Semiautobiographical novel. Amory Blaine grows from prep school youth to Princeton alumni, all the while wavering between egotism and self-doubt, ambition and laziness, immaturity and insight. The 'paradise' of the title is found in the physical beauty of Princeton University, the elegant people who lived and learned there, and in the metaphysical frivolity and care-free adventures of youth. Of course there is more than one side to paradise, as Blaine comes to discover through his academic and his personal education.