Although F. Scott Fitzgerald is known for the kind of subtle, polished social commentary found in his masterpiece The Great Gatsby, his little-known novella May Day is unique in that it is the most raw, direct political commentary he ever wrote, and one of the most desperate works in his oeuvre.

It is a tale of the brutalities of the American class system—of privileged college boys, soldiers returned from a bloody war, and a group of intellectual leftwing journalists, all coming into confrontation in the heart of New york City on May Day at the end of World War I. Fitzgerald’s fine eye for detail is on special display and his relentless plot leads to one of his most shocking climaxes, in what is the first and only stand alone version of this rarity.