Tales of the Jazz Age

Tales of the Jazz Age is a collection of short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, first published in 1922.

Written at the height of the Roaring Twenties, it captures the era’s restless energy, glittering surfaces, and underlying unease as America rushes from wartime austerity to peacetime extravagance.

Across these pieces—among them The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, May Day, and The Diamond as Big as the Ritz—Fitzgerald moves from fantasy to biting social comedy to near-tragic realism. The result is a panoramic view of a decade defined by youthful ambition, rapid change, and the price of excess.

The stories probe class tensions, the lure of wealth, and the fragility of identity, revealing how dreams of glamour collide with the moral hangover of modern life. Parties glitter, fortunes swell, and illusions crack, as characters chase joy and status in a world spinning faster by the week.

Written with Fitzgerald’s signature wit, irony, and lyrical prose, this collection offers an enduring portrait of a generation in flux—a vivid snapshot of the Jazz Age that still resonates with readers searching for meaning amid dazzle.

"Jim Powell was a Jelly-bean. Much as I desire to make him an appealing character, I feel that it would be unscrupulous to deceive you on that point. He was a bred-in-the-bone, dyed-in-the-wool, ninety-nine three-quarters per cent Jelly-bean and he grew lazily all during Jelly-bean season, which is every season, down in the land of the Jelly-beans well below the Mason-Dixon line".