Babylon Revisited

F. Scott Fitzgerald

"I heard that you lost a lot in the crash."

"I did," and he added grimly, "but I lost everything I wanted in the boom."[2]

"Babylon Revisited" is split into five sections, and the short story begins with Charlie Wales sitting at Ritz Bar in Paris; he is having a conversation with the bartender, Alix. While in conversation with Alix the bartender, he inquires about his old friends whom he used to drink and attend parties with. He leaves the bartender with an address where his friends might be able to find him; later on he realizes that is a mistake. During the years of the Roaring Twenties, Charlie Wales spent his days drinking and partying and seemed not to have a single care in the world. At the time the story is set, Charlie sees the world differently, as he is no longer consumed by the extravagant lifestyle of the 1920s he once lived. He was a frequent drinker and party goer but now only allows himself to have one drink per day. He eventually leaves the bar and observes the streets of Paris with a sense of nostalgia now that the party days are over but also acknowledges how much his previous behavior and lifestyle have impacted his life in negative ways.

During the Roaring Twenties, Charlie had lost everything, from money to his family. But he is now in Paris to reclaim his rights as a father to his daughter, Honoria, who is currently under the care of Charlie's sister-in-law, Marion Peters, and her husband, Lincoln Peters. Honoria is now in custody of her aunt Marion because her mother, Helen, had died during the party years, and Marion blames Charlie for the death of her sister. Charlie and Helen were frequent party goers, and as the story progresses, the reader learns that one night Charlie got angry about his wife kissing another man and left her out in the snow. The story indicates that while Honoria's mother might have had some issues with her heart, he also was recovering from alcoholism at a facility and their relationship might have been toxic. Marion blames Charlie for the death of her sister and constantly sees him as a bad person. The story reveals that she has this grudge against him because she hated that her sister and Charlie were out spending so much money on unnecessary partying while she and her husband, Lincoln, were barely getting by. He fears that Marion will put ideas in Honoria's head and turn his daughter against him because of her beliefs about him.

Charlie has frequent lunches with his daughter and spends time with her at the Peterses’ to show Marion that he is indeed a good father and to show her that his drunken party days are behind him. His main priority is his daughter, and he wants her to live with him in Prague. Honoria even begins to question him about why she is not living with him. Marion, seeing his efforts, has finally changed her mind and has decided to let Honoria live with her father. The same afternoon, Charlie is at the Peterses’ home with his daughter when suddenly there is someone at the door. On the other side are his old friends Duncan and Lorraine, whom he had asked the bartender Alix about. His friends are very obviously drunk and keep insisting that Charlie go to dinner with them; he turns down their offer twice, and they finally go away unhappy with him. Marion, observing this, after dinner completely withdraws her offer to let Charlie take his daughter back to Prague with him, for she fears he is not completely over his drunken days.

Charlie feels devastated and sees his efforts have gone down the drain. He goes back to the Ritz, thinking he would run into Lorraine and Duncan there but instead finding another bartender he knew well from his partying days. They have a short conversation, and Charlie continues to reminisce about his old partying days and all of the bad times in his marriage with Helen. He is consumed with thoughts about the 1920s, when people were so careless, drunk and on drugs all the time. After some time, he calls Lincoln and asks if he really can't take his daughter back with him. Lincoln informs him that he cannot because Marion is far too upset at what happened and that he is going to have to wait another six months to try to get his daughter back. Charlie, upset at Lincoln's response, goes back to the bar and sits. He feels trapped and broods over how much time will have to pass until Marion stops making him pay for his former lifestyle and mistakes. He keeps thinking and is certain Helen would want him to be with his daughter and not alone.

• Charles J. Wales - American businessman living in Prague, widower, who occasionally goes to Paris to see his daughter Honoria
• Helen Wales - Charles's late wife
• Honoria Wales - 9-year-old daughter of Charles and Helen
• Marion Peters - Charles's sister-in-law (Helen's sister)
• Lincoln Peters - Marion's husband
• Duncan Scheaffer - Old friend of Charles
• Lorraine Quarrels - Old friend of Charles
• Alix - Barman at the Ritz, Paris
• Elsie and Richard Peters - Honoria's cousins, children of Marion and Lincoln
• Simone - Honoria's doll
• Mr Campbell, George Hardt, Snow Bird, Claude Fessenden - Old friends of Charles, merely quoted in the story
• Paul - Head barman at the Ritz, also merely quoted in the story

The story is based on a true incident regarding Fitzgerald, his daughter Scottie, his sister-in-law Rosalind and her husband Newman Smith (a banker based in Belgium, who was a colonel in the U.S. Army in World War II would be in charge of worldwide strategic deception for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff), on whom Marion and Lincoln Peters are based. Rosalind and Newman had not been able financially to live as well as Scott and Zelda had lived during the 1920s, and they had always regarded Scott as an irresponsible drunkard whose obsession with high living was responsible for Zelda's mental problems. When Zelda suffered a breakdown and was committed to a sanitarium in Switzerland, Rosalind felt that Scott was unfit to raise their daughter and that Rosalind and Newman should adopt her.[6]

"Babylon Revisited" was adapted for the 1954 film The Last Time I Saw Paris with the setting updated to post-WWII Paris and main character Charles turned into an aspiring novelist.

In the television series Mad Men, the character Betty Draper is seen reading the story in the season two episode Three Sundays.

• Babylon Revisited and Other Stories

• Text of "Babylon Revisited" at Project Gutenberg Australia
• "Babylon Revisited" Study Guide by Lina Goldberg
• Expostulation and Thesis by Thomas A. Larson
• "Babylon Revisited" in a nutshell at shmoop.com