In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s definitive novel of the era, the intoxicating glamour and moral decay of the Jazz Age are on full display. Set among the newly rich of Long Island, the story centers on Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire who throws lavish parties in a desperate attempt to recapture the past.
Beneath the glitz and champagne, Fitzgerald delivers a profound critique of the American Dream, exploring themes of class, unattainable desire, and the hollowness of materialism. Gatsby’s tragic pursuit of Daisy Buchanan serves as a potent symbol of a generation’s lost innocence in the wake of war.
Ernest Hemingway captures the disillusionment of the post-World War I "Lost Generation" as they drift through 1920s Europe. The novel follows a group of American and British expatriates from the vibrant café society of Paris to the explosive bullfighting festival in Pamplona.
While the characters immerse themselves in the era’s nightlife of drinking and fleeting affairs, their frenetic activity masks a deep sense of aimlessness and emotional damage. Hemingway’s stark, understated prose powerfully conveys their struggle to find meaning in a world where old certainties have been destroyed.
Set against the backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen’s incisive novel examines the complexities of race, identity, and social mobility. The story follows two childhood friends, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, light-skinned Black women who have taken divergent paths.
While Irene lives within Harlem's thriving cultural scene, Clare "passes" for white, married to a wealthy and bigoted man. The novel uses the energy and social flux of the Jazz Age to stage a tense psychological drama about the perilous performance of identity and the longing for a freedom that remains just out of reach.
Evelyn Waugh’s scathing satire portrays the Jazz Age in London through the antics of the "Bright Young Things," a set of wealthy, party-obsessed aristocrats and socialites. The novel follows their frenetic and purposeless lives, a whirlwind of frivolous parties, gossip columns, and reckless behavior.
With razor-sharp wit, Waugh exposes the profound emptiness and moral vacuity behind the glamorous façade. A darkly comedic masterpiece, Vile Bodies documents a generation dancing with abandon on the brink of social and economic collapse, creating a brilliant English counterpart to Fitzgerald's American critiques.
A landmark of modernist literature, Manhattan Transfer captures the frenetic energy and crushing anonymity of New York City during the early 20th century. Rather than following a single plot, Dos Passos uses a series of cinematic vignettes and fragmented narratives to paint a sprawling portrait of a city in flux.
Weaving together the lives of dozens of characters from all social strata, the novel mimics the chaotic, syncopated rhythm of jazz itself. It brilliantly conveys the promise and peril of urban life, where individual dreams are forged and broken against the relentless pulse of the metropolis.
Told through the diary of flapper Lorelei Lee, this witty and satirical novel offers a playful but biting critique of the era’s social mores. As Lorelei and her friend Dorothy travel from New York to Paris, she uses her manufactured charm and supposed naivete to navigate a world of wealthy suitors and high society.
Far from being a simple "dumb blonde," Lorelei is a master of manipulation who expertly exploits the materialistic values and gender dynamics of the Roaring Twenties. Loos’s sharp humor provides a uniquely female and comedic perspective on the era's glamour and superficiality.
While set primarily in rural Black communities in Florida, Zora Neale Hurston’s landmark novel embodies the Jazz Age spirit of liberation and self-discovery. The story chronicles Janie Crawford’s journey through three marriages and her ultimate quest for independence and personal voice.
Hurston, a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance, infuses the narrative with a vibrant energy that reflects the cultural shifts of the time. The novel celebrates Black culture, language, and resilience, presenting a powerful, universal story of a woman’s struggle for freedom at a pivotal moment of cultural change.
This semi-autobiographical novel provides an essential female counterpoint to the more famous narratives of the Jazz Age. Written by Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the book fictionalizes their turbulent marriage and expatriate life in Europe.
The protagonist, Alabama Beggs, struggles to find her own artistic identity as a ballet dancer while navigating the pressures of her husband’s fame and the era's extravagant social demands.
Zelda’s poignant, lyrical style vividly renders both the intoxicating excitement and the deep personal crises simmering beneath the surface of the glamorous 1920s.
Fitzgerald’s most ambitious and personal novel charts the slow disintegration of a glamorous American couple, Dick and Nicole Diver, on the French Riviera. Set among the wealthy expatriate community, the story explores the corrosive effects of wealth, psychological fragility, and emotional dependency.
At first, the Divers are the charismatic center of their social circle, but as their complex history is revealed, their perfect life unravels. The novel is a tragic and beautiful examination of the decline that often followed the Jazz Age’s peak, representing the fading illusions of a generation confronting its own emotional collapse.
Written in 1992, this historical novel brilliantly resurrects and interprets the spirit of 1920s Harlem. Toni Morrison’s prose is structured like a jazz composition—improvisational, lyrical, and shifting between multiple voices—to tell a story of love, obsession, and violence.
The plot, centered on a tragic love triangle involving Joe Trace, his wife Violet, and his young mistress Dorcas, becomes a vessel for exploring the broader experiences of African Americans during the Great Migration.
Morrison masterfully evokes the rhythms of the city, the hope carried north, and the ways in which personal history and collective memory shaped life during the era.