The Great Gatsby

This article is about the novel. For the film and TV adaptations, see The Great Gatsby (disambiguation).

The Great Gatsby

The cover of the first edition of The Great Gatsby, 1925. The cover of the first edition, 1925.
Author	F. Scott Fitzgerald
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	Charles Scribner's Sons
Publication date	April 10, 1925
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA & reissue ISBN 0-7432-7356-7 (2004 paperback edition)

The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published on April 10, 1925, the story is set in Long Island's North Shore and New York City during the summer of 1922.

The novel chronicles an era that Fitzgerald himself dubbed the "Jazz Age." Following the shock and chaos of World War I, American society enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity during the "roaring" 1920s as the economy soared. At the same time, Prohibition, the ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment, made millionaires out of bootleggers and led to an increase in organized crime. Although Fitzgerald, like Nick Carraway in his novel, idolized the riches and glamor of the age, he was uncomfortable with the unrestrained materialism and lack of morality that went with it.

Although it was adapted into both a Broadway play and a Hollywood film within a year of publication, it was not popular upon initial printing, selling fewer than 25,000 copies during the remaining fifteen years of Fitzgerald's life. The book was largely forgotten during the Great Depression and World War II. After it was republished in 1945 and 1953, it quickly found a wide readership and is now often regarded as an example of the Great American Novel. The Great Gatsby has since become a standard text in high school and university courses on American literature in countries around the world, and is ranked #2 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century.

Writing and publication

With Gatsby, Fitzgerald made a conscious departure from the composition process of his previous novels. He began planning the novel in June of 1922 after completing his play The Vegetable, and began composing the novel in 1923. He ended up discarding most of a false start, though some of it would resurface in the story "Absolution." Unlike his previous works, Fitzgerald intended to heavily edit and reshape Gatsby, believing that it held the potential to launch him toward literary acclaim. He told his editor Max Perkins that the novel was a “consciously artistic achievement," and a "purely creative work—not trashy imaginings as in my stories but the sustained imagination of a sincere and yet radiant world." He added later during the editing process that he felt “an enormous power in me now, more than I've ever had.”

After the birth of their child, the Fitzgeralds moved to Great Neck, Long Island in October 1922. He appropriate Great Neck as the setting for The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald's neighbors included many newly-weatlhy New Yorkers, such as writer Ring Lardner, actor Lew Fields, or comedian Ed Wynn. Great Neck, on the shores of Long Island Sound sat across a bay from Manhasset Neck or Cow Neck Peninsula, which includes the communities of Port Washington, Manorhaven, Port Washington North, and Sands Point, and was home to many of New York's wealthiest established families. In his novel, Great Neck became the new money peninsula of "West Egg" and Manhasset Neck the old-money peninsula of "East Egg".

Progress on the novel was slow. In May of 1924, the Fitzgeralds moved to the French Riviera, where he completed the novel. In November of 1924 he sent the draft to his publisher Maxwell Perkins and agent Harold Ober. The Fitzgeralds again relocated, this time to Rome, for the winter. Fitzgerald made revisions through the winter; Perkins wrote that the novel was too vague, and the biographical section of Gatsby too long. After several rounds of revision, Fitzgerald was content with the novel, and returned the final batch of revised galleys in the middle of February 1925.

Original cover art

The cover of The Great Gatsby is among the most celebrated pieces of jacket art in American literature. A little known artist named Francis Cugat was commissioned to illustrate the book while Fitzgerald was in the midst of writing it. The cover was completed before the novel, and Fitzgerald was so enamored of the cover that he told his publisher he had "written it into" his novel.

After several initial sketches of various completeness, Cugat produced the Art Deco-style painting of a pair of eyes hovering above the bright lights of an amusement park. The woman has no nose, but full voluptuous lips. Descending from the right eye is a green tear. The irises of the eyes are a gouache depicting two reclining nudes forming the irises of a pair of disembodied female eyes hovering above the bright lights of an amusement park.

Fitzgerald's remarks that he incorporated the painting into the novel, led to the interpretation that the eyes are reminiscent of those of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg (the once proprietor of a faded commercial billboard near George Wilson's auto-repair shop) which Fitzgerald described as "blue and gigantic—their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose." Though this passage has some resemblance to the painting, a closer explanation is the description of Daisy Buchanan as the "girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs".

Title

The last piece to fall in place was the title. Fitzgerald was always ambivalent about what to call his book, shifting between Gatsby, Among Ash-Heaps and Millionaires, Trimalchio, Trimalchio in West Egg, On the Road to West Egg, Gold-Hatted Gatsby, and The High-Bouncing Lover as titles. He initially preferred Trimalchio, after a character in The Satyricon by Petronius who held ostentatious parties, but was eventually persuaded that the reference was too obscure and that people would not be able to pronounce it. Zelda and Perkins both expressed their preference for The Great Gatsby and in December of 1924, Fitzgerald agreed. A month before publication, after final review of the proofs, he asked if it would be possible to re-title to Trimalchio or Gold-Hatted Gatsby. Perkins advised against it. On March 19, Fitzgerald asked if the book could be Under the Red White and Blue, but at this point it was no longer possible to change. The Great Gatsby was published on April 10, 1925. Fitzgerald later remarked that, "the title is only fair, rather bad than good."

Plot summary

First-person narrator Nick Carraway introduces the novel, insisting that based on advice his wealthy father once gave him, he strenuously avoids judging people; however, he admits that this habit often causes him problems, with particular reference to events concerning a man named Gatsby. Nick leaves New York, where these events took place, to return to the Midwest, revealing that his story is a flashback of his experiences there. Toward the end of the novel, Nick claims that a year or two has passed since the events took place.

Nick opens his story by recounting that he, a young man from the Midwest, has moved to New York, renting a low-cost cottage located in West Egg, the less old-fashioned of two fictional wealthy seaside communities alongside one another on Long Island Sound (the other one being East Egg, a community of the "old aristocracy"). Nick visits Tom and Daisy Buchanan who own an opulent mansion in East Egg. Daisy is Nick's second cousin, once removed and her husband was a football player at Yale (where he was a remote acquaintance of Nick) and who now is a phenomenally wealthy "polo player". Nick describes the Buchanans through his visit to their mansion: Tom is an arrogant, racist athlete and Daisy is a pretty but superficial housewife with a three-year-old (though largely ignored) daughter. It is at the Buchanan house that Nick meets Jordan Baker, a lady friend of Daisy's and a well-known golfer. Jordan informs Nick that Tom has a mistress in New York.

Tom rents out a lavish apartment for his extramarital affair with his mistress, Myrtle, wife of the unsuspecting mechanic George Wilson. Oddly, Nick is proudly invited by Tom to visit he and Myrtle's secret apartment, where Nick also meets Catherine, Myrtle's sister, and Chester and Lucille McKee, two friends of Myrtle. The night ends with several of the guests (including Nick) getting drunk and Tom breaking Myrtle's nose after she instigates him by continuously repeating Daisy's name. Nick escorts Mr. McKee away from the chaos back home.

Nick is the next-door neighbor on West Egg to Jay Gatsby, an extremely wealthy man known for hosting outrageously luxurious parties in his enormous mansion, where every Saturday, hundreds of people come. Although many of the guests are uninvited, Nick is soon personally invited by a rather formal invitation through one of Gatsby's butlers, and finds himself becoming involved in this party scene, although he claims to despise the entire concept of mindless entertainment.

Gatsby seems to be a mysterious character whose great wealth is a subject of much rumor; none of the guests Nick meets at Gatsby's parties know much about his past. In fact, it seems, no one has met Gatsby and, because of this, people make up rumors as to how he came by such wealth. At one point during the party, a man begins a conversation with Nick, as the man claims to recognize Nick from the US Army Third Division during the Great War. Nick affirms that he was in this Division, and remarks on the strange and inexcusable absence of their host. The man apologetically reveals himself to be none other than Jay Gatsby, surprising Nick who had expected Gatsby to be much older and not as personable. In fact, Nick and Gatsby begin a close friendship.

Nick is initially confused as to why Gatsby throws parties without introducing himself to his guests, and even more confused when Gatsby drives him to New York and discloses to Nick (without explaining his motivations for doing so) a seemingly far-fetched version of his upbringing. Nick's female acquaintance Jordan Baker eventually reveals to Nick that Gatsby was holding these parties in hopes that Daisy, his former love, would visit by chance. Also through Jordan, Gatsby requests Nick to arrange a meeting with Daisy. Nick obliges, and the reunion is initially awkward but ultimately successful, and soon Daisy and Gatsby begin an affair. In the meantime, Nick and Jordan Baker, whom Nick re-encounters at one of Gatsby's parties, start a relationship, which Nick already predicts will be superficial.

Eventually, in and leading up to an explosive scene at the Plaza Hotel in New York, Daisy's husband Tom notices Gatsby's love for Daisy and alleges that Gatsby is a bootlegger, in front of Gatsby, Daisy, Nick, and Jordan. Tom claims that he's been researching Gatsby and expresses his hatred towards Gatsby. In reply Gatsby urges Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved Tom; Gatsby hopes to erase the last five years so that she may simply be with him. Daisy does tell Tom, but hesitantly. Tom sees that he still has a chance with Daisy, and denies her and Gatsby's claim. Tom tells Daisy and Gatsby to drive together from the hotel to Tom and Daisy's house on Long Island; Tom mocks Gatsby by claiming he knows nothing can happen between Daisy and Gatsby. Tom takes his time getting home with Nick and Jordan.

George Wilson, owner of an auto repair garage on a desolate road between Manhattan and northern Long Island, is also arguing with his wife Myrtle (with whom Tom is having an affair since the beginning of the novel). She runs out of the house, only to be hit by Gatsby's car which is being driven by Daisy. Myrtle is killed instantly, and Daisy and Gatsby speed away. Later, as Tom, Jordan, and Nick are on their way home, they notice the car accident. Tom remarks casually that Wilson will finally have some business, but soon realizes that his lover Myrtle is dead. During this grotesque scene, Wilson comes out of his shop, half-insane and half in shock, and rants about having seen a yellow car. Tom leads Wilson into a private place and tells him that the yellow car was not Tom's and that Tom was driving Gatsby's yellow car earlier in the day (when Tom's group was driving to the hotel and stopped by at Wilson's for gasoline). Wilson does not seem to listen, and Tom, Jordan, and Nick leave. Wilson seems to become insane. He stays up all night rocking back and forth, muttering nonsense, while Michaelis, his neighbor, patiently watches over him. Wilson thinks he makes the connection that whoever was driving that yellow car must have been the man Myrtle was having an affair with and makes up his mind to find the yellow car.

By this point, over the past several weeks Nick has abandoned his role as an outsider observing Gatsby's life and has instead become Gatsby's close friend. When Nick finds out about the accident, he advises Gatsby to run away for a week. The two end up having breakfast at Gatsby's pool, with Nick telling him, "They're [Daisy, Tom, Jordan] a rotten crowd. You're worth the whole damn bunch put together." Upon hearing this, Gatsby smiles his trademark smile, which Nick described as, "It faced—or seemed to face—the whole world, then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor."

Wilson finds his way to Tom's house with a gun and Tom, while packing for an escape trip with Daisy, names Gatsby as the driver of the yellow car that killed Wilson's wife. In the meantime, Gatsby is floating in his pool, overwhelmed with depression, thinking that Daisy no longer loves him, and hoping for a call from her. There Wilson finds and kills Gatsby. Wilson then commits suicide on Gatsby's lawn not far away.

Nick tries to find people who will attend Gatsby's funeral, only to find that not even Gatsby's crooked business partners will be there to mourn for him. Finally, Nick meets Mr. Gatz, Gatsby's father, who comes to the funeral, apparently still trapped in the past. He shows Nick a well-worn photograph of Gatsby's house and a notebook that Gatsby wrote in as a youth showing his drive and ambition.

Aside from Gatsby's servants, only three people attend his funeral: Nick, Mr. Gatz, and "Owl Eyes," a man who had attended one of Gatsby's parties earlier that summer, but whom Nick hadn't seen since. After severing connections with Jordan and a brief run-in with Tom, Nick returns permanently to the Midwest, reflecting on Gatsby's desire to recapture the past.

Characters

Major Characters

• Jay Gatsby (originally James "Jimmy" Gatz)—a young, self-made, wealthy ex-army officer who throws lavish parties, and rekindles an old affair with Daisy
• Nick Carraway—the 29-year-old narrator and a native Midwesterner (from a poor farm family) who has moved to West Egg, Long Island
• Thomas "Tom" Buchanan—an arrogant, athletic acquaintance of Nick who lives on East Egg
• Daisy Buchanan née Fay—the second cousin, once removed of Nick. She is also Tom's wife
• George B. Wilson—the quiet owner of a garage and Tom's mechanic
• Myrtle Wilson—wife of George; she is having an affair with Tom
• Jordan Baker—a long-time friend of Daisy and a professional golfer who begins a relationship with Nick. Fitzgerald told Maxwell Perkins that the character of Jordan Baker was based on the golfer Edith Cummings, a friend of Ginevra King.

Minor Characters

• Catherine—Myrtle's sister
• Chester and Lucille McKee—friends of Myrtle
• "Owl-eyes"—a party-goer who Nick meets in Gatsby's library
• Meyer Wolfsheim—a crooked work associate of Gatsby
• Ewing Klipspringer—a mysterious party-goer who often stays over at Gatsby's mansion
• Pammy Buchanan—the Buchanans' three-year-old daughter
• Henry C. Gatz—Gatsby's somewhat estranged father
• Michaelis—Wilson's neighbor.

Film, TV, theatrical and literary adaptations

The Great Gatsby has been filmed four times:

1. The Great Gatsby, in 1926 by Herbert Brenon – a silent movie of a stage adaptation, starring Warner Baxter, Lois Wilson, and William Powell. According to the IMDb, no known copies have survived (only a trailer with a few minutes of footage is known to exist);
2. The Great Gatsby, in 1949 by Elliott Nugent – starring Alan Ladd, Betty Field, and Shelley Winters; for copyright reasons, this film is not readily available;
3. The Great Gatsby, in 1974, by Jack Clayton – the most famous screen version, starring Robert Redford in the title role with Mia Farrow as Daisy Buchanan & Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, with a script by Francis Ford Coppola;
4. The Great Gatsby, in 2000 by Robert Markowitz – a made-for-TV movie starring Toby Stephens, Paul Rudd and Mira Sorvino.

Famous American author Truman Capote was originally hired as the screenwriter for the 1974 film adaptation. In his screenplay, Nick Carraway and Jordan Baker were both written to be homosexual. After Capote was removed from the project, Coppola rewrote the screenplay.

The 2002 film G (released in 2005) by Christopher Scott Cherot claims inspiration from The Great Gatsby.

Stage

An operatic treatment of the novel was commissioned by the New York Metropolitan Opera to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the debut of James Levine. The opera premiered on December 20, 1999. The music and libretto are by John Harbison with popular song lyrics by Murray Horwitz.

Also, it had been adopted by Takarazuka Revue in 1991, performed by Snow Troupe. It will performed by Moon Troupe of the company in 2008.

The Great Gatsby, a stage adaptation by Owen Davis, was first performed at the Ambassador Theatre in New York City on Feb 2, 1926 in a production directed by George Cukor with James Rennie and Florence Eldridge.

The Great Gatsby, in a new adaptation by Simon Levy, was performed for the opening of the new Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 2006. This was billed as "the first authorized stage version of the novel since 1926."

However, two months earlier, in Brussels, Belgium, The Kunsten Festival des Arts debuted Gatz, a six-hour production by the New York theater company Elevator Repair Service. Set in a ramshackle contemporary office building, Gatz utilized the entire text of Gatsby, at first read by employees at the office building, and eventually acted out by them. "Gatz" premiered in the U.S. on September 21, 2006, at the Walker Art Center (also in Minneapolis) just eleven days after the closing of The Great Gatsby at The Guthrie.

Books

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
• Ernesto Quiñonez's Bodega Dreams adapted The Great Gatsby to Spanish Harlem
• The Great Gatsby, a graphic novel adaptation by Australian cartoonist Nicki Greenberg
• The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian imagines the later years of Daisy and Tom Buchanan's marriage as a social worker in 2007 investigates the possibility that a deceased elderly homeless person is Daisy's son.

In popular culture

Businessman Bill Gates has inscribed in his library a sentence from the last page of the novel: "He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it."

References

• Bruccoli, Matthew Joseph (ed.) (2000), F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: A Literary Reference, New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, ISBN 0786709960 {{citation}}: |first= has generic name (help)
• Bruccoli, Matthew Joseph (2002), Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald (2nd rev. ed.), Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, ISBN 1570034559.
• Curnutt, Kirk (ed.) (2004), A Historical Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195153022 {{citation}}: |first= has generic name (help)
• Mizener, Arthur (1951), The Far Side of Paradise: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Prigozy, Ruth (ed.) (2002), The Cambridge Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521624479 {{citation}}: |first= has generic name (help)

External links

Sources

• The Great Gatsby, from Project Gutenberg Australia, plain text.
• The Great Gatsby online.
• Three Novels (1953). Scanned book from Internet Archive, includes The Great Gatsby.
• Index to The Great Gatsby

Movies

• The Great Gatsby (1926) at IMDb
• The Great Gatsby (1949) at IMDb
• The Great Gatsby (1974) at IMDb
• The Great Gatsby (2000) (TV) at IMDb
• G (2002) at IMDb

Miscellaneous

• AP: Page Ivey: "Professor, private investigator team up in search of the real 'Great Gatsby'"
• Washington Post - 'Gatsby': The Greatest Of Them All
• Ray C. Fair - "Where did Fitzgerald get the idea of having Clay's Economics reside in Nick Carraway's library?"