The Popular Girl

A new collection of five of Fitzgerald's lesser-known, yet highly accomplished short stories: Love in the Night, The Swimmers, A New Leaf and What a Handsome Pair to meet Scott Kimberly, a very rich and very eligible young man. Yet no sooner have they met than her drunken father dies unexpectedly, leaving her impoverished. Too ashamed to admit to Scott her desperate state, she instead creates a fanciful world full of parties and holidays, friends and suitors, to convince him she is still the popular girl he first met. However, as her charade grows ever more fragile, she endangers their friendship and her very hope of salvation. Fitzgerald's beautifully drawn exploration of the interdependency of love and money captures in perfect detail the concerns that pervade so many of his stories.