The Lees of Happiness
F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Lees of Happiness" traces the marriage of Jeffrey Curtain, a moderately successful magazine writer, and Roxanne Milbank, a chorus girl who rose to leading lady in "The Daisy Chain" before retiring from the stage to marry him. The couple travel for a year, then buy an old house and twenty acres near Marlowe, outside Chicago, where they settle into an idyllic, playful married life full of golden trifling and mutual devotion. Jeffrey's closest friend, Harry Cromwell, visits for a week; his wife Kitty, recuperating from childbirth at her mother's, is absent. Roxanne, Jeffrey, and Harry pass an easy, affectionate week together, ending with a comic set-piece in which Roxanne's failed biscuits are nailed to the library wall as a "frieze." Some time later, at a poker party among Marlowe's country-club set, Roxanne touches Jeffrey's shoulder and he strikes her arm in a violent, unconscious reflex, shocking everyone present. The couple reconcile that night, attributing it to nerves, but five days later Jeffrey smashes a chair through a window and collapses: a blood clot has broken in his brain. Roxanne, thrust into full responsibility for finances and nursing, ages under the strain. Roxanne visits Kitty in Chicago and is repelled by her slovenly pink apartment, her neglect of her small son George, and her vanity amid unused fine lingerie. Later, Harry arrives at Marlowe distraught: Kitty has left him, taking George to her mother's. While Harry waits during a specialist's consultation upstairs, he unconsciously eats several of the nailed-up biscuits out of hunger and grief. The nurse then tells him the verdict: Jeffrey will live indefinitely but blind, mute, and unconscious, merely breathing. Harry leaves, pocketing the last biscuit. Years pass. The house falls into disrepair; Roxanne becomes a local figure of quiet legend, devotedly nursing Jeffrey — bathing, shaving, and moving him daily — even after all response from him ceases. She rebuffs suggestions that such care is futile, saying she loves what he once was. After eleven years, Jeffrey dies one May night. Six months later, widowed at thirty-six, Roxanne receives Harry, now long divorced from Kitty (who has remarried a lumber magnate named Horton in Seattle) and raising George alone. Their visit is warm and nostalgic, touching on old memories — the biscuits, the nail holes still in the wall, snapshots, Jeffrey's notebook. Roxanne plans to turn the house into a boarding house rather than leave it. As Harry departs to catch his train east, the two part under the moonlight with quiet, restrained affection — marked by pity and pain rather than bitterness or disillusion.
By F. Scott Fitzgerald · First published 1922 · Genre: Literary Fiction, Romance, Drama · 6 chapters · 9,378 words
First lines
If you should look through the files of old magazines for the first years of the present century you would find, sandwiched in between the stories of Richard Harding Davis and Frank Norris and others long since dead, the work of one Jeffrey Curtain: a novel or two, and perhaps three or four dozen short stories. You could, if you were interested, follow them along until, say, 1908, when they suddenly disappeared.
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The Lees of Happiness is listed on Textopian as a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, dated 1922 CE.
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- Work type: Novel
- Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Date: 1922 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Literary Fiction, Romance, Drama, Social Commentary, Tragedy
- Length: 9,378 words
- Structure: 6 chapters, 240 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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- Work identity for The Lees of Happiness by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Discussion starters
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Similar titles
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- The Beautiful And Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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- Autres Temps by Edith Wharton
- Avery by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward
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Genres
- Literary Fiction — The book explores complex themes of love, identity, and the human condition through rich character development and nuanced prose.
- Romance — The central plot revolves around the romantic relationship between Jeffrey Curtain and Roxanne Milbank, highlighting the dynamics of love and marriage.
- Drama — The narrative contains dramatic elements, particularly in the portrayal of personal struggles, emotional conflicts, and the impact of illness on relationships.
- Social Commentary — The story reflects on societal norms and expectations of the early 20th century, particularly regarding marriage and gender roles.
Tags
Romance · Novel · Classic · Literary Fiction · American Literature · Jazz Age · Wealth · Social Class · Marriage · Infidelity · Love Triangle · Tragedy