The Camel's Back by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald | Published: April 24, 1920

The Camel's Back Synopsis

"The Camel's Back" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. it was first published in The Saturday Evening Post on April 24, 1920, and later, It was also published in the short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age in 1922. Fitzgerald admitted that it took him seven hours to complete the story and that he wrote it purely for financial reasons. Fitzgerald said the narrative was based on an actual event in 1919 in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he encountered a famous man disguised himself as a camel.

Perry Parkhurst gives Betty Medill an ultimatum after deciding that their lengthy engagement has gone on long enough: to get married immediately or call it quits. However, things don't turn out as Perry had hoped, and the two call it quits. The young man's heart was heavy with sadness. In despair, he drank too much and decided to attend a costume party as half of a camel. As the night wore on, the man began to regret his decision, but it was too late to turn back. What happened next? Read on to find out.

Excerpt from The Camel's Back Online Book

The glazed eye of the tired reader resting for a second on the above title will presume it to be merely metaphorical. Stories about the cup and the lip and the bad penny and the new broom rarely have anything, to do with cups or lips or pennies or brooms. This story Is the exception. It has to do with a material, visible and large–as–life camel's back.

About F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in Minnesota in 1896. He was an American novelist and short story writer known for his works of the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald's writing revolves around themes of love, ambition, and excess, which were the defining characteristics of the 1920s. Through vivid descriptions, he captured its excitement and eventual decline when it crashed into economic depression. His most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is widely considered a classic of American literature. Find out more about F. Scott Fitzgerald at sevenov.com.