https://shortstoryproject.com/stories/the-sensible-thing/
This Fitzgerald story certainly reminds me of this passage.
Here is the final passage in "The Sensible Thing"
“Yes,” he whispered into her lips. “There’s all the time in the world…”
All the time in the world–his life and hers. But for an instant as he kissed her he knew that though he search through eternity he could never recapture those lost April hours. He might press her close now till the muscles knotted on his arms–she was something desirable and rare that he had fought for and made his own–but never again an intangible whisper in the dusk, or on the breeze of night…
Well, let it pass, he thought; April is over, April is over. There are all kinds of love in the world, but never the same love twice.
George O'Kelley is in love with Jonquil, a girl from Tennessee (and much like Zelda Sayre from Alabama in FSF's own life). George is an engineer, temporarily working in insurance. Things do not quite work out for them on the first try; George is rather a failure and competing men are lining the porch at Jonquil's house. But he goes off, goes to South America, and wildly succeeds, returning ten months later. They go for a walk in a magnificent garden and it ends with a kiss and the word abpve
(Scott later noted: “Story about Zelda + me. All true.”)
15 comments:
You know, Patti, I've read some of Fitzgerald's work, but not his short stories. This one has such an interesting exploration of time, and how we prioritize things. Thanks for sharing it.
Yes, that George O'Kelley lacks my tempting abilities, but Fitzgerald presents him with some unique problems. Zelda is always luring in the background of "The Sensible Thing."
Yes, I agree. I read all of Fitzgerald's stories over the past few years and I "saw" Zelda in many of the stories.
I finally finished four of the story collections I was reading - John Creasey as J. J. Marric, Chris Offutt, Sholem Aleichem, Emma Cline (I like her writing more than I like the stories(, and I'm about done with the fifth.
But now I have another British LIbrary collection edited by Martin Edwards, Dan Chaon's first collection, a collection of Eric Ambler's stories too.
The Sholem Aleichem stories were quite interesting to me. I was surprised at how close they are to FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, but (SPOILERS) in these, his wife Golde drops dead at one point, and his son in law Motel also dies. And he has 7 daughters than than the 5 of the show/movie, and one of them also comes to a sad end. (END SPOILERS)
September was my biggest total of short stories read this year, and indeed, since January 2021 (when I read 101). My final total will be over 90.
Jeff, why you are surprised that Aleichem's stories are similar to the play he co-wrote based on them continues to elude me.
Patti--definitely hold Fitzgerald's short fiction in high regard. His most widely-read work is a novella, after all.
When you look at other adaptations, they often range far from the original texts. That's why I was not expecting this one to be as close as it was.
Kevin is reading THE GREAT GATSBY in school. I wonder why they think 15 year olds will get much from it. But what book do they understand? Shakespeare-Only a great teacher can make a difference.I think reading books with a young protagonist helps. A SEPARATE PEACE for instance. Or a TREE GROW IN BROOKLYN. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, A MEMBER OF THE WEDDING.
Jeff-how many hours a day do you read on average? Either you are a speedy reader or that is how you spend much of your time. I think I read about 2-3 hours a day, not counting online stuff. The NYT takes me at least a half hour Sadly, my tv viewing exceeds that.
Sorry, I lost track of time this week. Totally forgot about Short Story Wednesday. I will look for some of Fitzgerald's short stories to read.
I am often amazed at how Jeff reads so much and keeps up with so many shows on streaming. And I am envious.
He knows how to budget his time. Or else he only sleeps four hours a night.
I get up at 6 and have a couple of hours online before Jackie gets up. I read the NY Times and Daily News then and check blogs and websites. We watch television from about 6-11 each night. In between I do read as much as possible,
When I was in high school/junior high, there were books that I really liked a lot - A TALE OF TWO CITIES, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (not in school, I picked it off the library shelf one summer), DAVID COPPERFIELD all come to mind. On the other hand, I hated THE MILL ON THE FLOSS and SILAS MARNER and RETURN OF THE NATIVE and DEATH IN VENICE (all school assignments).
Thanks, Jeff. One of the things that would help me would be to cut back on my online time (budget my time in that area, as Patti says) and read more during the day. But I still would never be able to read as much as you do. We only watch television between about 6-9, but longer on occasion.
Well, the 9th Graders in Londonderry NH in the other English classes largely and vocally hated A SEPARATE PEACE, perhaps because of homophobia; I never got too far along with it, either, but simply because I found the opening unengaging.
I'm not sure why our class was spared...perhaps because we had a long-term sub who wasn't prepped to teach it. While reading GATSBY in 10th Grade in Honolulu, as a 15yo, was a great pleasure. The Sophocles plays even better...and the Honolulu school did choose to cycle through the greatest hits of Shakespeare, including ROMEO AND JULIET and others that could be seen to Reach The Kids, I suspect. HAMLET and MACBETH were the other two the whole high school was required to read in the English classes.
We read HAMLET, MACBETH, JULIUS CAESAR, MERCHANT OF VENICE, sonnets, and a lot of Thomas Hardy, GEORGE ELLIOTT. Nathaniel Hawthorne, HEMINGWAY and ILIAD and ODYSSEY.
Was it always THE SCARLET LETTER for Hawthorne? We did hat one in 8th grade...another case where I always preferred the short fiction. I was at my Honolulu HS only for 10-12th grades, so missed what the '78-'79 Shakespeare selection was (Barry Obama might mention it in his memoirs, as that was his senior year)...hmm...I remember that our Ideas in Western Lit class (a one-semester correspondent to an AP English class) had us do ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST and some Kafka, and Humanities (the other, more interdisciplinary one-semester English/social sciences class) had us read some Michener, sadly; one-semester Asian History at least as sadly had us read THE GOOD EARTH and the slightly better NECTAR IN A SIEVE...mostly short fiction and poetry and in our one-semester, and terrible (because of the awful, self-righteous teacher) US Lit class, ALL OUR SONS by Arthur Miller, and we did also do MERCHANT as that year's Shakespeare, now that you mention it, while MACBETH was simply part of the English Lit class texts we read, along with EVERYMAN and some of BEOWULF, and up through the Romantics.
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