The Last Tycoon, edited by the renowned literary critic Edmund Wilson, was first published a year after Fitzgerald's death and includes the...
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Aug 29, 2008
Jeff
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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
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Jul 29, 2008
Shannon
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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 s 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 s More...
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Apr 15, 2009
Jamie
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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 ever 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 a 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 a More...
Jan 31, 2012
Jonathan
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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 prod More...
It seemed that he attempted to write another moral tale in the vein of The Great Gatsby yet failed to prod More...
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Dec 13, 2010
Denis
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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
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Jul 29, 2009
Cody
rated it:
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.
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Jul 16, 2009
Nuria
rated it:
"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 l
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Jun 03, 2009
Nick
rated it:
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.
Fitzge More...
Fitzge More...
Jun 01, 2011
Jenny
rated it: 
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
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Jun 16, 2011
Evan
rated it:
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 en More...
Unfortunately, he died before he finishing a whole draft; this book has no en More...
Sep 21, 2011
Tara
rated it: 
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 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 More...
Aug 06, 2009
Mazel
rated it:
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 despo 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 despo More...
May 22, 2009
Curtis
rated it:
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 wa 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 wa More...
Nov 16, 2011
Emily
rated it:
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.
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Jan 31, 2010
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, bu 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, bu More...
Nov 11, 2008
I felt like it was appropriate that since Fitzgerald never finished writing this book, I shouldn't finish reading it. Also, it bored me.
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May 13, 2009
Tom
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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
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Jul 30, 2011
Phil
rated it:
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
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Jul 26, 2009
Sarah
rated it:
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
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Jun 12, 2009
Tom
rated it:
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 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 More...
Aug 05, 2011
Brian
rated it:
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...
Oct 29, 2008
Jennifer
rated it:
It's imperfect but wonderful for this very reason. And it's got the best dialogue about creating stories:
"But let's imagine something that isn't either dialogue or
jumping down a well. Has your office got a stove in it that lights with a match?"
"I think it has", said Boxley stiffly, "- but I never use it".
"Suppose you're in your office. You've been fighting duels or writing all day and you're too tired to fight or write More...
"But let's imagine something that isn't either dialogue or
jumping down a well. Has your office got a stove in it that lights with a match?"
"I think it has", said Boxley stiffly, "- but I never use it".
"Suppose you're in your office. You've been fighting duels or writing all day and you're too tired to fight or write More...
Jul 18, 2008
Art
rated it:
As a stand alone work (this is an unfinished novel), the book does not hold up. But as a glimpse into the writing process of a literary genius, it is a stunning work. This is the book I wish he had finished before dying. The most polished pieces of the book, the first few chapters, are some of his very best work. I was amazed when I read it, and again when I re-read it.
Drawing on his experiences as a lackluster screen writer in Hollywood in the 30's, Fitzgerald weaves a modern-da More...
Drawing on his experiences as a lackluster screen writer in Hollywood in the 30's, Fitzgerald weaves a modern-da More...
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Aug 17, 2008
Jennifer
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A worthy read that really gives you a feel of the behind-the-scenes struggle of writing a novel. Fitzgerald died before finishing this Western/Hollywood story and he was still playing with the narration. According to his biographer, who pulled together the edition I read, Fitzgerald wanted to weave together the story with both an omnipotent narrator and one of the main characters. It doesn’t exactly work – I would start chapters confused about who was doing the talking.
On a basic level, de More...
On a basic level, de More...
Jun 28, 2008
Tiffany
rated it:
I never had to read any F. Scott Fitzgerald in high school, and all I knew about him was that he wrote The Great Gatsby. In an English class in college, though, a teacher went on and on about the textual studies of Tender is the Night. As soon as the quarter was over and I had free time, I read TItN and fell in love. So The Love of the Last Tycoon is the second book in my FSF journey, and it didn't disappoint. The Love of the Last Tycoon is, to put it very simply, a story about a Hollywood execu
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Dec 11, 2009
Norah
rated it:
This might have been as good as Gatsby if he had finished it. It's beautiful and sad and brave and it's a fragment but when I finished, I felt like I had finished a book. The sort where they leave off the ending. Aren't there lots of books without endings? This feels like that. It's tighter than Tender is the Night and messier than Gatsby, but everything that isn't Gatsby is messy comparison. I'm told that you should read this edition, because the earlier edition was edited to make Fitzgerald's
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Dec 16, 2009
Olivia
rated it:
I was blown away by this book, mostly because I had an idea in my head (from a high school English teacher) that nothing Fitzgerald wrote besides The Great Gatsby, was any good. I unfairly pictured him as a dissipated alcoholic, creatively washed-up and writing merely to fund his lifestyle. Not only was the book itself solidly engaging, but Fitzgerald's working notes in the back, showing his process and the ideas he was working on for the end of the novel, depict a man truly serious about his cr
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Sep 19, 2010
David
rated it:
For someone who was largely unsuccessful in Hollywood and who didn't get out of there alive Fitzgerald really had a feel for the town and the way it operated at its zenith.
This was a second try at the manuscript that Fitzgerald left when he died and differed a little from the one that Edmund Wilson put together in the 40s. I think this edition is superior to Wilson's.
Obviously incomplete but what is there is great.
This was a second try at the manuscript that Fitzgerald left when he died and differed a little from the one that Edmund Wilson put together in the 40s. I think this edition is superior to Wilson's.
Obviously incomplete but what is there is great.
Jul 17, 2008
Cody
rated it:
Unfortunately I did not read this copy of this novel, I read just The Last Tycoon, which is hardcover and i making me wonder whether or not it could be worth something because it is pretty old.
As far as what is inside of this edition...wasn't all that great. That is not to say that is could have been something great if finished. As it stands, The Last Tycoon is a forgettable story with forgettable characters. i really could not wait until i finished it. At times i was completely intrigued, More...
As far as what is inside of this edition...wasn't all that great. That is not to say that is could have been something great if finished. As it stands, The Last Tycoon is a forgettable story with forgettable characters. i really could not wait until i finished it. At times i was completely intrigued, More...
Jul 13, 2010
Murphy
rated it:
The novel was never finished. Fitzgerald had a heart attack before he could finish it. I really enjoyed it. It honestly portrays the hollywood dream of making movies. It was fun because it talked about all the jobs needed to make a motion picture and the reponsibility of the one man that has to make sure that it all runs smoothly. I really enjoyed the notes about the making of the novel included in the book and the conclusion of the novel drawn from those manuscript notes.
