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The Gatsby Affair

Scott, Zelda, and the Betrayal that Shaped an American Classic

Kendall Taylor

The romance between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre has been celebrated as one of the greatest of the 20^th century. From the beginning, their relationship was a tumultuous one, in which the couple’s excesses were as widely known as their passion for each other. Despite their love, both Scott and Zelda engaged in flirtations that threatened to tear the couple apart. But none had a more profound impact on the two—and on Scott’s writing—as the liaison between Zelda and a French aviator, Edouard Jozan. Though other biographies have written of Jozan as one of Scott’s romantic rivals, accounts of the pilot’s effect on the couple have been superficial at best.

In The Gatsby Affair: Scott, Zelda, and the Betrayal That Shaped an American Classic, Kendall Taylor examines the dalliance between the southern belle and the French pilot from a fresh perspective. Drawing on conversations and correspondence with Jozan’s daughter, as well as materials from the Jozan family archives, Taylor sheds new light on this romantic triangle. More than just a casual fling, Zelda’s tryst with Edouard affected Scott as much as it did his wife—and ultimately influenced the author’s most famous creation, Jay Gatsby. Were it not for Zelda’s affair with the pilot, Scott’s novel might be less about betrayal and more about lost illusions.

Exploring the private motives of these public figures, Taylor offers new explanations for their behavior. In addition to the love triangle that included Jozan, Taylor also delves into an earlier event in Zelda’s life—a sexual assault she suffered as a teenager—one that affected her future relationships. Both a literary study and a probing look at an iconic couple’s psychological makeup, The Gatsby Affair offers readers a bold interpretation of how one of America’s greatest novels was influenced.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 320 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-5381-0493-4 • Hardback • August 2018 • $27.00 • (£19.99)

978-1-5381-0494-1 • eBook • August 2018 • $25.99 • (£19.99)

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Literary Figures, Literary Criticism / American / General, Literary Criticism / Modern / 20th Century, Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / General

The Gatsby Affair

Scott, Zelda, and the Betrayal that Shaped an American Classic

Hardback

eBook

Summary

The romance between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre has been celebrated as one of the greatest of the 20^th century. From the beginning, their relationship was a tumultuous one, in which the couple’s excesses were as widely known as their passion for each other. Despite their love, both Scott and Zelda engaged in flirtations that threatened to tear the couple apart. But none had a more profound impact on the two—and on Scott’s writing—as the liaison between Zelda and a French aviator, Edouard Jozan. Though other biographies have written of Jozan as one of Scott’s romantic rivals, accounts of the pilot’s effect on the couple have been superficial at best.

In The Gatsby Affair: Scott, Zelda, and the Betrayal That Shaped an American Classic, Kendall Taylor examines the dalliance between the southern belle and the French pilot from a fresh perspective. Drawing on conversations and correspondence with Jozan’s daughter, as well as materials from the Jozan family archives, Taylor sheds new light on this romantic triangle. More than just a casual fling, Zelda’s tryst with Edouard affected Scott as much as it did his wife—and ultimately influenced the author’s most famous creation, Jay Gatsby. Were it not for Zelda’s affair with the pilot, Scott’s novel might be less about betrayal and more about lost illusions.

Exploring the private motives of these public figures, Taylor offers new explanations for their behavior. In addition to the love triangle that included Jozan, Taylor also delves into an earlier event in Zelda’s life—a sexual assault she suffered as a teenager—one that affected her future relationships. Both a literary study and a probing look at an iconic couple’s psychological makeup, The Gatsby Affair offers readers a bold interpretation of how one of America’s greatest novels was influenced.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 320 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-5381-0493-4 • Hardback • August 2018 • $27.00 • (£19.99)

978-1-5381-0494-1 • eBook • August 2018 • $25.99 • (£19.99)

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Literary Figures, Literary Criticism / American / General, Literary Criticism / Modern / 20th Century, Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / General

Author

Kendall Taylor, Ph.D., is a cultural historian who has taught at George Washington University, The American University, and State University of New York. She also served as Head of the National Exhibitions Program at the Library of Congress, Academic Director of The American University’s Washington Semester Program in Art and Architecture, and Vice President for Planning, Research, and Institutional Advancement at Friends World College in Huntington, Long Island. A Fulbright scholar and winner of numerous awards, Taylor is the author of the critically acclaimed biography of the Fitzgeralds, Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom, which was published in 2001. She lives in New York and Florida.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
Chapter 1: Recklessness in the Making
Chapter 2: Seeds of Discontent
Chapter 3: The French Lieutenant
Chapter 4: A Mistress Not a Wife
Chapter 5: Truly a Sad Story
Chapter 6: Retribution and Remorse
Chapter 7: Locked Away
Chapter 8: No Hope Salvaged
Chapter 9: An Ailment No One Could Cure
Chapter 10: All In Disarray
Chapter 11: A Mind Washed Clean
Chronology
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Reviews

Taylor’s work leaves readers with a colorful portrait of a stormy chapter in the Fitzgeralds’ life and its far-reaching consequences.

— Publishers Weekly

Meticulously researched, the author’s attention to detail creates an immersion into the Jazz Age and highlights previously unknown events that offer explanations for both Fitzgerald and Zelda’s recklessness and approach to life. Much has been documented about their tumultuous relationship, but Taylor examines the couple’s dependence on each other through an unfiltered lens that reveals the life events that shaped their existence and, ultimately, their demise. The author’s skill at discovering new information on the uninhibited couple’s past encounters connects the previously missing pieces and establishes a multi-dimensional picture of these passionate individuals.
— US Review of Books

The Gatsby Affair is highly atmospheric and does an incredible job explaining the time period, how Zelda and Scott met, and the context of the affair.
— FangirlNation

Who is Edouard Jozan? The intriguing mystery man in the saga of Scott and Zelda has long eluded literary sleuths. In a stunning feat of research, Kendall Taylor brings the French aviator out of the shadows to reveal how he influenced the writing of a classic novel and left his mark on the marriage of an iconic couple. This is an important, richly detailed biography that will deepen our understanding of American literature.
— Marion Meade, author of Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?

Kendall Taylor rips the lid off one of the world’s great literary mysteries—the love triangle between Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and French aviator Edouard Jozan. Brimming with strong research and enchanted writing, Taylor’s engaging account of the love affair and its consequences is sure to stir fans eager to dig into this absorbing chapter in the lives of Scott and Zelda.
— Bob Batchelor, author of Stan Lee: The Man behind Marvel and Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel

This new telling of Zelda’s affair with French pilot Edouard Jozan is powerfully rendered, thanks to Kendall Taylor’s laudable research. By interweaving bits from Scott and Zelda’s novels, Taylor shows how the French pilot triggered ever deepening fractures in the Fitzgerald marriage, and brings a heart-wrenching light to their lives and their work.
— Sally Ryder Brady, author of A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage

With admirable scholarship, Kendall Taylor takes the reader on a journey into the complex heart of the Jazz Era. Probing the volatile Fitzgerald marriage, she shows the destructive forces unleashed by infidelity, and portrays Zelda as a suppressed creator in her own right. An absorbing study of one of the most fascinating couples of the twentieth century.
— Mary McAuliffe, author of When Paris Sizzled: The 1920s Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Their Friends

While the line, 'Rich girls don’t marry poor boys,' isn’t actually in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby, that line is in at least one film version and is a perfect summation of Fitzgerald’s personal mythology as it appears in his most famous book. What Kendall Taylor does in her latest book The Gatsby Affair is masterful in her examination of the rich girl—Zelda Sayre—who did marry the poor boy—Fitzgerald—but whose love was as much about betrayal and pain as it was about joy and celebration. . . . [Taylor's] prose is passionate, dense, and masterful in its revelation of the immediate attraction between the two. . . . For fans of Fitzgerald’s work, or those just interested in exploring the difficult and tragic love lives of two of America’s literary giants, The Gatsby Affair is a must read.
— Seattle Book Review

The Gatsby Affair

Scott, Zelda, and the Betrayal that Shaped an American Classic

Kendall Taylor

The Gatsby Affair

Scott, Zelda, and the Betrayal that Shaped an American Classic

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