In the spring of 1928, while struggling with the writing of his fourth novel, Tender is the Night, author F. Scott Fitzgerald turned his attention to the composition of a series of youthful short stories. Featuring a thinly-veiled version of his teenage self, Fitzgerald's protagonist Basil Duke Lee was a cocky but naive Midwestern youth who was the perfect vehicle for the author to kick-start his imagination.
Fitzgerald Attempts to Capture the Past
Utilizing his teenage journals, Scott wrote and had published nine interlinked, chronological stories about Basil over the next year in the Saturday Evening Post. Fitzgerald's short stories were always his bread and butter, and the years between novels required his continual production of them.
Academics agree, however, that in the case of these particular stories, the author was reaching back into his own past in order to capture something he'd lost.
Following the year of Basil stories, and after another unsuccessful attempt at the novel, Fitzgerald wrote five more similarly "teenage" stories in 1930, this time about one Josephine Perry, a rich Chicago socialite who is basically Basil's counterpart. These stories were also published at the time, but it wasn't until more than 40 years later that they were published under one cover as The Basil & Josephine Stories.
Basil Duke Lee Stories Follow Protagonist's Maturity
The nine Basil stories take the protagonist from age 10 or 11 to his freshman year in college. Along the way Basil encounters those important teenage issues that ultimately mold the adult individual: the first kiss, getting one's first pair of long pants, peer pressure and acceptance, first job, and first love.
Fitzgerald scholar and biographer Matthew J. Bruccoli has pointed out that the author uses a similar "duplicate action structure" in each of the Basil stories. He has Basil encounter a situation once and fail, followed by thoughtful improvement and a second encounter in which he either succeeds, or at least begins to understand his shortcomings.
A Night at the Fair
An example of this structuring comes in one of the more entertaining stories, "A Night at the Fair", addressing the early 20th century tradition of a boy's acquiring his first pair long pants (as opposed to a younger boy's knickers) as a symbol of growing up.
On his first trip to the state fair with his buddies, Basil is embarrassed by his knickers, due to best friend Riply's recent promotion to a long-pantsed young man. His success with the young ladies cannot match Riply's, either. His distress grows throughout the week as the second big fair date approaches --this time with "dates"-- and the long pants his mother has promised have not yet arrived.
Just in time, Basil gets his pants and the kids are back at the fair, smooching on the ferris wheel. Basil's new found confidence, in the form of an extra six inches of wool, is short-lived however. He quickly learns that Riply is not the best friend he thought he was, and that the "prize" girl's interest in him lies in the fact that he can introduce her to an older boy.
In a sense, Basil has grown, in achieving his pants and a new found wisdom. At the same time, his wisdom affords him the knowledge that this was just another step along the way to "growing up", not the only one.
Each of the Basil stories provides a similar realization as an ending, until, by the final "Basil and Cleopatra", the protagonist has become a self-actualized young man.
Josephine Perry Stories Have Darker Themes
The five Josephine Perry stories are about growth as well, but in the opposite direction. There is a darkness to these stories of a spoiled and frivilous girl that reflect some of Fitzgerald's more negative novelistic themes, such as waste and class distinction.
Josephine's abuse of men, followed by their being thrown over for another, results in a culminating story titled "Emotional Bankruptcy", a term Fitzgerald often used for his more wasteful characters (and even applied to himself). The Josephine stories serve as a counterpoint to the Basil stories and perhaps reveal Fitzgerald's attitude toward women as "femme fatales."
Overall, The Basil and Josephine Stories are not of the literary quality of any of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels or many of his short stories. They are, however, both entertaining and important piece of the author's canon.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, The Basil and Josephine Stories. 1973, Scribners (isbn# 0-684-82618-6)
