitzgerald's notes about where the novel would take him and how he would handle certain characterization. He evens writes in a letter that he hopes this novel is similar to The Great Gatsby in sentiment, but ends in a more hopeful way. For some reason it never dawned on me that s...more
I felt like it was appropriate that since Fitzgerald never finished writing this book, I shouldn't finish reading it. Also, it bored me.
Chose to re-read this after reading What Makes Sammy Run, just to get another fix of inter-war Hollywood novels (I'll re-read Day of the Locust eventually, too, and probably also the tremendously underrated I Wake Up Screaming). Fitzgerald wanted The Last Tycoon to resemble The Great Gatsby -- a lean, tight, spare novel with one gorgeous, perfect sentence after another, chronicling the last days of a powerful, glamorous, enigmatic man. This, his last novel, is unfinished, however, and so it neve...more
Though the writing is gorgeous, after all it was Fitzgerald, the man could write a sentence better than anyone before or possibly since, but a surprisingly cold, and bitter tale of old Hollywood, reflecting Fitzgerald's own unhappy period in Tinseltown. This edition has a sort of finished ending to it, culled by the editors from the authors own notes and collective pieces of transcripts..etc. Gives the idea of what it probably would have been had he finished it. Though not his best, clearly on h...more
Aug 19, 2012
Devon H
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-read-for-2012-challenge-50,
books-i-own
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Sep 02, 2012
Brett
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
classic,
classy-fiction
This is a difficult to quantify book from Fitzgerald. It is of course unfinished, making any judgement subject to question. This draft had a way to go though. I finished the book maybe a month ago, and I find I am having difficulty recalling the characters or plot.
Part of the problem is that the world Fitzgerald is writing about was such a short-lived, if larger than life, era. The time in Hollywood when the studio system was dominent feels like an alien place to modern readers, and isn't easy t...more
Part of the problem is that the world Fitzgerald is writing about was such a short-lived, if larger than life, era. The time in Hollywood when the studio system was dominent feels like an alien place to modern readers, and isn't easy t...more
F. Scott Fitzgerald died while writing this novel; after his death, it was compiled and published. The edition I read included excerpts of Fitzgerald's notes, character sketches, and outlines.
It's hard to rate an unfinished novel. Even in its incomplete state, I didn't enjoy reading this as much as his earlier novels. Cecilia's narration (especially of events where she wasn't present) struck me as awkward.
The story is ambitious. And the backdrop of Old Hollywood is the perfect fit for Fitzgera...more
It's hard to rate an unfinished novel. Even in its incomplete state, I didn't enjoy reading this as much as his earlier novels. Cecilia's narration (especially of events where she wasn't present) struck me as awkward.
The story is ambitious. And the backdrop of Old Hollywood is the perfect fit for Fitzgera...more
Fitzgerald's unfinished novel is a fascinating beginning. At the same time, however, reading it is always going to be an exercise in frustration because it is unfinished. In the edition I read the (modern) editors had compiled Fitzgerald's notes, letters, and statements into a proposed narrative ending, but the power of Fitzgerald's writing is in the unique voice and way of dealing with his narrator that makes The Great Gatsby the classic novel that it is. Without that voice and structure there...more
Restored my confidence that I actually liked F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing and that my love of _The Great Gatsby_ is not a fluke, after I read and hated _Tender is the Night._ Going in, you have to accept that this is an unfinished work, Fitzgerald's last before he died, but the writing and imagery are so good that you'll want to. If you get the edition edited by Matthew Bruccoli, you'll be able to fill in some of the missing pieces via his analysis and the included story notes and plans that Fi...more
When I was about five years old, I remember looking through Mom’s bookshelf and coming across the title The Last Tycoon. I recall thinking, “Tycoon...Tycoon?” What’s that?” I conjured up this image of an island bracing for a major storm, its last—my mind equating the word tycoon with typhoon. I also have this vivid memory of pulling the book out from the shelf, and when looking at the cover, feeling a sense of disappointment, ultimately coming to the conclusion that my tropical interpretation of...more
I have now read all of Fitzgerald's major published works. After finishing The Love of The Last Tycoon, the incomplete manuscript on his desk when he died, I ask immediately wonder how this novel differs from his other works. Did he know he had this one last chance to voice his ideas? Did he compile the breadth of his lifelong learning into his final literary hero? Unfortunately, we can only speculate on these questions. But I find comfort in the idea that we would not have these questions had n...more
Would t'were that my rough drafts were even half as good as this last, unfinished novel of Fitzgeralds. I first fell in love with his writing as a teenager and I thought I would outgrow him at some point, as I have other writers from that time in my life.
Not so.
In fact, I've never loved or appreciated his work more than I do now. It was very refreshing to read his take on a segment of society that didn't involve the jazz age. If this is how he handles Irving Thalberg, how would he handle Walt Di...more
Not so.
In fact, I've never loved or appreciated his work more than I do now. It was very refreshing to read his take on a segment of society that didn't involve the jazz age. If this is how he handles Irving Thalberg, how would he handle Walt Di...more
Not much on this one. It is the novel Fitzgerald never finished, although some versions have completed an ending based on his notes. (Fitzgerald scribed most of his thoughts, plot developments, character profiles, with a great deal of detail. Some of these notes were outlined in the appendix to the novel.)
The main character of the novel, Monroe Stahr, is a studio executive in 1930s era Hollywood, who we find out is both a widower and in bad health. (He must have been the original model for what...more
The main character of the novel, Monroe Stahr, is a studio executive in 1930s era Hollywood, who we find out is both a widower and in bad health. (He must have been the original model for what...more
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Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American writer of novels and short stories, whose works have been seen as evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he himself allegedly coined. He is regarded as one of the greatest twentieth century writers. Fitzgerald was of the self-styled "Lost Generation," Americans born in the 1890s who came of age during World War I. He finished four novels, left a fifth unfini...more
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