Gretchen's Forty Winks

Master the 40: The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald

In this episode we nibble on a Fitzgerald comedy so light it could be meringue. Granted, the storyline of a harried husband who slips his wife a Mickey Finn of a sleeping potion so he can finish an important advertising campaign is probably today more of a wake-up call than the high-concept rib-tickler audiences in 1924 read it as. We explore how "Gretchen's Forty Winks" fit into the March 15 issue of the Saturday Evening Post where it appeared alongside forgotten fiction with titles like "Bumbums in Boxes." Such fluffy disposable short stories, we suggest, are akin to the innocuous sitcoms of our youth. We also reveal how the story parodies the 1920s' work/life balance movement, with antagonist George Tompkins embodying some of the sillier self-fulfillment initiatives of the times while protagonist Roger Halsey preaches a Calvin Coolidge-like gospel of productivity. We also delve into how Gretchen's flirtation with George reflects Fitzgerald's own anxieties about his wife's friendships with other men. Finally we trace the curious afterlife the story enjoyed in storytelling clubs and amateur theatricals. While no one will mistake the Halsey family's adventures in rapid-eye movement for great art, Fitzgerald did choose it to close his third story collection, All the Sad Young Men, and it received surprisingly high marks from reviewers. At the end of the day "Gretchen's Forty Winks," we insist, is far from a snooze---instead, it's a real sleeper!