The Baby Party

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Baby Party (+Biography and Bibliography) (6X9po Glossy Cover Finish):When John Andros felt old he found solace in the thought of life continuing through his child. The dark trumpets of oblivion were less loud at the patter of his child's feet or at the sound of his child's voice babbling mad non sequiturs to him over the telephone. The latter incident occurred every afternoon at three when his wife called the office from the country, and he came to look forward to it as one of the vivid minutes of his day.He was not physically old, but his life had been a series of struggles up a series of rugged hills, and here at thirty-eight having won his battles against ill-health and poverty he cherished less than the usual number of illusions. Even his feeling about his little girl was qualified. She had interrupted his rather intense love-affair with his wife, and she was the reason for their living in a suburban town, where they paid for country air with endless servant troubles and the weary merry-goround of the commuting train.It was little Ede as a definite piece of youth that chiefly interested him. He liked to take her on his lap and examine minutely her fragrant, downy scalp and her eyes with their irises of morning blue. Having paid this homage John was content that the nurse should take her away. After ten minutes the very vitality of the child irritated him; he was inclined to lose his temper when things were broken, and one Sunday afternoon when she had disrupted a bridge game by permanently hiding up the ace of spades, he had made a scene that had reduced his wife to tears.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction

31 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1925

About the author

Francis 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.

Reviews

[Cláudia Monteiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars
A novella about a young couple, John and Edith Andros, and their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Ede, turns sour when the daughter is invited to the birthday party of their neighbours' toddler.
As they say, the kids act like adults, and the adults act like kids.
It was just fine.

[Ericka Clou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious short story that is surely more enjoyable for parents who get it viscerally.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

this story show How the Emotional crime happen without the perpetrator know the reason , also Fitzgerald play on switch roles , like they in USA , the kids act like a adults, ant the adults act like a kids .
2.4 /5

[Caleb Haynes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious take on the fragility of parents egos instead of children. Possibly has a deeper interpretation that I missed, but hey, it’s Fitzgerald, it’s fun and short.

[Bárbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I sure wish our syllabus was a bit... Better. Between this, and bracing myself for the upcoming Borges texts I have to read, this term is not going to amuse me so much.
Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing personal against Fitzgerald, this short story was just kinda dumb.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting!
Bullies come in all ages, and sizes!
Parents become idiots!
Life goes on!

[Lydia Batchelor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does anyone know how to pronounce the baby's name?

[Firefox · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short story about a fight between two couples, written by the same author who wrote the ,brief yet engaging.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shows snobby upper class and how silly they are

[Gita Madhu · Rating 5 out of 5]

An adorable story about a baby fight that provokes the grown ups to fisticuffs.

[Deity World · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a baby party turns into pandemonium …

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather odd short story about two adult men fighting over hearth and home. I didn't much believe it.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ridiculous story LOL. Amusing.

[Fernando Frías · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half cause me baby fever. The second half make me understand the responsibility of having a children.

Nice work.

[faeann · Rating 5 out of 5]

funny, short, what more can a girl in a reading slump ask for

[Susan Molloy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who is the Baby?

🖋️ This is an unusual take on the observation of people when it comes to their children. In a nutshell, there is a baby party, and the grown-ups begin to start acting immature when two of the babies have a bit of a tiff. I found this a fun story, and true about many parents today, too!

📕Published in 1925.

જ⁀ 🟢 The e-book version on Project Gutenberg.
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