The Last Tycoon was designed as a compact work, like The Great Gatsby (1925), with a narrator to ratify the experiences of a romantic figure. Following his usual pattern, Fitzgerald based Stahr's dead wife on Zelda, Kathleen Moore (Stahr's last love) on Sheilah Graham, and Brady, Stahr's partner, on Louis B. Mayer, whose daughter Cecilia provides the narrative focus. As Fitzgerald explained, "I hoped to get the verisimilitude of a first person narrative, combined with Godlike knowledge of all events that happened to my characters." As a Hollywood insider, Cecilia can see the industry with a clear eye.
Stahr is the final version of a line of Fitzgerald heroes who are gifted poor boys of solid character and artistic temperament. Although Stahr is successful, Fitzgerald envisioned him as the last of a breed, a self-reliant.....
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