What a truly fascinating read this is!

However, it is also incredibly sad. The undiagnosed bipolar disorder that Zelda suffered from eventually led to schizophrenia. And on top of that, she was married to an absolute prick.

I firmly believe that Zelda had an abundance of potential within her. She was likely a woman of great creativity and spirit. But unfortunately, the people during that era knew very little about mental illness. They had no real understanding of its causes, symptoms, or how to effectively treat it.

As a result, Zelda was left to struggle alone with her condition, without the proper support and treatment that she so desperately needed. It is a tragic story that serves as a reminder of how far we have come in our understanding and treatment of mental illness, but also of how much more work there is still to be done.

I've never been a fan of either of the Fitzgeralds or their work.

This biography only served to reinforce my initial perception that he was an absolute jerk and she was a spoiled child.

Aside from my lack of interest in the subject matter of this book, the book itself was poorly written.

It contained an excessive number of quoted passages from their books, letters, and journal entries, without any connecting material to explain them or offer insights.

Moreover, there was an overemphasis on Scott and insufficient attention given to Zelda.

It was truly a tiresome read, feeling more like a slog than an engaging exploration of their lives and relationship.

I found myself constantly skimming through the pages, hoping to find something of value or interest, but alas, it was largely a disappointment.

Perhaps those with a greater affinity for the Fitzgeralds or a more in-depth knowledge of their work might find more to appreciate in this biography, but for me, it simply failed to deliver.

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Review from 2017:

I will never read F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels in the same way again. Before, I was aware that Zelda was his muse and inspiration, but I had no idea that his novels were autobiographical.

I am truly shocked to discover that Zelda and her husband made no attempt to separate their personal lives from Scott's professional life. This lack of separation took a significant toll on them, and it seems they didn't realize the extent of the damage until it was too late. They are the perfect example of two people who perhaps should have never been together. Scott desired to dominate Zelda, yet she clearly resisted being dominated. Milford emphasizes how Zelda constantly wanted to have something for herself, something that Scott evidently did not want her to have. Consequently, Zelda loved to push Scott's buttons. It is obvious that they ended up destroying each other's lives.

I found it quite interesting that Scott copied sentences from Zelda's diary without her permission. He also took writing credit for several stories she wrote. I can understand how this might have contributed to Zelda thinking of herself as a failure and not feeling good enough.

This is a great biography for anyone who is curious about the Fitzgeralds as a couple. However, I should mention that the biography was initially a PhD piece, and it reads like one. It's not overly difficult to understand, but it can be a bit dense at times.

I'd rate this book as a solid 3.5 stars.

The author initiated the book splendidly, ensuring it was easily readable right from the start.

I find Zelda to be a captivating woman, despite her tragic nature. She was a pampered child who seldom heard the word "no" or had to bear the consequences of her actions, which manifested in her adult behavior. Nevertheless, she was intelligent, charming, and had a zest for life that more than compensated for it, endearing her to people.

She was the original flapper and lived to personify that Jazz Age lifestyle. Her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, took great delight in that image of her and used her as the foundation for most of his female characters. They were passionately in love, but unfortunately, they were a toxic couple.

In this book, you'll read about their disputes over money, infidelities, alcohol abuse, and the plagiarizing of each other's work. You'll also learn about Zelda's descent into insanity, crippled by schizophrenia, and Scott's rampant alcoholism. He was often cruel in his writings towards her while she was institutionalized, and it would be easy to despise him. However, he never deserted her, doing whatever was required to take care of Zelda and their daughter. Despite his flaws, he loved her until the end and always wanted her to be well cared for, even when there was no money and she pleaded with him to place her in a cheaper asylum.

The book became quite difficult to read around the middle as you delve into Zelda's mental health issues. Reading her letters and hearing others discuss what she endured in an era that lacked the best means to deal with schizophrenia pained my heart. It wasn't that she was mistreated, but rather that they didn't have the resources to offer her a chance at a "normal" life.

I also found it tragic that she perished in a fire at a mental health institution. So much sorrow in what had seemed like it would be a charmed life.

The only reason I gave this book 3.5 stars is that towards the last third of the book, I felt the author relied too much on excerpts from Zelda's novels to tell her story. Both of those were written while Zelda was in the throes of madness and they don't make much sense. That part was almost excruciating to read and the only point where I nearly set the book aside and left it unfinished.

Zelda Fitzgerald was not only the inspiration and model for many of F. Scott Fitzgerald's heroines but also a talented writer and artist in her own right. As Nancy Milford writes in the introduction of this classic biography, "She was the American girl living the American dream, and she became mad within it."

Nancy Milford conducted extensive research and interviewed an astonishing number of people who knew or had met Zelda. The book comprehensively covers Zelda's family background and her upbringing in Montgomery, Alabama, where she was a reckless beauty. It details her relationship and marriage with F. Scott Fitzgerald and their wild party life during the Jazz age.

It also explores her breakdown due to mental illness and the subsequent continued problems she faced. Additionally, it delves into the dissolution of their close but codependent marriage during the nineteen thirties. The book features extensive excerpts from her letters and other writings, including her semi-autobiographical novel, "Save Me the Waltz". Her unique voice shines through, as seen in this excerpt from a letter: "I think I like breathing twilit gardens and moths more than beautiful pictures or good books – It seems the most sensual of all the senses – Something in me vibrates to a dusky, dreamy smell – a smell of dying moons and shadows."

This biography offers a fascinating and in-depth look into the life and mind of Zelda Fitzgerald, a complex and captivating figure.

They say behind every great man there is a woman. Well, the man was F. Scott Fitzgerald.

This article is about the woman behind the man, Zelda Fitzgerald.

The book starts off by telling of her roots. Her grandfather lived during the civil war era. Her mother was Minnie, and Zelda was the sixth child between Anthony Sayers and Minnie. She was named after a gypsy queen from a book her mother was reading. She was the golden child, adored by her mother and easily able to get over her father. The story then delves into her relationship with the Great Gatsby writer. He called her the first American flapper. Her family and friends were wary of the courtship due to his drinking habits and the fact that he was Catholic while they were Episcopalian. However, he pursued her, and by March of 1920, Scott gave her his mother's ring and they became engaged.

Their marriage started well but became increasingly stressful because of his alcoholism. While Scott was writing The Great Gatsby, Zelda's mental health deteriorated. She overdosed on pills in late 1924. In April 1930, she was admitted to an asylum in France for observation and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She was released in 1930 to return home to Alabama for her father's death. During this time, she wrote a book, "Save Me A Waltz," which Scott openly criticized. Feeling discouraged, she spent the rest of her life in asylums, battling mental issues. Tragically, on December 21, 1940, F. Scott Fitzgerald passed away, and Zelda was too sick to attend the funeral. Then, on March 10, 1948, a fire broke out in the kitchen of the hospital where she was locked away in an electro-shock room awaiting therapy. She died along with 9 other women.

This is the most tragic story of a woman so ahead of her time that I have ever read. I am very glad I got to read it.

Many years ago, I devoured nearly all, or perhaps even every single one of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books. As a result, I was well-acquainted with the mentally unstable Zelda. This book had been sitting on my shelves for ages, and only recently did I finally get around to reading it.

It's important to note that there is a wealth of information about Zelda's rather peculiar upbringing and her astonishing levels of self-absorption, insensitivity to others, and narcissism, dating back to her early years. Clearly, her alcohol consumption didn't do her any favors. Several of the Fitzgeralds' friends noticed Zelda's instability, but her husband simply refused to believe it until her condition (schizophrenia) became impossible to ignore.

What strikes me as strange is that some feminists have used this book as a sort of battle cry for creative women who are held back by their men. However, in my opinion, Zelda showed no particular inclination towards creative pursuits in her youth. It seems that her desire to write, dance, paint, etc., was a reaction to the creative process she witnessed in her husband. She had an overwhelming need to be the center of attention and would pout when someone else took the spotlight. She was a "madcap" because it helped her attract attention. The childishness and egotism on display hardly make her a suitable role model for feminists.

One of my main gripes with this book is the seemingly endless samples of Zelda's irrational writing. It was a real chore to slog through it, and I believe that the progression of her illness could have been depicted just as vividly without the numerous pages of her difficult-to-read writings.

Overall, it's a very sad story.

I was extremely excited when I finally got my hands on this biography. Zelda was a truly pleasant read. I managed to get through it in just two weeks because I simply didn't want to put it down! It provided a fantastic background not only on Zelda but also on Scott. I absolutely loved how the author set the tone, at least for me, which made me eager to dive right into 'Save Me the Waltz'.

Although I initially went into this book with the plan of also reading 'Tender is the Night', as I delved further and further into Scott's relationship with Zelda, I found myself not as eager to immediately jump to the shelf for his books. There was something about the way their story was presented that made me want to focus more on Zelda and her experiences first.

I'm sure I'll get around to reading Scott's works eventually, but for now, I'm content to explore the world of Zelda through this biography and see where it takes me. It's been a fascinating journey so far, and I can't wait to see what else I'll discover.

I truly loved this book.

Before delving into this biography, I had only a rudimentary understanding of the Fitzgeralds. However, as I read through it, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not only insightful but also incredibly interesting.

The author has managed to present the lives of the Fitzgeralds in a way that is engaging and easy to follow. It felt as if I was being drawn into their world, experiencing their joys and sorrows along with them.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Whether you are a fan of Fitzgerald's work or simply interested in learning more about this fascinating couple, this biography is a must-read. It offers a unique perspective on their lives and relationships, and I believe it will leave a lasting impression on anyone who reads it.

Zelda Sayre was the belle of Montgomery, Alabama.

Daughter of a strict and esteemed local judge, she was one of those winsome, wild girls who could get away with just about anything.

To say she was the rebel of her day is an understatement. The community was completely entranced by her, and the boys were enthralled.

Her every movement and choice was attended to with considerable fascination and fanfare.

Here was a spirit that simply could not be tamed. Any of the Southern swains surrounding her knew better than to even attempt it.

The man who might make such a mistake could only have come from the north.

A young F. Scott Fitzgerald happened upon his muse while in town for his season of army training.

Turning those lessons to personal use, he launched a relentless campaign to capture the beauty for himself.

In this, he was successful, despite the cry of her instincts to resist.

Off to New York they went, where, after scrawling out Gatsby, they would ride that masterpiece all the way to their eventual ruin.

As Zelda wrote, it was not prosperity or the softness of life, or any instability that marred the war generation.

It was a great emotional disappointment resulting from the fact that life moved in poetic gestures when they were younger and had since settled back into buffoonery.

She also said, “…surely some of this irony and dissatisfaction with things supposedly solid and secure proceeds from the fact that more young people in this era were intense enough or clever enough or sensitive or shrewd enough to get what they wanted before they were mature enough to want the thing they acquired as an end and not merely as a proof of themselves.”

Nancy Milford's biography is fifty years old and has held up magnificently.

The work is rich in source material - letters, albums, manuscripts, journals - and has the good sense to follow a timeline.

This structure provides the best hope to adequately anchor such peripatetic personalities.

While we have, in the intervening five decades, learned much more about alcoholism and manic-depression than Milford could know at the time of her writing, that knowledge is easy to apply in subtext as the many sad pages turn.

My one consternation here came from the late-stage mire the author fell into regarding Zelda's mental collapse.

Attempting to make sense of a woman who is, for all intents and purposes, unable to make sense of herself is a dead-end game and ridiculously taxing.

You'll need some wading boots for this.

Setting that aside, it's a heck of a book and sure to stand as the leading biography for another fifty years.

Though there are more recent Zelda Fitzgerald biographies available, Milford's work still stands out as the best among them.

Zelda's life is a complex and emotionally draining story that makes for an exhausting read. However, for anyone interested in either Zelda or F. Scott Fitzgerald, this book is truly invaluable.

It is highly recommended even to readers with just a casual interest in the 1920s, considering the Fitzgeralds' extensive connections to most of the prominent writers and artists of that era.

Those who delve into the details of Zelda's life and literary output may find that their perception of F. Scott Fitzgerald is somewhat altered or diminished upon completing this book.

One criticism that can be made is that I wish Milford had dedicated more time to researching Zelda's life during the eight years between Scott's death and her own.

Unfortunately, this is a subject that has been largely glossed over by most of Zelda's biographers, leaving a gap in our understanding of this crucial period in her life.

Nevertheless, Milford's biography remains an essential and engaging work that provides valuable insights into the lives and times of the Fitzgeralds.