Zelda: A Biography

It started out good, the young years of Zelda and Scott were well written and informative. This quickly turned into a disappointment, dragging on and on after Zelda's illness worsened. I finally got so bored, I stopped reading the book, a first for me. If it were a paperback, I probably would have skipped around until I found something to hold my interest, not so easy with my Kindle.

This is a very interesting biography of Zelda Fitzgerald, and it gives insights into Scott Fitzgerald's mind and work too. The Kindle edition has come spacing problems--passages that would be set apart in a book are not in the electronic edition, so that can cause some reading issues at times. But, it's okay. The book is extremely well researched and readable.

Interesting read; it is more of a biography type of book, but it keeps you pulled in because of Zelda's character & the life she and Scott Fitzerald lived. It may help to read The Great Gatsby or one of his other novels before reading this book to get an understanding of how he relied on Zelda.

Based on the number of books about Zelda, I assumed that she would be an interesting character. I was wrong. I read this to the bitter end because I spent money on it. If I borrowed this book, I would have returned it without finishing it.

I thought that I was buying a biography, but more than half of the book was omitted., Readng it was u.reading it was frustrating. I did not know the meaning of (PS0, i will never purchase any of those again..

It was tedious reading about tow such spoiled and self-centered people. Got really tired of it. It also did not flow well - was more like the author just wanted to document whatever she found out with extraneous notes and letters but it was choppy and distracting.

A continuous dialog of dysfunction in relationships, alcohol and career. It's much too dreary to exceed 400 pages; I'll take the lovely movie images of "Gatsby" as a pleasant alternative to the raw reality of life with the Fitzgeralds.

I've read this biography twice and thought it was more clear about Fitzgerald than were other biographies. Fitzgerald, the genius, is not as interesting as Zelda, who had talent but not genius. Fitzgerald's writing is great, everyone knows that. But in their relationship, I think it was Zelda who took the lead and Scott followed in a drunken haze paid for by the American public for his short stories. The breakdown is fascinating and detailed. People who have reviewed the biography seem upset that there was no redemption or happy ending, that it was just the account of two unhappy people. I find redemption and happy endings typical American concepts. Since everyone dies, there is no happy ending ever. There is only an ending. For the Fitzgeralds there is a redemption, that of a has been author to be reborn after death, again emphasis on his work. For Zelda her death by fire is like Isadora Duncan's by strangulation. Odd and someone precise. People try to turn Zelda into a genius but she was no genius. How do I know? If she were a genius, we would be reading her stories and novels. Nor was she a great painter. In the past there are not many women poets and novelists who who created masterpieces. Accept that and move on. Of course, now, during what is a nadir in all the arts, there are no men around--well, not counting the ones who teach creative writing at Podunk University and who write so-called exciting novels about the traumas of an artichoke. You can't turn a sow's ear into a flame of genius. You can't make Vivian Eliot into a great something or other, nor Zelda. But look on the bright side: My guess is that Sylvia Plath will, in the next hundred years, outshine Ted Hughes. Indeed, if there were no Plath, who would even read Hughes? But if you take poetry in the nineteenth century in the US, there is only one woman who wrote great poetry. But then there are only about six men who created masterpieces. In America, people feel like wanting and having are the same. Those who read, that is. Nowadays, critics want Zelda to be a genius and so--voila--she is. Even if the truth is, in two-thousand years, you can count on one hand a great woman poet writing in English. Instead of being thankful, critics are pissed that there weren't more women. And of course that famous critic, who I cannot name for legal reasons, who believed that Shakespeare was deaf, dumb, and blonde, so to speak, and that Hamlet was originally named Hamletina.

Many of the other reviews of this biography by Nancy Milford give a misleading picture of it. First, there seems to be such a need or desire to see Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald as a feminist heroine that this biography is misread. There is, to be sure, some evidence that Zelda had some literary talent of her own: she actively contributed to her husband's best work, she wrote some stories that were published under his name and he suggested in a letter that if she hadn't met him, she would have grown into a genius. Yet it's clear Milford, when writing this book, had a more circumscribed view. She read all or near all of Zelda's surviving fiction and found much of it shallow or incoherent.

Second, the other reviews don't, in my view, really convey the depth of tragedy here. If Ford Madox Ford had a time-traveling library and could have read this book, he would not have begun The Good Soldier with, "This is the saddest story I have ever heard." Instead, he would have sad, "This is the second saddest story I have ever heard." Zelda and F. Scott became an incredibly famous and glamorous couple in the early 1920s, but within a decade, their lives were complete misery. F. Scott was a raging alcoholic and his inept responses to what in hindsight were early signs of his wife's mental illness would likely be considered abusive today. And Zelda for her part wasn't particularly loveable. The sheer gratuitousness and abruptness of Zelda's death only underscores the sadness of it all.

The book has two phases. The first reads like a documentary version of The Beautiful and Damned, Fitzgerald's novel of an imploding society couple. In fact, Milford quotes a letter by F. Scott lamenting that he wrote it so young because the parts that weren't autobiographical when he wrote it became so (with the implication that he could have done parts better). Because Milford's biography has to adhere the archival record and can't cut loose with the exuberance of the Fitzgerald novel, it feels prodding in comparison, of interest mainly for showing how creative F. Scott was even with autobiographical materials.

The second half describes Zelda's descent into schizophrenia. This part doesn't feel particularly coherent at times, but then again, coherence is an awfully high standard to ask for a history of someone with a very poor grip on reality (especially when, as I suspect, the records available to work from weren't as thorough as a researcher might like). This is the part that becomes relentlessly sad. But it's also the part in which Zelda starts to become a sympathetic character. In her early years, she feels like she was crafted out a list of symptoms of histrionic personality disorder (shallow, attention-seeking, hyper-sexual, trouble reasoning -- basically a female version of a sociopath). But as her world goes to pieces, she becomes engaged in a battle to maintain a scrap of dignity and that's very touching.

Overall, I'm very glad that I read this, but I do feel it could have been done better. The writing is workman-like, but no more. For the most part, Milford sticks to the record so closely that it becomes a little maddening. There's no attempt to make sense of Zelda's personality disorders. Milford simply matter of factly states that this particular doctor diagnosed Zelda with schizophrenia and that that guest at the Fitzgerald house found her views erratic. Also, the literary analysis doesn't have any panache: it largely summarizes Zelda's writings in such a way that you feel like you have no need -- or desire -- to go read them yourself and then draws fairly safe conclusions from them. In other words, this really feels like it was someone's dissertation.

And I have to say that Zelda remains very elusive. For the first half of her life, she comes across as a very dumb dumb blonde. But then a letter or something she says is quoted, and those few words soar. So then what was Zelda? An idiot savante coquette? It's not really clear.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is rightly heralded as the voice of his generation and his 'The Great Gatsby' is an essential entry on high school and college reading lists. In addition to his place as a man of American letters, he was friends with just about everyone else worth knowing from his time, from Ernest Hemingway to John dos Passos to Dorothy Parker to Edmund Wilson to Edna St. Vincent Millay and everyone in between. Part of his fascination is as a flame which burned too bright and was extinguished too early. To that extent, his legend is inextricably linked with his wife, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald. Many observers have been divided into two camps: Some, like Hemingway, insisting that Zelda's psychological instability kept Scott from living up to his literary promise and leading to his early demise. Others fall squarely into the Zelda camp, alleging Scott's alcoholism and insecurities fed into Zelda's illness and kept her from realizing her own considerable talent.

Milford's 1970 biography of Zelda manages to straddle the two camps. Their lives and their psyches were so intertwined that any biography of one seems perforce to be an analysis of the other. Milford handles both with sensitivity and clarity. Scholarship has taken us much further in the thirty plus years since this biography was published. Yet everything since owes a debt to Milford's work and original research. It is especially notable for the number of first hand interviews conducted with friends, family and contemporaries. I was amazed at her apparent complete access to Zelda's medical records - astonishing at least to eyes accustomed to this age of HIPAA and patient privacy. For these resources alone we would be indebted. For Milford's careful and incisive handling of these resources biographers ever since have been grateful.

There are more superficial handlings of Zelda's story and more up-to-date treatises. Nevertheless, this is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand Zelda Fitzgerald's artistry and role in her times.

I really enjoyed Nancy Milford's biography of Zelda Sayre, the wife of one of my favorite writers, F.S. Fitzgerald. This is a tragic story of a woman who realized that being nothing but a wife even to the most brilliant, fascinating, adoring and faithful man in the world (because Fitzgerald was all that to Zelda) is not enough to fulfill a human being.

At first, Zelda was very happy in her marriage to Scott. They were the most glamorous couple of the twenties, admired and celebrated by everybody. Gradually, however, Zelda started to realize that her life lacked meaning. Scott had his work while she had nothing of her own. She was too smart to be content with living her life as an appendage to a famous writer.

Zelda's dream became to excel in something and manage to make her own living. However, she had no education and lacked the simple knowledge of how much work and effort one needed to invest to become even just simply mediocre at anything.

At first, she decided to become a ballet dancer but the need to practice on a regular basis was too much for her, and Zelda ended up at a clinic with a nervous breakdown. Then, she chose the career of a writer. The problem with that plan was that the only material she could write about was her life with Fitzgerald, and he'd already written about that with the skill he'd acquired from the regular practice of his craft. Zelda simply could not compete, which made her suffer. Later on, Zelda tried her hand at painting. The perseverance and strength needed to practice any of her chosen professions were not there, though.

Every time she failed, Zelda withdrew deeper into mental illness. She spent years going from one institution to another. Scott, who loved her passionately, struggled to pay for her expensive medical care, for their living expenses, and for the education of their daughter for whom he was the only actual caretaking parent. Having seen what a lack of an education and a career had done to his wife, Fitzgerald was obsessed by offering his daughter Scottie the best education he could.

Milford's biography of Zelda is very well-researched and offers a very convincing and poignant story of the horror implied in the "two people, one career" model of a romantic relationship.

The actual biography portion of the book is quite fascinating, but the rest which consists largely of the authors opinion and analysis of The Fitzgeralds is incredibly boring and to me came off as amateur. At times I felt like a college English professor or a high school teacher reading a student's paper, in which they had thrown in tons of personal opinion just to meet the word count requirement. Most of the book in my opinion is not fact, but the authors personal analysis of the Fitzgeralds writing and their behaviors.

Sad and beautifully tragic, this story of a love that consumed the participants. Every young girl has a touch of Zelda within her informed self. A part that wants to live free in defiance of convention. . But to be done successfully, I think that young thing must come into her own and have a firm sense of her value and worth.
Zelda in spite of her bravado and daring allowed as most women of her time to be totally subsumed into the life of her brilliant and dashing husband. It was to become a reality that brought suffering and damage to both of them.
It is a beautifully written biography that brings the reality of relationships to the fore. Scott had created the reality of Zelda in his mind before they had even met, as young romantic men seem to do...Then worked very diligently to form her into the mold of that idealized other. Within this story are many lessons it would be so wonderful to learn for the sake of our own sanity, but no one who is young would believe these lesson would apply to them. Which is why love has always a sad side to its joyous coin. No one seems capable of evading that reality of life.
Milford really brought these two lives together in a way that allows a reader to feel for both Scott and Zelda, a lesser writer who have made one of them the sorry villain of their tale.

The other reviewers have made many good points concerning this book, and I'll try not to recycle their comments. But perhaps there are still a few more things to add.

I agree that the mental instability in Zelda's family tree has been neglected by this and other, more recent biographies. No doubt such information is difficult to obtain because of the terrible stigma that mental illness had during Zelda's lifetime and thus the resulting silence, burning of letters, and etc. But when I first read the book, the mention of a family suicide raised a great big red flag. The issue of inherited mental problems is important because it relates to the blame, if any, that Scott might reasonably be assigned for Zelda's breakdown. If this kind of mental problem was a familial weakness, then Zelda would probably have disintegrated no matter who she married. And thus a great burden will be lifted from Scott's reputation.

Even without insanity among the ancestors, it's well known that close family members of highly talented writers often have troubled lives. The spouses and children of a famous writer will run into problems simply because great writers use up all the oxygen in the environment. Who gets the attention and the praise and the hugs and the warm fuzzies? Not the wife nor the kids! It's very tough to live in the cold shadows around the throne, and thus Joyce's daughter became insane as did Eliot's wife, and Hemingway's kids had notorious problems with their sexuality. Like powerful hurricanes, writers will often beat their family members half to death merely through the overpowering force of their achievements. This is also true of politicians. Consider the dismal story of Winston Churchill's offspring! His son Randolph was an intolerably abusive drunk, and his daughter's bed-hopping was an international scandal. The wretched story of Franklin Roosevelt's kids is also relevant.

There is one interesting little puzzle concerning Zelda that no biographer has explained, at least as far as I'm aware. She was noted for whispering a strange and cryptic remark as she was introduced to various people, namely "I hope you die in the marble ring!" This comment puzzled me for several years until the meaning suddenly emerged. In the bad old days before flush toilets were installed in the Deep South, the seats in the privies or outhouses of upper class people were made of marble, and you would carefully position your body over the marble opening or ring in order to perform your bodily functions. But imagine how terrible it would be if you slipped through the marble ring and tumbled into the pool of filth below to drown in horrible squalor. Thus Zelda was actually saying, I hope you drown in sewage!

This is a very crude and vulgar remark, and it reveals the essential simplicity of Zelda's "country" upbringing which occurred in a strikingly unsophisticated rural environment as compared to the cosmopolitan New York society into which Scott dragged her. Perhaps it was the challenge of coping with the complexities of New York that initiated her downfall. No matter how many fountains she danced in, she was still a simple country girl and very much a fish out of water. Was Caligula actually the last Borgia pope? She didn't really know, and she must have been snubbed and mocked and insulted many, many times for her lack of education and culture. When Scott took her to France, she must have felt even more out of place. If we want to identify the triggering trauma that set off Zelda's mental decline, the shock of dealing with a sophisticated urban environment is as likely a candidate as anything else I can think of. It may also have helped to destroy Scott, but that's another problem altogether.

There are many problems with this book. Zelda was not a very likable woman. The first part of the book was interesting, but Zelda was narcissistic and evoked no compassion from me. It was difficult to understand why Scott Fitzgerald would want to marry her. Fitzgerald was an abusive alcoholic. Zelda and Fitzgerald had a very dysfunctional relationship, and it's difficult to read over 400 pages of a train wreck.
In my opinion, the book should have been at least 200 pages shorter. Most annoying, Nancy Milford summarizes Zelda's writing chapter by chapter, and the result is tedious as Zelda rambled. Milford summarized Scott's writing also, and I found that annoying as well. Way too much information.

Professor Milford wrote this biography of Zelda Fitzgerald as her master's thesis. Published in 1970, it was considered for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Robert Osborne discussed the dynamics of the Fitzgeralds' relationship, and mentioned the book on TCM as the single account that shed some light on Zelda's creativity and squashed potential, rather than Zelda as merely mentally ill, with poor F. Scott, struggling to maintain. Milford reports the facts, which I appreciate in a biography. The professor's research is phenomenally well-structured, with plenty of anecdotal accounts of the history and life of the couple. The searing trajectory of Zelda Sayre is too bright for mortal eyes, like a nova. Destined for greatness with mutual admission, the Fitzgeralds were interchangeably committed to implosion. Together, Zelda and F. Scott were burned by a hyperbright 3rd chakra. Manipura, "Lustrous Gem" - its issues are personal power, self-esteem, willfullness and energy. Overshadowed is 2nd Chakra with its manifestation of creativity, emotion and relationships. Dimmed as well is 4th Chakra - acceptance, trust, compassion and love. Doubting, jealous, self-absorbed and deeply willful and energetic, the Fitzgeralds careened through the 20s and 30s, clutching for the keys to the kingdom they had imagined for themselves. Creative coupling is mercurial: drop either partner's dreams on the floor and only magic can reconnect the globules. And Zelda's dreams were definitively dashed. Narcissistic, driven, wildly creative, self-absorbed and destructive: in combination brilliant and doomed. F. Scott was an emotional and artistic thief and a cruel coward to boot; aided and abetted by publishers and certain acquaintances. Double helix of malfunctioning emotional DNA. Brilliant, creative and doomed.

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Zelda Sayer Fitzgerald (1900-1948) was regarded as a rather eccentric character from an early age, a child, teenager, and woman who had no qualm in acting on impulses that frequently flew in the face of all that was regarded as proper in the pre-feminist era. At the time such behaviors launched her to fame as the embodiment of the Roaring Twenties, but given knowledge of family history and the benefit of hindsight, they now seem percursors to the descent into insanity that marked her adult life and for which she is now best known.

In many respects Nancy Milford's biography is brilliant, for she renders Zelda as not so much as an influence on husband F. Scott Fitzgerald but as a uniquely gifted person in her own right. ZELDA a memorable portrait of a tempestuous woman whose personality was so completely in tune with the times that she seemed the embodiement of everything about the American youth of her generation. Zelda Sayer Fitzgerald was indeed one of the figures who made the 1920s roar, one of those "bright young things" who was already for a fast car, a midnight swim, and a shot of bootleg hooch--and who set the tone of the times.

The work is also astonishing in its depiction of Zelda's descent into insanity, a descent from which she now and then surfaced but never fully recovered. Relying heavily on Zelda's letters to Fitzgerald and his to her in turn, we have the painful truths of a woman who is often concious of her own illness and the ways in which it ravages her. It is worth pointing out that if her doctors were correct, Zelda suffered from a form of mental illness that was to a certain extent inevitable; her habits and her way of life doubtlessly spurred it on, but the crash was built into her genes in the same way a motor is built into a car.

If the work has a flaw, it is that it tends to support the notion that Zelda was a gifted writer who might have had a literary career but for her husband and the mutually destructive nature of their marriage. To her credit, Milford never says this and is extremely specific about the shortcomings of Zelda's writings; at the same time, however, she never specifically raises the idea in order to refute it. It is true that Zelda had a remarkable gift for turning a truly unique phrase and in doing so for capturing mood. Had she had more self-discipline she might have developed into a memorable poet--but the words "self-discipline" and "Zelda Fitzgerald" do not belong in the same breath, and so far as fiction is concerned any one has read her works can attest to the fact, as Milford herself notes, that Zelda had no gift for sustained narrative.

This small flaw aside, ZELDA is a powerful and memorable experience, easily one of the most exacting and yet most readable biographies in print. Strongly recommended.

GFT, the store Reviewer

Zelda: A Biography by Nancy Milford first came out when I was in high school. I can remember being enthralled by the lives of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald after reading this book. Since receiving a Kindle this year, I decided to reread this haunting biography of the original flapper. While I still enjoyed Zelda, maybe time has dulled the luster of Milford's book. Furthermore, the Kindle edition of this book is simply disgraceful! It was often torture to read.

Perhaps it was inevitable that these two beautiful people were destined to self-destruct. Zelda was the youngest of six children born to a doting mother and a remote and stern father (an Alabama Supreme Court justice). From her earliest years, she lived life on her own terms becoming a bit of a wild-child. She met F. Scott Fitzgerald at a dance while he was stationed nearby. "Once having met they were irrevocably drawn toward each other, for if ever there was a pair whose fantasies matched, as Edmund Wilson was later to remark, it was Zelda Sayre and Scott Fitzgerald. They shared a beauty and youth which seemed to ally them against the more sober world before them." After he published his first novel, This Side of Paradise, they married and began a life of great extravagances, travel, and parties. In the 1920s, they were spending between $20,000 and $30,000 a year. Very soon, cracks began to appear in their marriage. Zelda was resentful of Scott and his writing. She especially disapproved of her husband using their lives and experiences as the basis for his books. Scott felt that Zelda didn't do anything productive. But when she did try to write, he became enraged when Zelda used the same material. Yet, he thought it fine to steal Zelda's letters and diaries for use in his writings. Finally, she took up ballet at age 27, which became an unhealthy obsession and lead to her first breakdown. She was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia. Her long hospitalizations interfered with Scott's writing and took a great toll on their finances.

Zelda is a thoroughly tragic story. "No young couple rode the crest of good fortune with more flair than they." But there is no happy ending here. Scott's drinking destroyed his health and contributed to Zelda's fragile emotional health. When Zelda's counselors urged Scott to stop drinking, he refused. "The very style of their life together was conducive to instability; they had lived hard amidst increasing disorder." Zelda's behavior became more and more troubling, and she ended up spending more and more time hospitalized. The things that attracted them to each other were the very characteristics that lead to the destruction of their relationship. It still haunts to read about it decades after their early deaths.

Nancy Milford shows that Zelda did have a creative mind and wished to contribute something lasting, whether it was through writing or painting. But I felt that the book definitely got bogged down with Milford's many lengthy descriptions of Zelda's writing. I also felt that Zelda's later years are covered in much less detail than her youth. But what was especially trying with the Kindle edition that I read were the many errors throughout, including typos and misspellings. Many times throughout the book, the number 1 is used instead of the letter I. It was really dreadful reading! I was just happy that this was a library loan and that I didn't purchase the book.

Sixty five years after her death, Zelda Fitzgerald is still a tragic figure and even though I didn't quite enjoy this book as much as when it was first published, it still stands the test of time.

This biography brings to life the woman behind the literary myth - the inspiration for Scott Fitzgerald's heroines, flawed, selfish, destructive and beautiful. As always, the truth is more complex and less attractive. With a style that will appeal to Fitzgerald readers, Nancy Milford explores the influences of Zelda's childhood as the baby of a prominent family. As a child and teenager she didn't suffer the usual consequences of her outrageous behaviour, such as smashing a store window or stripping naked at the public swimming pool, so as an adult she had no sense of discipline or restraint. Without this, ordinary life can be dull.
Enter Scott Fitzgerald, celebrity novelist who whisked her away from her home town, so she could become an icon alongside him. While they self-destructed together, he exploited their relationship through his stories, spurring some witty responses from Zelda, such as the review she wrote for one of his books, where she recognized sections from her private diary: "Mr Fitzgerald - I believe that is how he spells his name - seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home". But at the same time, the appropriation of her identity was very difficult for Zelda, especially as she struggled to match Scott's achievement with her own talent. Gradually, the alcohol, the lack of boundaries and the unstable lifestyle drove Zelda to a breakdown, only to have her insanity faithfully shaped into Scott's next novel.
Zelda feared growing old, but this was one demon she did not have to face as she died in her 40s, several years after her estranged husband.
This is an excellent read for anyone who loves Scott Fitzgerald's work and is fascinated by the Fitzgerald legend. The style is beautiful and evocative, the story is haunting and sad. Regarding the debate about who was the "real" writer in the Fitzgerald family, Zelda was undoubtedly talented but Scott was undoubtedly talented AND disciplined. He certainly benefited from Zelda's influence but he would still have been the author of half a dozen novels if he'd married someone else. Would Zelda have been driven to write Save Me the Waltz and all her short stories if she'd married someone else? Part of the tragedy of Zelda is that she could not be at peace with who she was - she was perhaps driven by comparisons to her husband and her literary image.

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was born in Montgomery, Alabama. She grew up as a Southern Belle, attending dances and attending events at the country club. It was at a country club dance where she met F. Scott Fitzgerald. He was in the service and stationed outside of Montgomery. After his discharge, they began a long distance relationship when he moved to New York City to begin his writing career. Zelda continued to date other boys, at the same time professing her love and affection for F. Scott.This made Scott very jealous and possessive. He began selling articles to magazines. When his book, "This Side of Paradise" was published, Zelda felt confident with his ability to provide for her and moved to New York City to be married. A year later they had a daughter, Frances.

As the Fitzgerald's began to make money, they spent it just as fast. They moved to Paris to socialize with other artists. Fitzgerald continued to write, but Zelda and Scott liked to party. They would become drunk and argue in front of guests and wherever they happened to be. There relationship was tumultuous. As his alcoholism worsened, her mental health became worse. She became obsessed with her ballet lessons. She had danced as a youth and wanted to dance in a ballet again. Her mental state was becoming more erratic so she went to a doctor. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was institutionalized in Europe.

Zelda was an artist, writer and dancer. While she was in the hospital, she began to write and paint again. Once back in the States, Zelda wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, "Save Me the Waltz" and it was published in 1932 without Scott's knowledge. Scott was furious as he was also writing a novel at the time, "Tender is the Night". Both books were about their relationship and life together. Zelda was Scott's muse. He used her life, letters to him, and her diary to write his novels. Without a Zelda, there would not have been a Fitzgerald as we would not have "The Great Gatsby", and other writings of his based on the two of them.

As Zelda's hospital bills accumulated, Scott was under more pressure to write for income. He published many short stories, which were his primary source of income. This increased his stress and drinking. At times, Zelda was allowed to go back to Montgomery to live while under the care of her mother, but she would eventually need to return to the hospital for treatment. Scott wanted her to have the best care. Although their relationship became very destructive and unhealthy to one another when they were together, they still were very much in love.

Scott moved to Hollywood to write for the films and continued publishing his short stories. He died on December 21, 1940 of a heart attack. Zelda died March 10, 1948 while in Highland Mental Hospital, North Carolina, from a fire that broke out in a dumbwaiter. Twenty patients died that day.

"Zelda" was written for Milford's dissertation. The research is extensive but can be long and dry in sections. It is a fascinating look into the time period of the roaring twenties, jazz era, and flappers. It also gives great insight into the love, personal, and lifestyle of the relationship between Zelda and Scott. After reading this book, it will be interesting to read Scott's novels again knowing that Zelda's own words and experiences are a big part of the novel.

I was actually surprised to see reviews of those who did not like this bio! Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott, daughter of an Alabama Judge, and fashion plate to New York and Paris, was a fascinating woman who, as happens in life, experienced good times and bad. She was the life of the party, she threw the party, she was the party. She attempted things during "mid life" that others of that era would not have thought of attempting--- ballet, painting, writing, etc. I absolutely soared with her spirit when she was on top of the world, and wept when she was deep in depression. I was saddened when she was humiliated by those who didn't know or understand her, and more saddened still when she ended up in an institution in Asheville. But even then, there was an aura about her. She continued to paint while institutionalized, and actually did her self-portrait at that time.

Someone mentioned the fact that F. Scott was mentioned several times in the book, thus the book should have been entitled with the names of both. Well, I'm not sure one could write a book about the wife of such a prolific writer without mentioning his name, but for me, the book was all about Zelda.

This bio is thoroughly researched and extremely well written. The author painted a vivid picture of Zelda in every aspect of her life, and she used the same bold strokes to include the reader. Loved it!! Well done, Ms. Milford!

The layout of the Kindle edition makes it impossible to keep track of whether the author is quoting or commenting. Quoted paragraphs are not offset by indentation as they should be. A good book otherwise. I borrowed this Kindle book through my library.

I had digested a good deal of F. Scott Fitzgerald biography before my wife recommended that I read this to balance up my impressions of Scott. I was surprised at how interested in Zelda I became as I made progress in this biography. She was not just a spoiled rich girl who did whatever she pleased and got away with it because of her stunning beauty. They seem as if they were made for each other. They both were talented writers. At times, she helped him with his writing. They both were hungry for fame and fortune and lived life too fast and hard to reach old age. I like Nancy Milford's writing style, especially her vocabulary choices and her sense of rhythm and pacing.

An interesting, well documented biography about two bright and talented people who managed to destroy each other. Sadly, the translation to digital was not proofread by a human. The author's text contains many errors of punctuation and spelling. For example, throughout the text "that" appears as "drat," and "them" as "diem." The errors were a bit distracting.

This book is mistitled. It should be "Scott and Zelda," with Scott's name first, since the novel is weighted toward his life more than hers. It is informative, but could have been 150 pages shorter and still not suffered, if the author would have omitted the large portions she includes from Zelda's novels. I would like to have seen more documentation and interviews from first person witnesses to their lives, many of whom were still available when the book was written.

I absolutely adored this book. It is extremely depressing at times to read considering the life of the woman the book is based upon, but other than that, it was fascinating. Milford' writing style is unique as well as informative and quite objective. The details about Zelda's life could only come from an author who has done her research. I would definetly recommend this book.

Given this book's formidable reputation as a landmark of female biography, I found it a surprising disappointment. Although I tried and tried to get close to Zelda - who was at best a very elusive character - Ms Milford simply would not let me anywhere near her.
The author's writing has a cold, dispassionate quality. She has an irritating habit of mentioning obscure details (names of people, for example), and either explaining them much later or not explaining them at all (her more recent book on Edna St Millay shares this technique). The effect is curiously distancing; as if the author knows far more than she lets on and does not care to explain it all to mere mortals like us.
Given the importance of ballet in Zelda's later life, for example, why is a picture of her as a young teenager in a ballet dress included without any comment whatsoever? Did she learn ballet as a girl? Was she any good at it? Was there anything to indicate that it would later become an obsession? These are important and enlightening details that we never learn. Nor do we hear of anything beyond Zelda's death, which rather abruptly ends the book, offering little insight into her later legacy and reputation. It's as if we're constantly trying to spot the subject in the middle distance, only to find Milford's head in the way every time.
Factually, the book is faultless, which only makes this distance even more frustrating. I wanted to find Zelda; to know this fascinating person and to form my own conclusions about her, but she remained completely elusive amongst the cold, clinical facts.

I am still reading this because it is important supplemental reading to all of of Scott's works and hers. It was a tragic blend of fantasy and reality , ending or course with her tortuous death and his untimely death in Hollywood. Who needs a soap opera? Excellent usage of personal letters , and linkages to Scot's works.

I enjoyed the book. But this is the worst transcription of a book to digital that I have seen so far. It is an insult to your readers to sell something of this poor quality. Do not buy the Kindle edition. I have returned mine. I will order the paperback to replace it.

I agree with one of the other reviewers who found this biographer
cold and unsympathetic. I'd go further and say this is the worst type of academic writing; a lot of facts and documentation are brought out, but the writer simply isn't talented enough to give it vitality. Instead of attempting some sort of personel interpretation of Zelda's life, Milford gives us overlong plot summaries of Zelda's fiction. No analysis! Just the facts! She treats the deaths of both the Fitzgeralds with the compassion of a coroner. People with Nancy Milford's limited abilities shouldn't be writing biograpies. The reader is given a depressing work on a talented artist, and wounded soul, that passes on no understanding, no sympathy, and no appreciation. How horribly bleak.

Spacing and content errors throughout the book description make it almost impossible to preview this book's content. It is difficult to judge whether or not to buy the book when you cannot read the description. the store, please proofread!

"Zelda:A Biography," by Nancy Milford, is a depressing story about a woman (with a few bats in her belfry) torn by the never-ending clash of her husband's career and her own talent. A story I could have lived without!

This wannabe "artist" gave F. Scott Fitgerald nothing but grief. She had dumped him, THEN took him back after he'd been published.
Who cares about such a narrow-minded person?? I can't believe the torch he carried for her. She wasn't even that good-looking.
She was, IMHO, an opportunist with zero talent.
Feminist? Please.