[4][5] The stories published in Nassau Literary Review while Fitzgerald was attending Princeton University, as well as those that comprise Flappers and Philosophers, may be placed among his "apprenticeship fiction.

"[9] Literary critic and biographer Matthew J. Bruccoli notes that "during his lifetime, Fitzgerald was far better known and more widely read as a short story writer than as a novelist.

"[9] The New York Times in its September 26, 1920 edition evaluated the collection in light of Fitzgerald's recently published first novel This Side of Paradise (1920): "[H]is eight short stories range the gamut of style and mood with a brilliance, a jeu perle ["pearly tone"], so to speak, which is not to be found in the novel.

"[11] The reviewer compares the works favorably to the "Russian school" and to the American author O. Henry, and closes by commending "Mr. Fitzgerald's talent and genius.

"[11] Literary critic and biographer John Kuehl reports that the book reflects the social types identified in the collection's title: Diverse characters and classes manifest themselves, yet Fitzgerald's fundamentally bourgeois world features the ubiquitous homme manqué and the femme fatale, for courtship and marriage comprise the all-important sexual element.