<p>Although this novella stands out from his body of work in that it’s a playful yet sinister fairy tale, it brilliantly fuses F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ongoing lush fantasies about the extremes of wealth with his much more somber understanding of what underpins it.&nbsp; Loosely inspired by a summer he spent as a teenager working on a ranch in Montana,&nbsp;<i>The Diamond as Big as the Ritz</i>&nbsp;is Fitzgerald’s hallucinatory paean to the American West and all its promises.</p> <p>It’s the story of John T. Unger, a young Southerner who goes to Montana for summer vacation with a wealthy college classmate. But the classmate’s family proves to be much more than simply wealthy: They own a mountain made entirely of one solid diamond. And they’ve gone to dreadful lengths to conceal their secret … meaning John could be in danger.</p> <p>But the family also has a daughter, lovely Kismine, and with her help, John may yet escape the fate her family has meted out to all their other guests so far …</p>