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【書寫一個時代破碎的美國夢】
談到費茲傑羅，討論的都是他較為著名的長篇作品，如《大亨小傳》、《夜未央》，他寫短篇小說的才能時常被忽略。《爵士時代的故事》是他的第二本短篇集。在這本選集中，他同樣將創作才華發揮得淋漓盡致，並展現出對1920年代享樂主義的敏銳觀察。
《五一節》、《一顆像里茲飯店那麼大的鑽石》精確詮釋了美國1920年代戰後的氛圍，他最知名的短篇作品《班傑明的奇幻旅程》也收錄其中，並於2008年被翻拍成電影。《爵士時代的故事》中的11個故事定調了費茲傑羅的寫作風格，更使他成為美國20世紀最偉大的作家之一。
Evoking the Jazz-Age world that would later appear in his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, this essential Fitzgerald collection contains some of the writer’s most famous and celebrated stories. In “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” an extraordinary child is born an old man, growing younger as the world ages around him. “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz,” a fable of excess and greed, shows two boarding school classmates mired in deception as they make their fortune in gemstones. And in the classic novella “May Day,” debutantes dance the night away as war veterans and socialists clash in the streets of New York. Opening the book is a playful and irreverent set of notes from the author, documenting the real-life pressures and experiences that shaped these stories, from his years at Princeton to his cravings for luxury to the May Day Riots of 1919. Taken as a whole, this collection brings to vivid life the dazzling excesses, stunning contrasts, and simmering unrest of a glittering era. Its 1922 publication furthered Fitzgeraldˊs reputation as a master storyteller, and its legacy staked his place as the spokesman of an age.
