The Love of the Last Tycoon

The Love of The Last Tycoon: A Western is an unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, compiled and published posthumously.

Publication history

The novel was unfinished and in rough form at the time of Fitzgerald's death at age 44. The notes for the novel were initially collected and edited by the literary critic Edmund Wilson, who was a close friend of Fitzgerald, and the unfinished novel was published in 1941 as The Last Tycoon, though there is now critical agreement that Fitzgerald intended The Love of the Last Tycoon to be the book's title. It was not until the 1993 publication, as part of the Cambridge edition of the Works of F Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli, that the work first appeared as The Love of the Last Tycoon. The extant seventeen chapters of the thirty-one planned chapters were reassembled in 1993 by Bruccoli according to the author's notes.

Plot summary

According to Publishers Weekly's 1993 review of the edition reconstructed by Fitzgerald scholar Matthew J. Bruccoli, The Love of the Last Tycoon is "[g]enerally considered a roman a clef", inspired by the life of film producer Irving Thalberg, on whom protagonist Monroe Stahr is based. The story follows Stahr's rise to power in Hollywood, and his conflicts with rival Pat Brady, a character based on studio head Louis B. Mayer.

Main characters

• Monroe Stahr, Hollywood producer
• Cecelia Brady, sometimes narrator, daughter of a producer
• Bradogue Brady - Cecelia’s father and Stahr’s associate
• Kathleen Moore - Stahr's love interest

Point of view

Fitzgerald wrote the novel in a blend of first person and third-person omniscient narrative. While the story is ostensibly told by Cecelia, many scenes are narrated in which she is not present. Occasionally a scene will be presented twice, once through Cecelia and once through a third party.

Awards

The revised edition of The Love of The Last Tycoon won the Choice Outstanding Academic Books award of 1995.

Adaptions

In 1957 John Frankenheimer directed a TV version for Playhouse 90, with Jack Palance as Monroe Stahr.

A 1976 film version was adapted for the screen by Nobel Prize winning playwright Harold Pinter, directed by Elia Kazan (his last film), produced by Sam Spiegel, and released as The Last Tycoon. It starred Robert De Niro as Monroe Stahr and Theresa Russell as Cecelia Brady, and featured appearances by Robert Mitchum and Jack Nicholson.

Publication history

• 1941, as "The Last Tycoon", F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edmund Wilson. current ISBN 0141185635
• 1993, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-40231-X, hardcover
• 2003, Charles Scribner’s Sons, ISBN 0-02-019985-6, paperback

External links

• F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Last Tycoon An Unfinished Novel. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1941. Scanned book from Internet Archive.