What a Handsome Pair !

By Francis Scott Fitzgerald

What a Handsome Pair ! was written in the year 1932 by Francis Scott Fitzgerald. This book is one of the most popular novels of Francis Scott Fitzgerald, and has been translated into several other languages around the world.

This book is published by Booklassic which brings young readers closer to classic literature globally.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Booklassic
• Release date: Jul 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9789635220847

Francis Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Fitzgerald (Saint Paul, 1896-Hollywood, 1940) es considerado uno de los más importantes escritores estadounidenses del siglo XX y el portavoz de la generación perdida. El gran Gatsby se publicó por primera vez en 1925 y fue inmediatamente celebrada como una obra maestra por autores como T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein o Edith Wharton.

Book preview

978-963-522-084-7

Chapter 1

At four o'clock on a November afternoon in 1902, Teddy Van Beck got out of a hansom cab in front of a brownstone house on Murray Hill. He was a tall, round-shouldered young man with a beaked nose and soft brown eyes in a sensitive face. In his veins quarreled the blood of colonial governors and celebrated robber barons; in him the synthesis had produced, for that time and place, something different and something new.

His cousin, Helen Van Beck, waited in the drawing-room. Her eyes were red from weeping, but she was young enough for it not to detract from her glossy beauty—a beauty that had reached the point where it seemed to contain in itself the secret of its own growth, as if it would go on increasing forever. She was nineteen and, contrary to the evidence, she was extremely happy.

Teddy put his arm around her and kissed her cheek, and found it changing into her ear as she turned her face away. He held her for a moment, his own enthusiasm chilling; then he said:

You don't seem very glad to see me.

Helen had a premonition that this was going to be one of the memorable scenes of her life, and with unconscious cruelty she set about extracting from it its full dramatic value. She sat in a corner of the couch, facing an easy-chair.

Sit there, she commanded, in what was then admired as a regal manner, and then, as Teddy straddled the piano stool: No, don't sit there. I can't talk to you if you're going to revolve around.

Sit on my lap, he suggested.

No.

Playing a one-handed flourish on the piano, he said, I can listen better here.

Helen gave up hopes of beginning on the sad and quiet note.

This is a serious matter, Teddy. Don't think I've decided it without a lot of consideration. I've got to ask you—to ask you to release me from our understanding.

What? Teddy's face paled with shock and dismay.

"I'll have to tell you from the beginning. I've realized for a long time that we have nothing in