Top Five Roaring Twenties Books

Next year will be the one hundred mark since the 1920 New Year. We are officially heading into a modern world.

At the time of the 1920's, there was prohibition, no one could sell alcohol but can have small quantities in their house. The flappers were the modern woman, short dresses and rolled stockings to their knees. Cigarettes and short hair were just a few of the more iconic embraces into the new turn of the century era.

The booming prospect of large industry and mass production swept the world by storm. Henry Ford made the Ford Model cars, with one starting out as much as $627. There was the phonograph and the radio and the availability for the middle and lower class families to afford a radio or car on credit or purchase in full.

But since we are so heavily influenced and focused by the big and grand ideas of what the 1920 and it's following eras were like, why not focus on what everyone should have on their bookshelf that focuses on the turn of the century or the start of the 1920's.

Even if you don't have a like on this list, anything from the turn of the century and the later part of the Edwardian Era also counts as twenties.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Everyone has probably read this story in class or has seen the remake of the movie featuring Leo DiCaprio as the infamous Gatsby. The novel just screams the twenties and although it was published in 1925, it often portrays the iconic rise and fall of a man who only wanted one American Dream, to live in luxury with the woman he loved.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway was a rival of Fitzgerald. They often did many things together until they fell out of each other's friendships. It didn't help that Hemingway's medical condition was catalyzed by consuming alcohol and would lead to him shooting himself to death in his car. (Hemingway carried the disease of Hemochromatosis, where the body does not properly break down iron and it builds up in the blood stream. He passed it onto one of his daughters and she died in the same way).

The book is taking space in Spain, where Hemingway did most of his travels. It talks about good friends, Spanish culture and food, and some tender moments between them. The themes of finding meaning in one's life is consistent throughout the story and all the good moments that these friends had.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

While she killed herself and was depressed over not being able to have a life with a member of the same sex, Woolf is an iconic name for a movement of women who published and pursued their own names and stories to print. Mary Shelley was one of the first.

The story of Mrs. Dalloway details the events within a day of Clarissa Dalloway, it is one of Woolf's highly respected novel. Clarissa is a post First World War woman in the midst of the changing times. It also reflects at the inner sexuality that Mrs. Woolf felt regarding women.

The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

While the modern adaptation of the movie doesn't seem to meet everyone's approval, but the story is about a man whose love of animals and the learning to talk to them with the help of his trained parrot, learns how to become the most desired veterinarian by all animals.

Short Stories Published by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald wrote several short stories before he was a published author. There are several collections where you can find his works, even some unpublished manuscripts of books he was working on in his lifetime before he died.

Works Cited:

Somers, Jeffrey. (2019, July 25). Top 10 Must-Read Books of the 1920s. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/literature-of-twenties-4154491