F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first popular short story–originally published in the May 1920 Saturday Evening Post–is based on pedantic letters to his sister about how to be popular. But then he gives it a twist that makes it an enduring–and I will argue surprisingly influential–tale. The story is readily available to read on-line, to listen to at the great Classic Tales Podcast and in a full cast version from Radio Play Revival, so no apologies for spoilers. Please do read and/or listen first. The eponymous Bernice is an awkward country cousin–from Eau Claire, WI–visiting with Majorie and her family in the big city. She finds herself largely ignored at dances and unsure of how to present herself. The self-absorbed Marjorie is little help, until a brutal incident intervenes and Bernice hears her aunt and cousin in conversation: Bernice felt a vague pain that she was not at present engaged in being popular. She did not know that had it not been for Marjorie’s campaigning she would have danced the entire evening with one man; but she knew that even in Eau Claire other girls with less position and less pulchritude were given a much bigger rush. She attributed this to something subtly unscrupulous in those girls. It had never worried her, and if it had her mother would have assured her that the other girls cheapened themselves and that men really respected girls like Bernice.Set aside the racism there for the nonce, but we’ll return to it. After a confrontation, Marjorie condescends to coach the ugly duckling and Bernice’s stock improves. But nothing excites more interest in her than her vow to get her hair bobbed, a shocking notion in a society where all the women/girls treasure their long tresses. Well, Marjorie gets predictably angry when Bernice starts crowding into the limelight and stages a provocation that forces Bernice to go through with the promised shearing. The group of kids who go along to witness the barbering are all horrified by the results and Bernice is left worse off than before, so she packs her bags and determines to head home early. But before she goes, she decides to take one action: she grabs a pair of scissors and snips off the two long braids of the sleeping Marjorie, a literal/figurative scalping. There’s a “reversion to type” for you. The thought occurs that this is essentially the flapper-age version of Stephen King’s Carrie. (Reviewed:) Grade: (B+) Tweet Websites:-WIKIPEDIA: F. Scott Fitzgerald - -MUSEUM: Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum -COLLECTION: The Matthew J. & Arlyn Bruccoli Collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald (University of South Carolina) -DOCUMENTARY SITE: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Sensible Thing (PBS: American Storytellers) -JOURNAL: F. Scott Fitzgerald Review -INDEX: F Scott Fitzgerald (Internet Archive) -AUDIO INDEX: F Scott Fitzgerald (LibriVox) -INDEX: F Scott Fitzgerald (LitHub) -STORY: Bernice Bobs Her Hair: From F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels & Stories 1920–1922 (Library of America: Story of the Week) -ETEXT: Bernice Bobs Her Hair -RADIO PLAY: S. 2, Ep. 7: Bernice Bobs Her Hair by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Radio Play Revival) -VIDEO: Fitz Tales: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (THE SCOTT & ZELDA FITZGERALD MUSEUM) -AUDIO: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (LibriVox) -STORY: Love in the Night: From F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby, All the Sad Young Men & Other Writings 1920–1926 (Library of America: Story of the Week) -STORY: Love in the Night [pdf] -STORY: How to Live on $36,000 a Year: From F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby, All the Sad Young Men & Other Writings 1920–1926 (Library of America: Story of the Week) -STORY: The Cut-Glass Bowl : From F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels & Stories 1920–1922 (Library of America: Story of the Week) -STORY: Porcelain and Pink: From F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels & Stories 1920–1922 (Library of America: Story of the Week) -SHORT STORY: F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Winter Dreams” (Library of America) -ENTRY: Coma Berenices: Berenice’s Hair (Ian Ridpath’s Star Tales) Berenice was a real person who, in 246 BC, married her cousin, Ptolemy III Euergetes (Hyginus says she was his sister, but that was a different Berenice). Berenice was reputedly a great horsewoman who had already distinguished herself in battle. Hyginus, who deals with the star group under Leo in his Poetic Astronomy, tells the following story. -STUDY GUIDE: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (SparkNotes) -STUDY GUIDE: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Quizlet) -STUDY GUIDE: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (OwlEyes) -STUDY GUIDE: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Holland Public Schools) [pdf] -STUDY GUIDE: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (SparkNotes) -STUDY GUIDE: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Interesting Literature) -STUDY GUIDE: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (LitCharts) -STUDY GUIDE: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (CSUN.edu) -STUDY GUIDE: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (eNotes) -STUDY GUIDE: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (SuperSummary) -STUDY GUIDE: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Kibin) -STUDY GUIDE: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Study.com) -ESSAY: What About Bob (Sadie Stein, February 5, 2015, Paris Review) -ESSAY: The Mad Flapper: Socialization in Fitzgerald's “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” (Ya'ara Notea, 2018, The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review) -ESSAY: Stephen King’s Carrie and the horror of girlhood: The triumph of the writer’s debut novel, published 50 years ago, is its understanding of a teenage girl’s destructive anger. (Megan Nolan, 3/20/24, New Statesman) I first watched the film adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel, Carrie, fittingly enough, at a sleepover with a bunch of adolescent girls I was half in love with and half terrified by. We were 12 or so. I didn’t know them well, and was still unsure about what sort of person I was trying to be (a mystery which would not be clarified for another decade and a half). -ESSAY: Female Consciousness by Stream of Consciousness—Analysis of Bernice Bobs Her Hair (TAN Xiaojia, US-China Foreign Language, July 2022) -ESSAY: Recentering "Crazy Indian Blood": Reversion to Type in "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" (Robert Dale Parker, 2023, The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review) -ESSAY: Literary Critique on “Bernice Bobs her Hair” (Rainy Bailey, January 11, 2012, American Studies Blog) -PODCAST: Poured Over: Min Jin Lee on The Great Gatsby (BN Editors/August 31, 2021, Barnes & Noble) -PODCAST: Mike Palindrome on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Masterpiece: From The History of Literature Podcast with Jacke Wilson (LitHub, August 14, 2023) -ESSAY: The Beautiful and Damned: F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s drink-fueled behavior became notorious during their summers on the Riviera, where they were joined by Ernest Hemingway, the Marx Brothers, and Dorothy Parker (Jonathan Miles, AirMail) -ESSAY: F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Psychic Cost of Selling Out: $55,000 for a Magazine Feature? It's Hard to Blame Him (Anne Margaret Daniel, April 25, 2017, LitHub) -VIDEO: The Great Gatsby Explained: How F. Scott Fitzgerald Indicted & Endorsed the American Dream (1925) (Open Culture) - - -ESSAY: Scott Fitzgerald’s Last Act: The author’s final, unfinished novel fused intimations of American decline with an encroaching sense of his own mortality. (Jonathan Clarke, Summer 2024, City Journal) -ESSAY:The Crack-Up: How individual and civilisational identities collapse. (Peter Hughes, 2 Feb 2023, Quillette) -ESSAY: How the Male Point of View Shapes the Narrative of The Great Gatsby: Jillian Cantor Reimagines Fitzgerald’s Classic Novel from the Perspectives of Women (Jillian Cantor, February 1, 2022, LitHub) -ESSAY: On Jay Gatsby, the Most Famous North Dakotan: Sarah Vogel Traces the Humble Midwest Origins of an Iconic Character (Sarah Vogel, November 2, 2021, LitHub) -ESSAY: Why Do We Keep Reading The Great Gatsby? (Wesley Morris January 11, 2021, Paris Review) -ESSAY: The world's most misunderstood novel (Hephzibah Anderson, 9th February 2021, BBC) -REVIEW ESSAY: On Heartbreak, Absence, and Falling in Love with The Great Gatsby (David Stuart MacLean, January 21, 2021, LitHub) -REVIEW ESSAY: The Imperfect and Sublime ‘Gatsby’ (Min Jin Lee, January 21, 2021, NY Review of Books) -REVIEW: of Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Short Story Magic Tricks) -REVIEW: of Bernice Bobs Her Hair (A Striped Armchair) -REVIEW: of Bernice Bobs Her Hair (My Life 100 Years Ago) -REVIEW: of Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Clothes in Books) -REVIEW: of Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Rob Reads For You) -REVIEW: of Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Sitting Bee) -REVIEW: of Some Unfinished Chaos: The Lives of F. Scott Fitzgerald by Arthur Krystal (William H. Pritchard, WSJ) -REVIEW: of Tales of the Jazz Age, F. Scott Fitzgerald, ed. Anne Margaret Daniel (Joseph Bottum, The Lamp) FILM: -FILMOGRAPHY F Scott Foitzgerald (IMDB) -FILMOGRAPHY: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (1976) (IMDB) -FILM REVIEW: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (NY Times) -FILM REVIEW: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Dove) -FILM REVIEW: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Postmodern Pelican) -FILM REVIEW: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Dreams are What Cinema Is For) - - Book-related and General Links: |
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