| Absolution | |
|---|---|
| by F. Scott Fitzgerald | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Short Story |
| Published in | The American Mercury Collected in All the Sad Young Men |
| Publication type | Magazine Short story collection |
| Publisher | Scribner's |
| Media type | |
"Absolution" is a short story by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was included in his 1926 collection All the Sad Young Men .
"Absolution" was originally published in The American Mercury in June 1924. [1] [2] The story would later be published in Fitzgerald's third short story collection All the Sad Young Men in 1926.
Fitzgerald began writing "Absolution" in June 1923. [3] In a letter to Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald stated that it was originally intended to be the prologue of his later novel The Great Gatsby , but that it "interrupted with the neatness of the plan". [4] In 1934, Fitzgerald wrote in a letter to a fan that the story was intended to show Gatsby's early life, but was cut to preserve his "sense of mystery". [3]
"Absolution", narrated in the third person, focuses on a young boy named Rudolph Miller, who often fantasizes about a self-created alter ego called Blatchford Sarnemington. [5] Rudolph, an 11-year-old Catholic, attends a confession with Father Schwartz. Rudolph describes what he believes is a terrible sin he committed. In a flashback, Rudolph lies to Father Schwartz in a previous confession. Rudolph also gets in trouble with his father when he attempts to avoid communion by drinking water before. After telling Father Schwartz about these two instances, Father Schwartz collapses and a startled Rudolph flees.
Upon publication in All the Sad Young Men, the story was met with mixed reception. The New York Times wrote that "Absolution" is "simple and stripped of artifice". [6] In the Saturday Review of Literature , the story is described as "first rate. Three quarters of it, at least, is masterly. Then the author falters". [3] In the Literary Review of the New York Evening Post, the story is praised along with the other stories in All the Sad Young Men. [7] Contemporary reviewers often focus on the story's connection with The Great Gatsby. [3] [5] However, some scholars argue against that this connection has been overemphasized. [8] Some modern scholars have also drawn parallels between "Absolution" and James Joyce's short story "The Sisters". [3] [9] [10]
The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.
Zelda Fitzgerald was an American novelist, painter, and socialite.
Tender Is the Night is the fourth and final novel completed by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in French Riviera during the twilight of the Jazz Age, the 1934 novel chronicles the rise and fall of Dick Diver, a promising young psychiatrist, and his wife, Nicole, who is one of his patients. The story mirrors events in the lives of the author and his wife Zelda Fitzgerald as Dick starts his descent into alcoholism and Nicole descends into mental illness.
Absolution is the forgiveness experienced in traditional Christian churches in the sacrament of reconciliation (confession).
The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald is a compilation of 43 short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1989. It begins with a foreword by Charles Scribner II and a preface written by Bruccoli, after which the stories follow in chronological order of publication.
Jay Gatsby is the titular fictional character of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. The character is an enigmatic nouveau riche millionaire who lives in a luxurious mansion on Long Island where he often hosts extravagant parties and who allegedly gained his vast fortune by illicit bootlegging during prohibition in the United States. Fitzgerald based many details about the fictional character on Max Gerlach, a mysterious neighbor and World War I veteran whom the author met while living in New York City during the raucous Jazz Age. Like Gatsby, Gerlach threw lavish parties, never wore the same shirt twice, used the phrase "old sport", claimed to be educated at Oxford University, and fostered myths about himself, including that he was a relation of the German Kaiser.
"Winter Dreams" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald that was first published in Metropolitan magazine in December 1922 and later collected in All the Sad Young Men in 1926. The plot concerns the attempts by a young man to win the affections of an upper-class woman. The story, frequently anthologized, is regarded as one of Fitzgerald's finest works "for poignantly portraying the loss of youthful illusions."
Daisy Fay Buchanan is a fictional character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. The character is a wealthy socialite from Louisville, Kentucky who resides in the fashionable town of East Egg on Long Island during the Jazz Age. She is narrator Nick Carraway's second cousin, once removed, and the wife of polo player Tom Buchanan, by whom she has a daughter. Before marrying Tom, Daisy had a romantic relationship with Jay Gatsby. Her choice between Gatsby and Tom is one of the novel's central conflicts. Described by Fitzgerald as a "golden girl", she is the target of both Tom's callous domination and Gatsby's dehumanizing adoration. The ensuing contest of wills between Tom and Gatsby reduces Daisy to a trophy wife whose sole existence is to augment her possessor's socio-economic success.
Nick Carraway is a fictional character and narrator in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby.
Francis Scott Key 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. 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.
Ginevra King Pirie was an American socialite and heiress. As one of Chicago's "Big Four" debutantes during World War I, she was the inspiration for many characters in the novels and stories of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald; in particular, the character of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. King and Fitzgerald shared a passionate romance from 1915 to 1917, but their relationship stagnated after King's family intervened, and her father purportedly warned the young writer that "poor boys shouldn't think of marrying rich girls". Scholar Maureen Corrigan notes that "because she's the one who got away, Ginevra—even more than [Fitzgerald's wife] Zelda—is the love who lodged like an irritant in Fitzgerald's imagination, producing the literary pearl that is Daisy Buchanan".
Victor Llona Gastañeta was a writer and translator, born in Lima (Peru) in 1886, who died in San Francisco in 1953.
All the Sad Young Men is the third collection of short stories written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published by Scribners in February 1926.
"The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway, published in the 1925 New York edition of In Our Time, by Boni & Liveright. The story is the second in the collection to feature Nick Adams, Hemingway’s autobiographical alter ego. "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife" follows "Indian Camp" in the collection, includes elements of the same style and themes, yet is written in counterpoint to the first story.
"The Baby Party" is a short story published by F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hearst's International Cosmopolitan.
"The Rich Boy" is a short story by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was included in his 1926 collection All the Sad Young Men. "The Rich Boy" originally appeared in two parts, in the January and February 1926 issues of Redbook. In the January installment, the story is described on the front cover as: "A great story of today's youth by F. Scott Fitzgerald".
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigmatic writings of the Jazz Age. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon, was published posthumously. Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that treat themes of youth and promise along with age and despair.
"The Adjuster" is a short story written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story appears in Fitzgerald's third collection of short stories All the Sad Young Men, published by Scribners in February 1926. The story depicts the troubled relationship of married couple Luella and Charles Hemple, living in New York City in 1925.
"The Great Gatsby" is an American television play broadcast live on June 26, 1958, as part of the second season of the CBS television series Playhouse 90. David Shaw wrote the teleplay, adapted from the novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Franklin Schaffner directed. Jeanne Crain, Robert Ryan, and Rod Taylor starred, and Rod Serling was the host.
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald is a 2013 biographical novel by Therese Fowler about Zelda Fitzgerald. It follows her through her marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald, the pair's writing careers, their relationship to Ernest Hemingway, the upbringing of their daughter Frances Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda's declining mental health and death. It was adapted into a television series, Z: The Beginning of Everything, which aired in 2017 after a 2015 pilot episode.