material, and it was all I had to deal with." The main theme of Fitzgerald's work is aspiration--the idealism he regarded as defining American character. Another major theme was mutability or loss. As a social historian Fitzgerald became identified with "The Jazz Age": "It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire." The Fitzgeralds went to France in the spring of 1924 seeking tranquillity for his work. He wrote The Great Gatsby during the summer and fall in Valescure near St. Raphael, but the marriage was damaged by Zelda's affair with a French naval aviator. The extent of the affair is not known. On the Riviera the Fitzgeralds formed a close friendship with Gerald and Sara Murphy. The Fitzgeralds spent the winter of 1924-1925 in Rome, where he revised The Great Gatsby; they were on their way to Paris when the novel was published in April. The Great Gatsby marked a striking advance in Fitzgerald's technique, using a complex structure and a controlled narrative point of view. Fitzgerald's achievement received critical praise, but sales of Gatsby were disappointing, though the stage and movie rights brought additional income. In Paris Fitzgerald met Ernest Hemingway—not known of then outside the literary circle--with whom he formed a friendship based on his admiration for Hemingway's personality and genius. The Fitzgeralds remained in France until the end of 1926, alternating between Paris and the Riviera. Fitzgerald didn’t make much progress on his fourth novel, a study of American expatriates in France temporarily titled "The Boy Who Killed His Mother," "Our Type," and "The World's Fair." During these years Zelda's behavior became increasingly eccentric. The Fitzgeralds returned to America to get away from the distractions of France. After a short, unsuccessful stint of screen writing in Hollywood, Fitzgerald rented "Ellerslie," a mansion near Wilmington, Delaware, in ...
