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Babylon Revisited
But it hadn't been given for nothing. It had been given, even the most wildly squandered sum, as an offering to destiny that he might not remember the things most worth remembering, the things that he would now always remember.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's stories defined the 1920s 'Jazz Age' generation, with their glittering dreams and tarnished hopes. In these three tales of a fragile recovery, a cut-glass bowl and a life lost, Fitzgerald portrays, in exquisite prose and with deep human sympathy, the idealism of youth and the ravages of success. This book includes Babylon Revisited, The Cut-Glass Bowl and The Lost Decade.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's stories defined the 1920s 'Jazz Age' generation, with their glittering dreams and tarnished hopes. In these three tales of a fragile recovery, a cut-glass bowl and a life lost, Fitzgerald portrays, in exquisite prose and with deep human sympathy, the idealism of youth and the ravages of success. This book includes Babylon Revisited, The Cut-Glass Bowl and The Lost Decade.
112 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 21, 1931
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About the author
F. Scott Fitzgerald
2,030 books25.3k followersFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald, widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age, a term he popularized in his short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age. During his lifetime, he published four novels, four story collections, and 164 short stories. Although he achieved temporary popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald received critical acclaim only after his death and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
Born into a middle-class family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was raised primarily in New York state. He attended Princeton University where he befriended future literary critic Edmund Wilson. Owing to a failed romantic relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King, he dropped out in 1917 to join the United States Army during World War I. While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda Sayre, a Southern debutante who belonged to Montgomery's exclusive country-club set. Although she initially rejected Fitzgerald's marriage proposal due to his lack of financial prospects, Zelda agreed to marry him after he published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920). The novel became a cultural sensation and cemented his reputation as one of the eminent writers of the decade.
His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him further into the cultural elite. To maintain his affluent lifestyle, he wrote numerous stories for popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, and Esquire. During this period, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), received generally favorable reviews but was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 23,000 copies in its first year. Despite its lackluster debut, The Great Gatsby is now hailed by some literary critics as the "Great American Novel". Following the deterioration of his wife's mental health and her placement in a mental institute for schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934).
Struggling financially because of the declining popularity of his works during the Great Depression, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood, where he embarked upon an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter. While living in Hollywood, he cohabited with columnist Sheilah Graham, his final companion before his death. After a long struggle with alcoholism, he attained sobriety only to die of a heart attack in 1940, at 44. His friend Edmund Wilson edited and published an unfinished fifth novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), after Fitzgerald's death. In 1993, a new edition was published as The Love of the Last Tycoon, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli.
Born into a middle-class family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was raised primarily in New York state. He attended Princeton University where he befriended future literary critic Edmund Wilson. Owing to a failed romantic relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King, he dropped out in 1917 to join the United States Army during World War I. While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda Sayre, a Southern debutante who belonged to Montgomery's exclusive country-club set. Although she initially rejected Fitzgerald's marriage proposal due to his lack of financial prospects, Zelda agreed to marry him after he published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920). The novel became a cultural sensation and cemented his reputation as one of the eminent writers of the decade.
His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him further into the cultural elite. To maintain his affluent lifestyle, he wrote numerous stories for popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, and Esquire. During this period, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), received generally favorable reviews but was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 23,000 copies in its first year. Despite its lackluster debut, The Great Gatsby is now hailed by some literary critics as the "Great American Novel". Following the deterioration of his wife's mental health and her placement in a mental institute for schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934).
Struggling financially because of the declining popularity of his works during the Great Depression, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood, where he embarked upon an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter. While living in Hollywood, he cohabited with columnist Sheilah Graham, his final companion before his death. After a long struggle with alcoholism, he attained sobriety only to die of a heart attack in 1940, at 44. His friend Edmund Wilson edited and published an unfinished fifth novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), after Fitzgerald's death. In 1993, a new edition was published as The Love of the Last Tycoon, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 305 reviews
September 21, 2025
Outside, the fire-red, gas-blue, ghost-green signs shone smokily through the tranquil rain. It was late afternoon and the streets were in movement; the bistros gleamed. At the corner of the Boulevard des Capucines he took a taxi. The Place de la Concorde moved by in pink majesty; they crossed the logical Seine, and Charlie felt the sudden provincial quality of the Left Bank.
Babylon revisited is a semi-autobiographical story in which Charles ‘Charlie’ Wales after a couple of wild years of living in Paris marked by loads of booze, partying and big spending returns to the city from Prague, where he went to live after the death of his wife, the stock market crash of 1929 and his own collapse. He humbly attempts to persuade his late wife’s family that he distanced himself sufficiently from his old life and is solid and sober enough to regain the custody of his nine-year-old daughter Honoria.
Babylon is a moniker for the immoral and roaring Paris catering to vice and waste as lived rambunctiously by Charles Wales and his late wife with their circle of American expat friends during the Jazz Age - the Babylon of perpetual temptation and sin.
It is a wistful story on the longing for and (im)possibility of redemption for missteps made in the past in which Scott Fitzgerald shows how the drink-demon wrecks and ruins dreams and lives. Once sobered up everything what drinking helped to forget viciously and mercilessly belches up: loneliness, anxiety, boredom – and the damage done. Whether Charlie Wales will manage to start afresh and bond again with his daughter and leave the loneliness, the past and the feelings of guilt behind without is not sure, but never the lustre of Paris in the old days will return. It is hard to bid farewell to alcohol, the rose colored glasses of life.
(***1/2)
Babylon revisited is a semi-autobiographical story in which Charles ‘Charlie’ Wales after a couple of wild years of living in Paris marked by loads of booze, partying and big spending returns to the city from Prague, where he went to live after the death of his wife, the stock market crash of 1929 and his own collapse. He humbly attempts to persuade his late wife’s family that he distanced himself sufficiently from his old life and is solid and sober enough to regain the custody of his nine-year-old daughter Honoria.
Babylon is a moniker for the immoral and roaring Paris catering to vice and waste as lived rambunctiously by Charles Wales and his late wife with their circle of American expat friends during the Jazz Age - the Babylon of perpetual temptation and sin.
It is a wistful story on the longing for and (im)possibility of redemption for missteps made in the past in which Scott Fitzgerald shows how the drink-demon wrecks and ruins dreams and lives. Once sobered up everything what drinking helped to forget viciously and mercilessly belches up: loneliness, anxiety, boredom – and the damage done. Whether Charlie Wales will manage to start afresh and bond again with his daughter and leave the loneliness, the past and the feelings of guilt behind without is not sure, but never the lustre of Paris in the old days will return. It is hard to bid farewell to alcohol, the rose colored glasses of life.
(***1/2)
January 20, 2023
Read for The Short Story Club. A beautiful and touching short story set in the aftermath of the 1920’ Golden Jazz Age. After recovering from years of partying, one father tries to get back his daughter living with her aunt. He needs to prove that he is sober enough to deserve a 2nd chance. It is a story about addiction, guilt, love, hate, revenge, grief and forgiveness.
The author is probably the best-known writer of The jazz Age and, unfortunately, an unrecovered victim of its wildness. Unlike his character, Fitzgerald never managed to separate himself from the demon of drinking, only becoming sober one year before his death.
The author is probably the best-known writer of The jazz Age and, unfortunately, an unrecovered victim of its wildness. Unlike his character, Fitzgerald never managed to separate himself from the demon of drinking, only becoming sober one year before his death.
December 14, 2022
In some ways, this 1931 short story is the antithesis of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby of 1925. One of the saddest aspects of Gatsby concerns Daisy and Tom's daughter, Pammy. Or rather, lack of concern: she’s mentioned once, I think. She's largely irrelevant to them and to the tragic story.
This is set just after the Gatsby glamour of the Jazz Age and the subsequent Wall Street crash. At first it seems to be an American in Paris, revisiting the sites of Babylonian excess and reminiscing about obscene extravagance and endless partying.
“It was nice while it lasted… We were a sort of royalty, almost infallible, with a sort of magic around us.”
He’s mourning everything he’s lost - not just money – and clearly sees the city has changed, as have the people he thought he knew so well.
That is certainly the context, but the story is about the heartfelt desire to do the best for one’s child, of trying to fix past mistakes and the damage they inflicted, of showing love and understanding rather than showering with gifts, and of overcoming obstacles to forge a new life in a positive way.
There’s plenty about guilt, blame, addiction, jealousy, greed, grief, revenge, reform, trust, and forgiveness.
But really, it’s about a little girl and her father. What is best for her?
“The present was the thing.”
Charlie comes to understand that means the here and now, not another gift. However, his realisation doesn’t mean the best outcome is clear or certain. Ambiguity is increased because those with power know less than the reader does. Brilliant.
Gatsby is a tragedy; Babylon might not be.
Image: Fitzgerald with his daughter. (Source)
Quotes
• “It was not an American bar any more - he felt polite in it, and not as if he owned it.”
• “Now at least you [an American] can go into a store without their assuming you're a millionaire. We've suffered like everybody, but on the whole it's a good deal pleasanter.”
• “Outside, the fire-red, gas-blue, ghost-green signs shone smokily through the tranquil rain. It was late afternoon and the streets were in movement; the bistros gleamed.”
• “It had been given, even the most wildly squandered sum, as an offering to destiny that he might not remember the things most worth remembering.”
• “‘I heard that you lost a lot in the crash.’
‘I did,’ and he added grimly, ‘but I lost everything I wanted in the boom.’”
See also
• George Gershwin’s innovatively evocative orchestral piece, An American in Paris, premiered three years before this story was published. See Wikipedia HERE and listen to a version of the piece HERE (c20 mins).
• The Great Gatsby, which I reviewed HERE.
• Significant aspects are autobiographical. See HERE.
• In this, Honoria is nine. Fitzgerald wrote a letter to his 11-year old daughter, titled “Things to Worry About”, but with a much longer list of things not to worry about. Read it HERE.
Short story club
I read this as one of the stories in The Art of the Short Story, by Dana Gioia, from which I'm aiming to read one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 2 May 2022.
You can read this story here.
You can join the group here.
This is set just after the Gatsby glamour of the Jazz Age and the subsequent Wall Street crash. At first it seems to be an American in Paris, revisiting the sites of Babylonian excess and reminiscing about obscene extravagance and endless partying.
“It was nice while it lasted… We were a sort of royalty, almost infallible, with a sort of magic around us.”
He’s mourning everything he’s lost - not just money – and clearly sees the city has changed, as have the people he thought he knew so well.
That is certainly the context, but the story is about the heartfelt desire to do the best for one’s child, of trying to fix past mistakes and the damage they inflicted, of showing love and understanding rather than showering with gifts, and of overcoming obstacles to forge a new life in a positive way.
There’s plenty about guilt, blame, addiction, jealousy, greed, grief, revenge, reform, trust, and forgiveness.
But really, it’s about a little girl and her father. What is best for her?
“The present was the thing.”
Charlie comes to understand that means the here and now, not another gift. However, his realisation doesn’t mean the best outcome is clear or certain. Ambiguity is increased because those with power know less than the reader does. Brilliant.
Gatsby is a tragedy; Babylon might not be.
Image: Fitzgerald with his daughter. (Source)
Quotes
• “It was not an American bar any more - he felt polite in it, and not as if he owned it.”
• “Now at least you [an American] can go into a store without their assuming you're a millionaire. We've suffered like everybody, but on the whole it's a good deal pleasanter.”
• “Outside, the fire-red, gas-blue, ghost-green signs shone smokily through the tranquil rain. It was late afternoon and the streets were in movement; the bistros gleamed.”
• “It had been given, even the most wildly squandered sum, as an offering to destiny that he might not remember the things most worth remembering.”
• “‘I heard that you lost a lot in the crash.’
‘I did,’ and he added grimly, ‘but I lost everything I wanted in the boom.’”
See also
• George Gershwin’s innovatively evocative orchestral piece, An American in Paris, premiered three years before this story was published. See Wikipedia HERE and listen to a version of the piece HERE (c20 mins).
• The Great Gatsby, which I reviewed HERE.
• Significant aspects are autobiographical. See HERE.
• In this, Honoria is nine. Fitzgerald wrote a letter to his 11-year old daughter, titled “Things to Worry About”, but with a much longer list of things not to worry about. Read it HERE.
Short story club
I read this as one of the stories in The Art of the Short Story, by Dana Gioia, from which I'm aiming to read one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 2 May 2022.
You can read this story here.
You can join the group here.
August 24, 2024
Há muito de confessional neste conto de 1931. Charlie Walles, um americano a residir em Praga, volta a Paris para levar consigo a filha que ficou a cargo dos tios depois de ter ficado órfã de mãe.
Aprecio personagens masculinas e sou sensível aos temas abordados: a decadência, o arrependimento, o alcolismo, a busca pela redenção e o preço que se paga pela excentricidade: em Scott Fitzgerald até um diamante do tamalho do Ritz pode ser reduzido a pó.
Charlie Walles revisita uma Paris que representa as ruínas do seu passado extravagante e as consequências das suas acções. O bar do Hotel Ritz voltara a pertencer à França e já não era um bar americano onde outrora - antes da queda da bolsa de Nova Iorque - se sentira o dono.
«Ao rodar pela Rive Gauche e sentindo seu súbito provincianismo, pensou: Estraguei esta cidade para mim. Eu não percebia, mas os dias foram correndo, um atrás do outro, dois anos se passaram e tudo acabou, inclusive eu.»
Foi bom enquanto durou; os americanos eram uma espécie de realeza com uma aura de beleza e magia.«Acabou tão rápido quanto começou.»
Charlie Walles é um alcoólico mas já sóbrio. Será que os seus cunhados lhe entregarão a guarda da filha?
«Um dia ele voltaria; não podiam obrigá-lo a pagar para sempre. Queria sua filha e nada mais interessava. Já não era jovem, capaz de sustentar-se sozinho com belos sonhos e pensamentos. Tinha absoluta certeza de que Helen [a mãe da filha] não gostaria de vê-lo só.»
Fitzgerald retratava as suas personagens com realismo e profundidade dentro de um estilo de vida que também foi o seu mas confere-lhes um certa imunidade, sem piedade mas também sem castigo.
Aprecio personagens masculinas e sou sensível aos temas abordados: a decadência, o arrependimento, o alcolismo, a busca pela redenção e o preço que se paga pela excentricidade: em Scott Fitzgerald até um diamante do tamalho do Ritz pode ser reduzido a pó.
Charlie Walles revisita uma Paris que representa as ruínas do seu passado extravagante e as consequências das suas acções. O bar do Hotel Ritz voltara a pertencer à França e já não era um bar americano onde outrora - antes da queda da bolsa de Nova Iorque - se sentira o dono.
«Ao rodar pela Rive Gauche e sentindo seu súbito provincianismo, pensou: Estraguei esta cidade para mim. Eu não percebia, mas os dias foram correndo, um atrás do outro, dois anos se passaram e tudo acabou, inclusive eu.»
Foi bom enquanto durou; os americanos eram uma espécie de realeza com uma aura de beleza e magia.«Acabou tão rápido quanto começou.»
Charlie Walles é um alcoólico mas já sóbrio. Será que os seus cunhados lhe entregarão a guarda da filha?
«Um dia ele voltaria; não podiam obrigá-lo a pagar para sempre. Queria sua filha e nada mais interessava. Já não era jovem, capaz de sustentar-se sozinho com belos sonhos e pensamentos. Tinha absoluta certeza de que Helen [a mãe da filha] não gostaria de vê-lo só.»
Fitzgerald retratava as suas personagens com realismo e profundidade dentro de um estilo de vida que também foi o seu mas confere-lhes um certa imunidade, sem piedade mas também sem castigo.
December 14, 2022
This is a superb story on the cost of regret and on the wanting to undo one’s past. Whatever it takes.
Knowing that it is strongly autobiographical renders the writing even more tragic, given that FSC didn’t altogether succeed in redressing the path of his life. This story can be read as is his "Statement of Purpose".
On a more superficial level, the fascination with the Paris as a former city of sin as portrayed in this new Babylon makes the tale persuasively evocative.
FSC’s ability to go deep beneath human motivation, when altruism may disguise badly controlled resentment and when deep seated frustrations are channeled onto different and freeing vistas, for me awarded the fifth star.
September 21, 2025
5 stars
Free copy here: https://gutenberg.net.au/fsf/BABYLON-...
short review for busy readers:
The title story of a short fiction collection from "The Great Gatsby" author and 1920s icon, F Scott Fitzgerald. A man revisits his former haunts in Paris and realises just how much the endless party that was the Roaring Twenties truly is over. A masterpiece.
in detail:
I am gushingly impressed.
Fitzgerald manages to evoke, in just a handful of pages, the loneliness and the desolation he must have felt when "the crazy years" of the late 1920s were over and only the scattered and broken debris was left.
In this story, he gives us the character of Charlie, a widower who after years spent in wealthy excess now is in control of his alcohol consumption and spending. He's come to Paris to get custody of his young daughter from the family he left her with, and himself back on the straight and narrow.
But Charlie's past won't lay down and die.
He's accosted by a couple he knew from before who haven't moved on, who are still the loud, boozing party makers of the 1920s, and threaten to pull him back into a life that's no longer viable, robbing him of a future in a more sober, more adult 1930s. Will they succeed? Or is Charlie serious in his determination to leave the past behind?
"Babylon Revisited" is quiet, with the typical melancholic Fitzgerald emotion that never gets emotional.
While set in a very specific time and place, the story has a universal quality about it that is instantly relatable and timeless. Charlie is clearly a stand-in for Fitzgerald and the story a wish fantasy about how much he wanted to be a better father to his daughter, but found he couldn't.
Poor Charlie. And poor Fitzgerald. Both would never overcome the life-devouring monster that was the endless party of the 1920s. A beautiful piece of literature and a warning from an author who knew what he was talking about.
Free copy here: https://gutenberg.net.au/fsf/BABYLON-...
short review for busy readers:
The title story of a short fiction collection from "The Great Gatsby" author and 1920s icon, F Scott Fitzgerald. A man revisits his former haunts in Paris and realises just how much the endless party that was the Roaring Twenties truly is over. A masterpiece.
in detail:
I am gushingly impressed.
Fitzgerald manages to evoke, in just a handful of pages, the loneliness and the desolation he must have felt when "the crazy years" of the late 1920s were over and only the scattered and broken debris was left.
In this story, he gives us the character of Charlie, a widower who after years spent in wealthy excess now is in control of his alcohol consumption and spending. He's come to Paris to get custody of his young daughter from the family he left her with, and himself back on the straight and narrow.
But Charlie's past won't lay down and die.
He's accosted by a couple he knew from before who haven't moved on, who are still the loud, boozing party makers of the 1920s, and threaten to pull him back into a life that's no longer viable, robbing him of a future in a more sober, more adult 1930s. Will they succeed? Or is Charlie serious in his determination to leave the past behind?
"Babylon Revisited" is quiet, with the typical melancholic Fitzgerald emotion that never gets emotional.
While set in a very specific time and place, the story has a universal quality about it that is instantly relatable and timeless. Charlie is clearly a stand-in for Fitzgerald and the story a wish fantasy about how much he wanted to be a better father to his daughter, but found he couldn't.
Poor Charlie. And poor Fitzgerald. Both would never overcome the life-devouring monster that was the endless party of the 1920s. A beautiful piece of literature and a warning from an author who knew what he was talking about.
December 19, 2022
3.5★
“He was not really disappointed to find Paris was so empty. But the stillness in the Ritz bar was strange and portentous. It was not an American bar any more--he felt polite in it, and not as if he owned it. It had gone back into France.”
A man has left his young daughter in Paris in the care of her aunt and uncle, and now he feels settled and hopes she will come to live with him.
The tone is very much one of an American who had had a colourful youth in Paris, frequenting lively spots and enjoying the night life where they “had parted with so many hours and so much money.”
This is a case of the attitude annoying me so much that it affects my appreciation of the story, which I’m sure is actually an excellent depiction of the time. What is annoying is the frequent mention of America and Americans as some kind of benchmark or standard.
The bar isn’t American anymore.
And then “The room was warm and comfortably American.”
And his sister-in-law “who had once possessed a fresh American loveliness.”
At nearly 90 years old, this story feels dated, but the tug between adults over children and belonging could be happening today.
This is another from the Short Story Club Group.
You can read a copy here: https://gutenberg.net.au/fsf/BABYLON-...
“He was not really disappointed to find Paris was so empty. But the stillness in the Ritz bar was strange and portentous. It was not an American bar any more--he felt polite in it, and not as if he owned it. It had gone back into France.”
A man has left his young daughter in Paris in the care of her aunt and uncle, and now he feels settled and hopes she will come to live with him.
The tone is very much one of an American who had had a colourful youth in Paris, frequenting lively spots and enjoying the night life where they “had parted with so many hours and so much money.”
This is a case of the attitude annoying me so much that it affects my appreciation of the story, which I’m sure is actually an excellent depiction of the time. What is annoying is the frequent mention of America and Americans as some kind of benchmark or standard.
The bar isn’t American anymore.
And then “The room was warm and comfortably American.”
And his sister-in-law “who had once possessed a fresh American loveliness.”
At nearly 90 years old, this story feels dated, but the tug between adults over children and belonging could be happening today.
This is another from the Short Story Club Group.
You can read a copy here: https://gutenberg.net.au/fsf/BABYLON-...
December 11, 2022
"He would come back some day; they couldn't make him pay forever."
Charles Wales, an American businessman, had an extravagant life in Paris in the late 1920s boom, living off the money he made in the stock market. He lost his money in the crash of 1929, his wife died, and he spent time being treated for alcoholism. Charles' daughter had been cared for by his wife's sister, Marion, and her husband for the last few years.
Charles has come back to Paris (the Babylon of his past) to prove that he is a new man and gain custody of his daughter. There is a strong mutual love between Charles and his daughter. The story explores his questionable values in the 1920s, his guilt, and his strong resolve to be a responsible man who can resist the temptation of alcohol. Doors open and close as he revisits the haunted locations of his past. He hopes the door opens with an opportunity to have his daughter in his life. How long will he have to pay for his past mistakes?
"Babylon Revisited" is a sad short story with semi-autobiographical elements.
Charles Wales, an American businessman, had an extravagant life in Paris in the late 1920s boom, living off the money he made in the stock market. He lost his money in the crash of 1929, his wife died, and he spent time being treated for alcoholism. Charles' daughter had been cared for by his wife's sister, Marion, and her husband for the last few years.
Charles has come back to Paris (the Babylon of his past) to prove that he is a new man and gain custody of his daughter. There is a strong mutual love between Charles and his daughter. The story explores his questionable values in the 1920s, his guilt, and his strong resolve to be a responsible man who can resist the temptation of alcohol. Doors open and close as he revisits the haunted locations of his past. He hopes the door opens with an opportunity to have his daughter in his life. How long will he have to pay for his past mistakes?
"Babylon Revisited" is a sad short story with semi-autobiographical elements.
August 25, 2023
Fitzgerald‘s short story ‚Babylon Revisited‘ deals with the reflections, the remorse, and the redemptions of Charles Wales, an American who lived it up in the Roaring Twenties in Paris and seeks to regain custody of his daughter in 1931.
Can he undo the consequences of his boisterous and eccentric lifestyle that came with exuberance of the Roaring Twenties?
With the Great Depression, the façade of nouveau riche crumbled away - leaving behind an irrevocable negative balance, not only financially, but also emotionally. 🖤
How appropriate is the title of the short story, please? Paris resembles Babylon to Charles Wales (or Fitzgerald himself), a place of luxury combined with moral decay and wickedness.
I absolutely love Fitzgerald’s immersive writing style. His stories are timeless classics with their content as well as wording. Easy 5-stars!
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Can he undo the consequences of his boisterous and eccentric lifestyle that came with exuberance of the Roaring Twenties?
With the Great Depression, the façade of nouveau riche crumbled away - leaving behind an irrevocable negative balance, not only financially, but also emotionally. 🖤
How appropriate is the title of the short story, please? Paris resembles Babylon to Charles Wales (or Fitzgerald himself), a place of luxury combined with moral decay and wickedness.
I absolutely love Fitzgerald’s immersive writing style. His stories are timeless classics with their content as well as wording. Easy 5-stars!
Find me on instagram
February 6, 2017
Eiffel Tower on a moonlit night.
IN November I unexpectedly came upon F. Scott Fitzgerald's “Babylon Revisited” at one of Karachi’s flea markets. Through the book I came to know that the writer had a short life. He was born on 24 September 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota and he died on 21 December 1940 in Hollywood, California. But during that period he had already made his mark on the literary world.
“Babylon Revisited” comprises three stories: Babylon Revisited, The Cut-Glass Bowl and The Lost Decade. The first two stories are in excess of 30 pages while the last is only six pages long. I was totally enthralled by the first two stories.
"Babylon Revisited" appears on the front page of The Saturday Evening Post (February 21, 1931).
The protagonist of Babylon Revisited called Charles J. Wales visits Paris to regain custody of his daughter Honoria from her maternal aunt Helen. However the latter is a hard nut to crack and gives him a really tough time towards his goal.
One day Charles takes his daughter out for fine dining to a posh restaurant. Here is a part of what takes place there.
“When there had been her mother and a French nurse he had been inclined to be strict; now he extended himself, reached out for a new tolerance; he must be both parents to her and not shut any of her out of communication.
‘I want to get to know you,’ he said gravely. ‘First let me introduce myself. My name is Charles J. Wales, of Prague.’
‘Oh daddy!’ her voice cracked with laughter.
‘And who are you please,’ he persisted, and she accepted a role immediately: ‘Honoria Wales, Rue Palatine, Paris.’
‘Married or single?’
‘No, not married. Single.’
He indicated the doll. ‘But I see you have a child, madame.’
Unwilling to disinherit it, she took it to her heart and thought quickly: ‘Yes, I’ve been married, but I am not married now. My husband is dead.’
He went on quickly, ‘And the child’s name?’
‘Simone. That’s after my best friend at school.’”
What better than a rainy night for romancing in Paris!
You, the reader, also get to see a bit of Paris by night through Mr Fitzgerald’s pen. And if you have not seen Paris when the lights go on, you have not seen anything at all.
“He left soon after dinner but not to go home. He was curious to see Paris by night with clearer and more judicious eyes than those of other days. He bought a serapontin for the Casino and watched Josephine Baker go through her chocolate arabesques.
After an hour he left and strolled towards Montmartre, up the Rue Pigalle into the Place Blanche. The rain had stopped and there were a few people in evening clothes disembarking from taxis in front of cabarets, and cocottes prowling, singly or in pairs, and many Negroes. He passed a lighted door from which issued music, and stopped with the sense of familiarity; it was Bricktop’s where he had parted with so many hours and so much money.
A few doors further on he found another ancient rendezvous and incautiously put his head inside. Immediately an orchestra burst into sound, a pair of professional dancers leaped to their feet and a maitre d’hotel swooped towards him, crying, ‘Crowd just arriving, sir!’ But he withdrew quickly.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald at work on his desk.
Since it is a short story, I won’t divulge any more details. You have got to read the story to fully enjoy it.
Fitzgerald's short story was later adapted into a film called "The Last Time I Saw Paris" (1954), starring Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson. I had seen it in the mid-1990s without even knowing that it was based on Fitzgerald's story. However, I watched it again recently and was disappointed to realise that its director, Richard Brooks, had loosely adapted it from the book. Besides, the film ends on a happy note. Don't think about the book and you are bound to enjoy it.
Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson closely huddled on a bench near the Notre Dame.
Here is the link for film buffs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMYnt...
If it was up to me I would have probably made The Cut-Glass Bowl into the lead story and titled the book after it, the reason being that I enjoyed it even more than Babylon Revisited. The story is quite horrific and it reminded me of Edgar Allan Poe. However, please don’t think that it is a horror tale as it is not.
The protagonist of this story is a beautiful married woman called Evelyn.
An amazing antique cut-glass bowl.
Mr. Fitzgerald’s opening paragraph is simply beautiful. As soon as I read it, I got hooked on to the story. “There was a rough stone age and a smooth stone age and a bronze age, and many years afterward a cut-glass age. In the cut-glass age, when young ladies had persuaded young men with long curly moustaches to marry them, they sat down several months afterward and wrote thank you notes for all sorts of cut-glass presents – punch-bowls, finger-bowls, dinner-glasses, wine-glasses, ice-cream dishes, bonbon dishes, decanters, and cases – for though cut-glass was nothing new in the nineties, it was then especially busy reflecting the dazzling light of fashion from the Back Bay to the freshness of the Middle West.” I should remind you that Mr. Fitzgerald is talking about the 1890s, the decade he was born.
The entire story revolves around the cut-glass bowl. Need I tell more?
Since The Lost Decade is such a short story, therefore I won’t tell you anything about it except providing an extract to raise your curiosity.
“He had seen this visitor go into the editor’s office – a pale tall man of forty with blond statuesque hair and a manner that was neither shy nor timid nor otherworldly like a monk, but something of all three. The name on his card, Louis Trimble, evoked some vague memory, but having nothing to start on, Orrison did not puzzle over it – until a buzzer sounded on his desk, and previous experience warned him that Mr Trimble was to be his first course at lunch.”
A rain-drenched Paris.
December 15, 2022
Babylon Revisited is a compact story about a man striving for a chance to undo past wrongs and forge new beginnings for himself and his nine-year-old daughter.
Published in 1931, the story is set in Paris after the stock market crash of 1929. Charlie Wales, an American of Czech origin, is visiting his sister-in-law who has legal custody of Honoria. Despite being financially stable and secure in the aftermath of the Wall Street fiasco, Charlie regrets his life of dissipation characterized by wild partying and alcohol addiction, which led to irreparable damage to his marriage. Charlie realizes that he has lost the most valuable thing in his life. He wants to be a better father, but reparation will not come easy.
Apparently, this story is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s personal experience. Not surprisingly, therefore, Charlie’s regrets, pain, fear, and hope against hope are rendered real and palpable.
This story can be read here: Babylon Revisited
Published in 1931, the story is set in Paris after the stock market crash of 1929. Charlie Wales, an American of Czech origin, is visiting his sister-in-law who has legal custody of Honoria. Despite being financially stable and secure in the aftermath of the Wall Street fiasco, Charlie regrets his life of dissipation characterized by wild partying and alcohol addiction, which led to irreparable damage to his marriage. Charlie realizes that he has lost the most valuable thing in his life. He wants to be a better father, but reparation will not come easy.
Apparently, this story is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s personal experience. Not surprisingly, therefore, Charlie’s regrets, pain, fear, and hope against hope are rendered real and palpable.
This story can be read here: Babylon Revisited
April 28, 2023
Babylon Revisited was a beautiful but bitterweet short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald for the Saturday Evening Post and published in February 1931, with lovely illustrations throughout the story.
Charlie Wales, an American expatriate who has been living in Prague, has journeyed to Paris to spend time with his nine-year old daughter, Honoria. She has been living with her aunt and uncle, Marion and Lincoln, and their two children since the death of her mother, Helen. Honoria is thrilled to see her father and wants to live with him.
At the same time this is a farewell to the Roaring Twenties in Paris with Babylon being a city in the Bible known for its sin and decadence. When Charlie reflects on his life in Paris, he is now disgusted as he clearly is a changed man. At one point, he is haunted by the memory of Helen and how much they were in love with one another ". . . until they had senselessly begun to abuse each other's love, tear it into shreds." This is a tale of forgiveness and redemption.
Charlie Wales, an American expatriate who has been living in Prague, has journeyed to Paris to spend time with his nine-year old daughter, Honoria. She has been living with her aunt and uncle, Marion and Lincoln, and their two children since the death of her mother, Helen. Honoria is thrilled to see her father and wants to live with him.
At the same time this is a farewell to the Roaring Twenties in Paris with Babylon being a city in the Bible known for its sin and decadence. When Charlie reflects on his life in Paris, he is now disgusted as he clearly is a changed man. At one point, he is haunted by the memory of Helen and how much they were in love with one another ". . . until they had senselessly begun to abuse each other's love, tear it into shreds." This is a tale of forgiveness and redemption.
December 11, 2022
"Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go according to any rules. They're not like aches or wounds; they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material.”
A painful story, all the more so because of the autobiographical elements.
Charlie Wales returns to Paris, the city of his rise and fall after the stock market crash, to visit his daughter, staying with her aunt since her mother died. Emotions run high, and we wonder, is redemption possible?
I love how Fitzgerald was able to draw such tangible characters in so few pages. I had a strong feeling about each of them. It took a little work to push out of my mind the characters from the film “The Last Time I saw Paris,” which was different, but the characters equally vivid. I love both versions.
A painful story, all the more so because of the autobiographical elements.
Charlie Wales returns to Paris, the city of his rise and fall after the stock market crash, to visit his daughter, staying with her aunt since her mother died. Emotions run high, and we wonder, is redemption possible?
I love how Fitzgerald was able to draw such tangible characters in so few pages. I had a strong feeling about each of them. It took a little work to push out of my mind the characters from the film “The Last Time I saw Paris,” which was different, but the characters equally vivid. I love both versions.
April 23, 2024
Meh.
It was ok, but not worth reviewing.
For the moment at least.
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1931] [112p] [Fiction] [Not Recommendable]
-----------------------------------------------
Meh.
Estuvo bien, pero no vale la pena reseñarlo.
Al menos por ahora.
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1931] [112p] [Ficción] [No Recomendable]
-----------------------------------------------
It was ok, but not worth reviewing.
For the moment at least.
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1931] [112p] [Fiction] [Not Recommendable]
-----------------------------------------------
Meh.
Estuvo bien, pero no vale la pena reseñarlo.
Al menos por ahora.
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1931] [112p] [Ficción] [No Recomendable]
-----------------------------------------------
January 8, 2023
He thought rather angrily that this was just money--he had given so many people money.
One of the Jay Gatsby jet set attempts redemption after the Crash. Paris has changed, so has American entitlement. Fitzgerald explores human capacity. He gives us a fresco tinted by both malignant memory and an oracle of sobriety. Neither could have been much comfort.
One of the Jay Gatsby jet set attempts redemption after the Crash. Paris has changed, so has American entitlement. Fitzgerald explores human capacity. He gives us a fresco tinted by both malignant memory and an oracle of sobriety. Neither could have been much comfort.
February 21, 2020
30th book of 2020.
Three stories, titled Babylon Revisited, The Cut-Glass Bowl and The Lost Decade. The second of which, The Cut-Glass Bowl, is a five-star story for sure, fantastically written, the final line bringing pure joy - like the brilliant last line of The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald can write, really write. This final line doesn't contain a spoiler, not for the story, but I've marked it as so because reading it now would ruin the magic of reading it at the end of the short story. If you have no immediate desire to read it and want to just read a brilliant line of literature... click away.
Three stories, titled Babylon Revisited, The Cut-Glass Bowl and The Lost Decade. The second of which, The Cut-Glass Bowl, is a five-star story for sure, fantastically written, the final line bringing pure joy - like the brilliant last line of The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald can write, really write. This final line doesn't contain a spoiler, not for the story, but I've marked it as so because reading it now would ruin the magic of reading it at the end of the short story. If you have no immediate desire to read it and want to just read a brilliant line of literature... click away.
December 22, 2022
Fitzgerald achieves a wonderful balance in this short story; it is intimate, foreboding, and full of missing pieces. Much room is left for the reader to fill in the gap.
A man who used to be a party animal revisits the playground of Paris, intent on regaining custody of his daughter after the death of her mother. Temptations circle like ominous obsessions; he manages one craving by limiting himself to a single drink a day.
Old flames resurface, old resentments flare up, anger must be kept hidden.
Five stars because really there is so much going on here, in terms of plot, character development, and technique.
A man who used to be a party animal revisits the playground of Paris, intent on regaining custody of his daughter after the death of her mother. Temptations circle like ominous obsessions; he manages one craving by limiting himself to a single drink a day.
Old flames resurface, old resentments flare up, anger must be kept hidden.
Five stars because really there is so much going on here, in terms of plot, character development, and technique.
January 24, 2023
Charlie squandered all his money, drank himself into oblivion, and suffered at the hands of the !929 stock market crash. Now he returns to Paris and is desperate to get his daughter Honoria back. It is clear that he loves her and she loves and wants to be with him, yet he needs to convince her guardians to release her to him. Charlie has regained his financial footing, has his drinking seemingly well under control (one whisky a day), and has severed ties with his past reckless social life and acquaintances. To add any more would spoil what is a beautifully constructed and wonderfully well-written story with an ending that hit me hard.
January 7, 2023
— review to come —
February 20, 2019
This was my first read by F. Scott Fitzgerald but I didn't know much about his work at this time since I was 11 years old when I first read it. Honestly I forgot all about this short story and only remembered it once I found a copy of this story among my school papers. After rereading this story I realized how I forgot this book after all this time. This was a nice introduction to his work but there wasn't anything too spectacular about it. I did like how the main character (Charlie) admits to having one alcoholic drink a day as that shows how the character has grown from his party days and time in a sanatorium. There were times that Marian (Charlie's sister-in-law) annoyed me tremendously as she was incredibly hostile toward Charlie for spending time in a sanatorium or having had a drinking problem in the past. I'm still not sure how responsible Helen's death was Charlie's fault since she died of heart trouble. How her husband Lincoln, who is such a kind and good man, married her is a mystery to me.
April 9, 2018
Is it weird that I enjoyed reading this short story more than I enjoyed reading The Great Gatsby?
December 13, 2022
I’m not a Fitzgerald fan. Readable but not much happens. Rather ambiguous ending.
Read
December 12, 20227.5/10
August 11, 2014
Really this is practically five stars. I loved it. It's my favorite (American) story that I've read so far this summer.
I don't know what it's missing -- really, it's such an immensely straightforward story, that it doesn't actually have a whole lot happening below its surface. I guess that's it. I like the feeling of the unknown, just a little bit, when I read something. The feeling of, how did they get there?
Apparently, the story is truer to life than I realized when I finished it. Fitzgerald was in fact in a situation like this after his most alcoholic years, cleaning up and trying to get his sister-in-law to give him his daughter back.
I really like thinking about the work an author does to turn a true circumstance into solid fiction, which requires so many more things than nonfiction. To make art out of life, much more structure is needed to deliver its message, and timing of the things that happen must be more controlled. It won't work unless you are an extremely skilled storyteller. It seems somehow more structurally impressive to do so in a short piece than in a novel. The plot and people here are so smooth and genuine at the same time.
Though it's written with a light touch, the emotions in this story are brutal. The irony of Charlie's powerlessness defines everything: he's earned back everything he could, but his respect may be gone forever. And he feels that he may deserve this, but who could live like that? Back in Paris, he faces the scene of his disgusting hedonist meltdown, and can barely stand to look. It's a part of him that won't ever leave him, even if he lets it die. If he asks for true forgiveness, what does he do for the rest of his life if the answer's no?
The crux of this story is the waiting and swinging of this yes-or-no answer on the custody question that essentially decides the whole remaining worth of his life. Thinking of it happening, he feels "The door of the world was open again." I almost fell over with that sentence. His daughter is young but getting older, and in six months, she would not be the same. The time in which they can have each other is being lost. They never truly will, if not now. Six months is so short to wait, but so much can be ruined.
I happened to read this on a day that left me a rather bitter disappointment: one that said to wait. Not no, not yes. Three months. Maybe six. I was glad that Charlie was there, and sorry too.
I don't know what it's missing -- really, it's such an immensely straightforward story, that it doesn't actually have a whole lot happening below its surface. I guess that's it. I like the feeling of the unknown, just a little bit, when I read something. The feeling of, how did they get there?
Apparently, the story is truer to life than I realized when I finished it. Fitzgerald was in fact in a situation like this after his most alcoholic years, cleaning up and trying to get his sister-in-law to give him his daughter back.
I really like thinking about the work an author does to turn a true circumstance into solid fiction, which requires so many more things than nonfiction. To make art out of life, much more structure is needed to deliver its message, and timing of the things that happen must be more controlled. It won't work unless you are an extremely skilled storyteller. It seems somehow more structurally impressive to do so in a short piece than in a novel. The plot and people here are so smooth and genuine at the same time.
Though it's written with a light touch, the emotions in this story are brutal. The irony of Charlie's powerlessness defines everything: he's earned back everything he could, but his respect may be gone forever. And he feels that he may deserve this, but who could live like that? Back in Paris, he faces the scene of his disgusting hedonist meltdown, and can barely stand to look. It's a part of him that won't ever leave him, even if he lets it die. If he asks for true forgiveness, what does he do for the rest of his life if the answer's no?
The crux of this story is the waiting and swinging of this yes-or-no answer on the custody question that essentially decides the whole remaining worth of his life. Thinking of it happening, he feels "The door of the world was open again." I almost fell over with that sentence. His daughter is young but getting older, and in six months, she would not be the same. The time in which they can have each other is being lost. They never truly will, if not now. Six months is so short to wait, but so much can be ruined.
I happened to read this on a day that left me a rather bitter disappointment: one that said to wait. Not no, not yes. Three months. Maybe six. I was glad that Charlie was there, and sorry too.
August 24, 2016
M-a emoționat foarte tare povestirea asta... despre un tată care a cedat cu un an și jumătate în urmă, din cauza dependenței de alcool, custodia asupra fetiței sale în vârstă de nouă ani. Fetița s-a dus să locuiască la mătușa și unchiul ei, în timp ce mama ei s-a prăpădit, iar tatăl ei, adică personajul nostru principal, Charlie, s-a pus pe picioare, lăsând în urmă un trecut tumultuos plin de alcool, femei și dezmăț general. Numai că acum eforturile lui Charlie de a-și lua fetița înapoi sunt mult îngreunate de atitudinea ostilă a mătușii fetiței, Marion Peters, sora soției sale moarte. Aproape m-a bufnit plânsul citind ultimele pagini. Poate că Fitzgerald nu și-a dorit să fie atât de „patetic” în scrierea sa, dar mie mi-a atins o coardă sensibilă „Întoarcerea la Babilon”. Aș fi vrut să fie mai lungă, totuși. Și nu știam, fiindcă viața scriitorului F. Scott Fitzgerald nu m-a interesat niciodată, dar se pare că povestirea asta e inspirată din propria lui experiență. Poate de aceea a și reușit să surprindă atât de bine emoțiile lui Charlie. O scriitură minimalistă, dar puternică.
October 22, 2020
Charlie Wales returns to Paris to reclaim custody of his daughter from his in-laws, reminisces about his time there during the Roaring Twenties, and ponders the events leading to his current life.
"He remembered thousand-franc notes given to an orchestra for playing a single number, hundred-franc notes tossed to a doorman for calling a cab.
But it hadn't been given for nothing.
It had been given, even the most wildly squandered sum, as an offering to destiny that he might not remember the things most worth remembering, the things that now he would always remember -- his child taken from his control, his wife escaped to a grave in Vermont."
This short story expresses a powerful sense of regret. It is the melancholy hangover following the Jazz Age's party.
Charlie had surrendered custody of his daughter Honoria to his sister- and brother-in-law in the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929 when the consequences of his and his wife's hard partying, free-spending, liquor-fueled, drama-filled lifestyle rendered them incapable of caring for her. After his wife’s death, Charlie pulled himself back together. He has his drinking under control, or so he says, and he has a steady job with a good income. He is ready to resume his role as father, hoping it will staunch his feelings of loneliness and guilt.
Just when Charlie's plan to swoop in and take Honoria away is poised to succeed, things go awry. .
Charlie's sister-in-law Marion is the antagonist of the story. Although she is written as somewhat sympathetic, Fitzgerald sets her up to be unlikeable. As a younger reader, I would have despised her, but as an older reader and a mother, I felt her for Marion ... although it did irk me that she used her emotional distress to get her way rather than calmly making her case to retain custody of Honoria.
Her sister is dead, and for the past three years, Marion has been caring for niece, providing her with a safe and stable home. Now Charlie has reappeared, and she has nothing except his word when it comes to his sobriety, his mental health, and his commitment to gainful employment. I can understand not wanting to send a child whom one has cared for back in to a situation in which she had previously suffered neglect.
Marion witnessed Charlie's behavior at its worst -- his mistreatment of her sister, his substance abuse, his wasteful spending, his mental illness. Helen’s own complicity and misdeeds have been forgiven in the tragedy of her early death. Marion has an incomplete picture of Charlie, based on what she witnessed and what she heard from her sister, but she does not understand that her picture of the situation is inaccurate. When the drunken couple show up at her home looking for Charlie and make a spectacle, her fears are justified. The evidence is simply against Charlie even though it misrepresents the situation.
I felt sad for Charlie, and I wanted to root for him, but at the same time, he is an unreliable narrator. As with anyone in recovery, the chances of relapse are high. I was worried he would go on a bender at the end of the story, but he mercifully stuck to his one drink per day.
Charlie's motivations are honorable and yet selfish. He wants his child but focuses on his own needs without taking his daughter's right to stability and permanency into account, which is reflective of the child welfare system in the United States where the preservation of the family unit and reunification take precedence over the best interests of the child. For him, love is an idea and not a behavior. Out of the wreckage of his life, Honoria is something salvageable, and the goodness that she represents is what he clings to.
Charlie treats his daughter as his possession that he has come to retrieve. He wants to insert himself into her life because it is his right, because he is her father. The thought that he abdicated his role as father long before he lost physical custody of daughter has never crossed his mind. It also hasn’t occurred to him that uprooting her and moving her to another city in another country away from her school, her friends, and her family members might be hard on her. He thinks that all he needs to hire a governess whom he doesn’t find annoying, and then they will be all set.
He sees himself as a much needed source of fun in Honoria’s life and wants rescue her from his boring, penny-pinching in-laws. He wants to be the good time guy, the bringer of gifts, the purveyor of entertainment. He wants to buy Honoria happiness to make himself feel good.
Charlie is preoccupied with his own feelings, and Honoria is a means of satisfying his own emotion needs. He wants his daughter to soothe his loneliness. He even goes so far as to assert that his deceased wife would want him to resume custody of their daughter because "Helen wouldn't have wanted him to be so alone." Charlie is looking to Honoria to meet his adult emotional needs, and he does not realize how harmful that is for a child. Displacing an adult-child relationship with a peer-peer relationship is always detrimental and has long-term negative consequences.
There is a sad scene in which Charlie pretends to introduce himself to his daughter as a joke. During their exchange, he asks her if she is married or single. She replies "single," and "He indicated the doll. 'But I see you have a child, madame.'
Unwilling to disinherit it, she took it to her heart and thought quickly: 'Yes, I've been married, but I'm not married now. My husband is dead.'
He went on quickly."
When their conversation touches upon grief and hints about her own feelings of abandonment, Charlie quickly rushes on. He doesn’t stop to ask Honoria how she is feeling. (Similarly, he later glosses over the memory of locking his intoxicated wife outside in the snow during a domestic dispute.)
Charlie wants to keep moving forward, even while savoring nostalgia for the past, and he is tired of taking responsibility for the consequences of his actions. There was a heavy price to pay for Charlie's good time. Negotiating the aftermath would be disheartening and burdensome, which is something that makes Charlie sympathetic to the reader. We are all trapped to a greater or lesser extent by our pasts, and particularly disastrous mistakes forever alter one's life and future options.
This short story would be a great starting place for anyone who thinks all F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about was frivolous rich people having parties
"He remembered thousand-franc notes given to an orchestra for playing a single number, hundred-franc notes tossed to a doorman for calling a cab.
But it hadn't been given for nothing.
It had been given, even the most wildly squandered sum, as an offering to destiny that he might not remember the things most worth remembering, the things that now he would always remember -- his child taken from his control, his wife escaped to a grave in Vermont."
This short story expresses a powerful sense of regret. It is the melancholy hangover following the Jazz Age's party.
Charlie had surrendered custody of his daughter Honoria to his sister- and brother-in-law in the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929 when the consequences of his and his wife's hard partying, free-spending, liquor-fueled, drama-filled lifestyle rendered them incapable of caring for her. After his wife’s death, Charlie pulled himself back together. He has his drinking under control, or so he says, and he has a steady job with a good income. He is ready to resume his role as father, hoping it will staunch his feelings of loneliness and guilt.
Just when Charlie's plan to swoop in and take Honoria away is poised to succeed, things go awry. .
Charlie's sister-in-law Marion is the antagonist of the story. Although she is written as somewhat sympathetic, Fitzgerald sets her up to be unlikeable. As a younger reader, I would have despised her, but as an older reader and a mother, I felt her for Marion ... although it did irk me that she used her emotional distress to get her way rather than calmly making her case to retain custody of Honoria.
Her sister is dead, and for the past three years, Marion has been caring for niece, providing her with a safe and stable home. Now Charlie has reappeared, and she has nothing except his word when it comes to his sobriety, his mental health, and his commitment to gainful employment. I can understand not wanting to send a child whom one has cared for back in to a situation in which she had previously suffered neglect.
Marion witnessed Charlie's behavior at its worst -- his mistreatment of her sister, his substance abuse, his wasteful spending, his mental illness. Helen’s own complicity and misdeeds have been forgiven in the tragedy of her early death. Marion has an incomplete picture of Charlie, based on what she witnessed and what she heard from her sister, but she does not understand that her picture of the situation is inaccurate. When the drunken couple show up at her home looking for Charlie and make a spectacle, her fears are justified. The evidence is simply against Charlie even though it misrepresents the situation.
I felt sad for Charlie, and I wanted to root for him, but at the same time, he is an unreliable narrator. As with anyone in recovery, the chances of relapse are high. I was worried he would go on a bender at the end of the story, but he mercifully stuck to his one drink per day.
Charlie's motivations are honorable and yet selfish. He wants his child but focuses on his own needs without taking his daughter's right to stability and permanency into account, which is reflective of the child welfare system in the United States where the preservation of the family unit and reunification take precedence over the best interests of the child. For him, love is an idea and not a behavior. Out of the wreckage of his life, Honoria is something salvageable, and the goodness that she represents is what he clings to.
Charlie treats his daughter as his possession that he has come to retrieve. He wants to insert himself into her life because it is his right, because he is her father. The thought that he abdicated his role as father long before he lost physical custody of daughter has never crossed his mind. It also hasn’t occurred to him that uprooting her and moving her to another city in another country away from her school, her friends, and her family members might be hard on her. He thinks that all he needs to hire a governess whom he doesn’t find annoying, and then they will be all set.
He sees himself as a much needed source of fun in Honoria’s life and wants rescue her from his boring, penny-pinching in-laws. He wants to be the good time guy, the bringer of gifts, the purveyor of entertainment. He wants to buy Honoria happiness to make himself feel good.
Charlie is preoccupied with his own feelings, and Honoria is a means of satisfying his own emotion needs. He wants his daughter to soothe his loneliness. He even goes so far as to assert that his deceased wife would want him to resume custody of their daughter because "Helen wouldn't have wanted him to be so alone." Charlie is looking to Honoria to meet his adult emotional needs, and he does not realize how harmful that is for a child. Displacing an adult-child relationship with a peer-peer relationship is always detrimental and has long-term negative consequences.
There is a sad scene in which Charlie pretends to introduce himself to his daughter as a joke. During their exchange, he asks her if she is married or single. She replies "single," and "He indicated the doll. 'But I see you have a child, madame.'
Unwilling to disinherit it, she took it to her heart and thought quickly: 'Yes, I've been married, but I'm not married now. My husband is dead.'
He went on quickly."
When their conversation touches upon grief and hints about her own feelings of abandonment, Charlie quickly rushes on. He doesn’t stop to ask Honoria how she is feeling. (Similarly, he later glosses over the memory of locking his intoxicated wife outside in the snow during a domestic dispute.)
Charlie wants to keep moving forward, even while savoring nostalgia for the past, and he is tired of taking responsibility for the consequences of his actions. There was a heavy price to pay for Charlie's good time. Negotiating the aftermath would be disheartening and burdensome, which is something that makes Charlie sympathetic to the reader. We are all trapped to a greater or lesser extent by our pasts, and particularly disastrous mistakes forever alter one's life and future options.
This short story would be a great starting place for anyone who thinks all F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about was frivolous rich people having parties
December 19, 2022
This short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the Short Story Club reads.
Written in 1935 this classic short story takes place in Paris a few years after the stock market crash of 1929. Like many people Charles Wales lost everything in the stock market crash and also lost his wife who died around the same time. His young daughter was shipped to Paris to live with his wife’s sister and brother-in-law.
This story takes place over a few days when Charles returns to Paris to regain custody of his daughter and to try to make a new life going forward.
Marion, his sister-in-law , revives all her bitter feelings and anger at Charles’ poor behavior of earlier years and she blames him for her sister’s death. Charles tries to explain that he is a changed man and that his daughter as his family is his primary concern. Asking for forgiveness and a second chance is his main purpose.
This story is really quite sad as it displays the frailties of family squabbles. While his daughter is delighted to see him and wants to go with him she displays a maturity beyond her young years.
Money, history, bad feelings all stand in the way of Charles’ efforts. And when his “old ways” return to the scene his fate is not sealed but certainly delayed.
The writing is clear and concise with detailed descriptions of the excesses of the era as well as the sacrifices. There is a bit of a sense of a morality check to the storytelling but it is clearly reflective of the time in which it was written. Well written but not stellar, however the storyline, though sad, is what really stands the test of time.
Written in 1935 this classic short story takes place in Paris a few years after the stock market crash of 1929. Like many people Charles Wales lost everything in the stock market crash and also lost his wife who died around the same time. His young daughter was shipped to Paris to live with his wife’s sister and brother-in-law.
This story takes place over a few days when Charles returns to Paris to regain custody of his daughter and to try to make a new life going forward.
Marion, his sister-in-law , revives all her bitter feelings and anger at Charles’ poor behavior of earlier years and she blames him for her sister’s death. Charles tries to explain that he is a changed man and that his daughter as his family is his primary concern. Asking for forgiveness and a second chance is his main purpose.
This story is really quite sad as it displays the frailties of family squabbles. While his daughter is delighted to see him and wants to go with him she displays a maturity beyond her young years.
Money, history, bad feelings all stand in the way of Charles’ efforts. And when his “old ways” return to the scene his fate is not sealed but certainly delayed.
The writing is clear and concise with detailed descriptions of the excesses of the era as well as the sacrifices. There is a bit of a sense of a morality check to the storytelling but it is clearly reflective of the time in which it was written. Well written but not stellar, however the storyline, though sad, is what really stands the test of time.
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March 10, 2020I mean, I guess I should've know it would be depressing because it's Fitzgerald, but geez. That was sad.
June 4, 2019
Nothing remarkable for me but a touching story.
January 6, 2021
Fitzgerald's short story takes place in Paris in the 1930's. It is laden with symbolism. At the outset, the story follows the Great Depression. The major character, Charlie, has returned there after a long period and observes numerous changes throughout the great city. This included shuttered businesses, empty bars which once teemed with many regalers and empty restaurants and boulevards. The usual regulars were absent. The use of Babylon in the title signifies the relationship of the once successful , cultured atmosphere and then downfall to similar to what was present in Paris. As the story progressed the reader views Revisited as recognition by Charlie that he wasted much of his life and followed wrong ideals.
Much more could be related about this story, but it is interesting to discover that much of it is inspired by facts of Fitzgerald's life. Although previously successful, the depression greatly influenced his family. As the main hero of the tale, he suffered from alcohol addiction and the loss of much money. This contributed to his wife (Zelda) requiring hospitalization for a nervous breakdown. After an irresponsible, fun-filled existence, he failed to take responsibility for his family and his debts, all of which contributed to the breakup of his family. We observe very similar occurrences in this story.
Babylon Revisited, despite its clearly delineated dilemmas, provided a moral for the reader.
Much more could be related about this story, but it is interesting to discover that much of it is inspired by facts of Fitzgerald's life. Although previously successful, the depression greatly influenced his family. As the main hero of the tale, he suffered from alcohol addiction and the loss of much money. This contributed to his wife (Zelda) requiring hospitalization for a nervous breakdown. After an irresponsible, fun-filled existence, he failed to take responsibility for his family and his debts, all of which contributed to the breakup of his family. We observe very similar occurrences in this story.
Babylon Revisited, despite its clearly delineated dilemmas, provided a moral for the reader.
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