Authors Like
By Lisanne Swart · 6 authors · Jazz Age & American Dream · Updated July 2026
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby as both a glittering portrait of Jazz Age excess and a devastating argument that the American Dream's promise of self-invention is a beautiful lie for most who chase it. His prose is precise and lyrical in a way that makes Gatsby's own self-deception feel genuinely seductive before the novel reveals its cost. Tender Is the Night, drawing on his own marriage's unraveling, extends similar concerns into psychological breakdown and expatriate disillusionment. The writers below share his interest in prose style, doomed ambition, and the gap between American promise and American reality.
Readers who enjoy F. Scott Fitzgerald often turn to Ernest Hemingway for the other major stylist of the same Lost Generation, working in a plainer register, Vladimir Nabokov for equally obsessive attention to prose style and morally compromised narrators, John Steinbeck for the American Dream examined from its impoverished rather than glamorous side, Edith Wharton for an earlier examination of American wealth, class, and social constraint, Zelda Fitzgerald for the marriage's other half and a distinct literary voice of her own, and Truman Capote for narrative nonfiction combining social glamour with genuine psychological depth.
Similar Voice & Approach
Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway, Fitzgerald's contemporary, close friend, and eventual rival, wrote in a plainer, more stripped-down style than Fitzgerald's lyrical prose, but shared his interest in the Lost Generation's disillusionment and expatriate wandering after the First World War.
Read Hemingway for the other major stylist of the same Lost Generation, working in a plainer, more economical register. The Sun Also Rises is essential.
Vladimir Nabokov
Nabokov shares Fitzgerald's obsession with sentence-level precision and his interest in narrators whose charm and eloquence obscure genuine moral failure, using beautiful prose to seduce readers into sympathy with characters who don't entirely deserve it.
Read Nabokov for equally obsessive attention to prose style and morally compromised, charming narrators. Lolita is essential.
→ Read more about Vladimir NabokovJohn Steinbeck
Steinbeck examines the same American Dream territory as Fitzgerald but from its impoverished rather than glamorous side, sharing his interest in what the promise of American reinvention actually costs the people chasing it, rendered in plainer, more socially conscious prose.
Read Steinbeck for the American Dream examined from poverty and struggle rather than wealth and glamour. The Grapes of Wrath is essential.
→ Read more about John SteinbeckEdith Wharton
Wharton, writing a generation before Fitzgerald, shares his interest in American wealth and social constraint, examining old New York society's rigid conventions with the same precision Fitzgerald later brought to Jazz Age excess and self-invention.
Read Wharton for an earlier, closely related examination of American wealth, class, and social constraint. The Age of Innocence is essential.
Zelda Fitzgerald
Zelda, Scott's wife and frequent creative muse, wrote her own semi-autobiographical novel covering much of the same Jazz Age territory and marital unraveling that appears in Tender Is the Night, offering a distinct literary voice and perspective on the same shared history.
Read Zelda Fitzgerald for the marriage's other half and a distinct literary voice covering closely related material. Save Me the Waltz is essential.
Truman Capote
Capote shares Fitzgerald's fascination with glamour and social ambition rendered through precise, stylish prose, Breakfast at Tiffany's examining self-invention and social performance with a lightness that occasionally reveals genuine loneliness underneath, much like Gatsby's own carefully constructed persona.
Read Capote for Fitzgerald's combination of social glamour and psychological depth carried into a later American era. Breakfast at Tiffany's is a natural entry point.
More from the shelf
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Books Like The Great Gatsby
Book-by-book rather than author-by-author.
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The Best Fiction Books of All Time
Where Fitzgerald sits in the wider canon.
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Best-Selling Books of All Time
Where Gatsby's popularity is measured.
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Best Books by American Authors
The wider American canon this belongs to.
Frequently asked questions about authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald
Who should I read if I like F. Scott Fitzgerald?
Readers who enjoy F. Scott Fitzgerald often turn to Ernest Hemingway for the other major stylist of the same Lost Generation, working in a plainer register, Vladimir Nabokov for equally obsessive attention to prose style and morally compromised narrators, John Steinbeck for the American Dream examined from its impoverished rather than glamorous side, Edith Wharton for an earlier examination of American wealth, class, and social constraint, Zelda Fitzgerald for the marriage's other half and a distinct literary voice of her own, and Truman Capote for narrative nonfiction combining social glamour with genuine psychological depth.
Was Ernest Hemingway a friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald?
Yes, Hemingway and Fitzgerald were close contemporaries, friends, and eventual rivals within the Lost Generation of American expatriate writers in Paris. Hemingway wrote in a plainer, more stripped-down style than Fitzgerald's lyrical prose, but both shared an interest in disillusionment following the First World War.
What should I read after The Great Gatsby?
Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita offers equally obsessive attention to prose style and morally compromised, charming narrators. Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence provides an earlier, closely related examination of American wealth and social constraint. For the American Dream examined from poverty rather than glamour, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is essential.
Did Zelda Fitzgerald write her own novel?
Yes, Zelda Fitzgerald wrote Save Me the Waltz, a semi-autobiographical novel covering much of the same Jazz Age territory and marital unraveling that appears in her husband's Tender Is the Night, offering a distinct literary voice and her own perspective on their shared history and marriage.
