SOURCE: "The Wounds of Charlie Wales in Fitzgerald's 'Babylon Revisited'," in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 2, No. 1, Fall, 1964, pp. 86-7.

In the following essay, Osborne examines the symbolic meaning of the name "Charlie Wales."

Not only does the title of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Babylon Revisited" invite symbolic interpretation, but scattered throughout the story are street names or place names like Rue Saint-Honoré, the Poet's Cave, the Café of Heaven, and the Café of Hell that seem also to have obvious symbolic overtones. In the names of the characters, too, critics have found symbolic significance. James Frakes and Isadore Traschen point out [in Short Fiction: A Critical Collection, 1959] that the name of Charlie Wales's daughter Honoria "suggests an allegorical play on redeeming [Charlie's] honor." Richard Griffith sees the name Lincoln Peters as being one which "suggests democracy and rock-like stability" [American Literature, Vol. XXXIV, May 1963]. To my...