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= The_Great_Gatsby =
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Introduction
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'The Great Gatsby' () is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott
Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City,
the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions
with Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire obsessed with reuniting with
his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.
The novel was inspired by a youthful romance Fitzgerald had with
socialite Ginevra King and the riotous parties he attended on Long
Island's North Shore in 1922. Following a move to the French Riviera,
Fitzgerald completed a rough draft of the novel in 1924. He submitted
it to editor Maxwell Perkins, who persuaded Fitzgerald to revise the
work over the following winter. After making revisions, Fitzgerald was
satisfied with the text but remained ambivalent about the book's title
and considered several alternatives. Painter Francis Cugat's dust
jacket art, named 'Celestial Eyes', greatly impressed Fitzgerald, and
he incorporated its imagery into the novel.
After its publication by Scribner's in April 1925, 'The Great Gatsby'
received generally favorable reviews, though some literary critics
believed it did not equal Fitzgerald's previous efforts. Compared to
his earlier novels, 'This Side of Paradise' (1920) and 'The Beautiful
and Damned' (1922), the novel was a commercial disappointment. It sold
fewer than 20,000 copies by October, and Fitzgerald's hopes of a
monetary windfall from the novel were unrealized. When the author died
in 1940, he believed himself to be a failure and his work forgotten.
During World War II, the novel experienced an abrupt surge in
popularity when the Council on Books in Wartime distributed free
copies to American soldiers serving overseas. This new-found
popularity launched a critical and scholarly re-examination, and the
work soon became a core part of most American high school curricula
and a part of American popular culture. Numerous stage and film
adaptations followed in the subsequent decades.
'Gatsby' continues to attract popular and scholarly attention.
Scholars emphasize the novel's treatment of social class, inherited
versus self-made wealth, gender, race, and environmentalism, as well
as its cynical attitude towards the American Dream. 'The Great Gatsby'
is widely considered to be a literary masterwork and a contender for
the title of the Great American Novel.
Historical and biographical context
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Set on the prosperous Long Island of 1922, 'The Great Gatsby' provides
a critical social history of Prohibition-era America during the Jazz
Age. F. Scott Fitzgerald's fictional narrative fully renders that
period--known for its jazz music, economic prosperity, flapper
culture, libertine mores, rebellious youth, and ubiquitous
speakeasies. Fitzgerald uses many of these 1920s societal developments
to tell his story, from simple details like petting in automobiles to
broader themes such as bootlegging as the illicit source of Gatsby's
fortune.
Fitzgerald conveys the hedonism of Jazz Age society by following a
down-to-earth narrator as a spectator of the flashiest and most
raucous era in American history. In Fitzgerald's eyes, the era
represented a morally permissive time when Americans of all ages
became disillusioned with prevailing social norms and obsessed with
pleasure-seeking. Fitzgerald himself had a certain ambivalence towards
the Jazz Age, an era whose themes he would later regard as reflective
of events in his own life.
'The Great Gatsby' reflects various events in Fitzgerald's youth. He
was a young Midwesterner from Minnesota. Like the novel's narrator who
went to Yale, he was educated at an Ivy League school, Princeton.
There the 18-year-old Fitzgerald met Ginevra King, a 16-year-old
socialite with whom he fell deeply in love. Although Ginevra was madly
in love with him, her upper-class family openly discouraged his
courtship of their daughter because of his lower-class status, and her
father purportedly told him that "poor boys shouldn't think of
marrying rich girls".
Rejected by Ginevra's family as a suitor because of his lack of
financial prospects, a suicidal Fitzgerald enlisted in the United
States Army amid World War I and was commissioned as a second
lieutenant. While awaiting deployment to the Western front where he
hoped to die in combat, he was stationed at Camp Sheridan in
Montgomery, Alabama, where he met Zelda Sayre, a vivacious 17-year-old
Southern belle. After learning that Ginevra had married wealthy
Chicago businessman William "Bill" Mitchell, Fitzgerald asked Zelda to
marry him. Zelda agreed but postponed their marriage until he became
financially successful. Fitzgerald is thus similar to Jay Gatsby in
that he became engaged while a military officer stationed far from
home and then sought immense wealth in order to provide for the
lifestyle to which his fiancée had become accustomed.
After his success as a short-story writer and as a novelist,
Fitzgerald married Zelda in New York City, and the newly-wed couple
soon relocated to Long Island. Despite enjoying the exclusive Long
Island milieu, Fitzgerald quietly disapproved of the extravagant
parties, and the wealthy persons he encountered often disappointed
him. While striving to emulate the rich, he found their privileged
lifestyle to be morally disquieting. Although Fitzgerald--like
Gatsby--had always admired the rich, he nonetheless possessed a
smoldering resentment towards them.
Plot summary
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In spring 1922, Nick Carraway—a Yale alumnus from the Midwest and a
World War I veteran—journeys to New York City to obtain employment as
a bond salesman. He rents a bungalow in the Long Island village of
West Egg, next to a luxurious estate inhabited by Jay Gatsby, an
enigmatic multi-millionaire who hosts dazzling soirées yet does not
partake in them.
One evening, Nick dines with a distant cousin, Daisy Buchanan, in the
old money town of East Egg. Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, formerly
a Yale football star whom Nick knew during his college days. The
couple has recently relocated from Chicago to a mansion directly
across the bay from Gatsby's estate. There, Nick encounters Jordan
Baker, an insolent flapper and golf champion who is a childhood friend
of Daisy's. Jordan confides to Nick that Tom keeps a mistress, who
brazenly telephones him at his home and lives in the "valley of
ashes", a sprawling refuse dump. That evening, Nick sees Gatsby
standing alone on his lawn, staring at a green light across the bay.
Days later, Nick reluctantly accompanies a drunken and agitated Tom to
New York City by train. En route, they stop at a garage inhabited by
mechanic George Wilson and his wife--and Tom's mistress--Myrtle.
Myrtle joins them, and the trio proceeds to a small New York apartment
that Tom has rented for trysts with her. Guests arrive and a party
ensues, which ends with Tom slapping Myrtle and breaking her nose
after she mentions Daisy.
One morning, Nick receives a formal invitation to a party at Gatsby's
mansion. Once there, Nick is embarrassed that he recognizes no one and
begins drinking heavily until he encounters Jordan. While chatting
with her, he is approached by a man who introduces himself as Jay
Gatsby and insists that both he and Nick served in the 3rd Infantry
Division during the war. Gatsby attempts to ingratiate himself with
Nick and when Nick leaves the party, he notices Gatsby watching him.
In late July, Nick and Gatsby have lunch at a speakeasy. Gatsby tries
impressing Nick with tales of his war heroism and his Oxford days.
Afterward, Nick meets Jordan again at the Plaza Hotel. Jordan reveals
that Gatsby and Daisy met around 1917 when Gatsby was an officer in
the American Expeditionary Forces. They fell in love, but when Gatsby
was deployed overseas, Daisy reluctantly married Tom. Gatsby hopes
that his newfound wealth and dazzling parties will make Daisy
reconsider. Gatsby uses Nick to stage a reunion with Daisy, and the
two embark upon an affair.
In September, Tom discovers the affair when Daisy carelessly addresses
Gatsby with unabashed intimacy in front of him. Later, at a Plaza
Hotel suite, Gatsby and Tom argue about the affair. Gatsby insists
Daisy declare that she never loved Tom. Daisy claims she loves Tom and
Gatsby, upsetting both. Tom reveals Gatsby is a swindler whose money
comes from bootlegging alcohol. Upon hearing this, Daisy chooses to
stay with Tom. Tom scornfully tells Gatsby to drive her home, knowing
that Daisy will never leave him.
While returning to East Egg, Gatsby and Daisy drive by Wilson's garage
and their car strikes Myrtle, killing her instantly. Later Gatsby
reveals to Nick that Daisy was driving the car, but that he intends to
take the blame for the accident to protect her. Nick urges Gatsby to
flee to avoid prosecution, but he refuses. After Tom tells George that
Gatsby owns the car that struck Myrtle, a distraught George assumes
the owner of the vehicle must be Myrtle's lover. George fatally shoots
Gatsby in his mansion's swimming pool, then kills himself.
Several days after Gatsby's murder, his father Henry Gatz arrives for
the sparsely attended funeral. After Gatsby's death, Nick comes to
hate New York and decides that Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and he were all
Midwesterners unsuited to Eastern life. Nick encounters Tom and
initially refuses to shake his hand. Tom admits he was the one who
told George that Gatsby owned the vehicle that killed Myrtle. Before
returning to the Midwest, Nick returns to Gatsby's mansion and stares
across the bay at the green light emanating from the end of Daisy's
dock.
Major characters
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* Nick Carrawaya Yale University alumnus from the Midwest, a World
veteran, and a newly arrived resident of West Egg, age 29 (later 30)
who serves as the first-person narrator. He is Gatsby's neighbor and a
bond salesman. Nick is easy-going and optimistic, although this latter
quality fades as the novel progresses. He ultimately returns to the
Midwest after despairing of the decadence and indifference of the
eastern United States.
* Jay Gatsby (originally James "Jimmy" Gatz)a young, mysterious
millionaire with shady business connections (later revealed to be a
bootlegger), originally from North Dakota. During World , when he was
a young military officer stationed at the United States Army's Camp
Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, Gatsby encountered the love of his
life, the debutante Daisy Buchanan. Later, after the war, he studied
briefly at Trinity College, Oxford, in England. According to
Fitzgerald's wife Zelda, he partly based Gatsby on their enigmatic
Long Island neighbor, Max Gerlach. A military veteran, Gerlach became
a self-made millionaire due to his bootlegging endeavors and was fond
of using the phrase "old sport" in his letters to Fitzgerald.
* Daisy Buchanana shallow, self-absorbed, and young debutante and
socialite from Louisville, Kentucky, identified as a flapper. She is
Nick's second cousin, once removed, and the wife of Tom Buchanan.
Before marrying Tom, Daisy had a romantic relationship with Gatsby.
Her choice between Gatsby and Tom is one of the novel's central
conflicts. Fitzgerald's romance and life-long obsession with Ginevra
King inspired the character of Daisy.
* Thomas "Tom" BuchananDaisy's husband, a millionaire who lives in
East Egg. Tom is an imposing man of muscular build with a gruff voice
and contemptuous demeanor. He was a football star at Yale and is a
white supremacist. Among other literary models, Tom has certain
parallels with William "Bill" Mitchell, the Chicago businessman who
married Ginevra King. Tom and Mitchell were both Chicagoans with an
interest in polo. Also, like Ginevra's father Charles King, whom
Fitzgerald resented, Tom is an imperious Yale man and polo player from
Lake Forest, Illinois.
* Jordan Bakeran amateur golfer with a sarcastic streak and an aloof
attitude, and Daisy's long-time friend. She is Nick Carraway's
girlfriend for most of the novel, though they grow apart towards the
end. She has a shady reputation because of rumors that she had cheated
in a tournament, which harmed her reputation both socially and as a
golfer. Fitzgerald based Jordan on Ginevra's friend Edith Cummings, a
premier amateur golfer known in the press as "The Fairway Flapper".
Unlike Jordan Baker, Cummings was never suspected of cheating. The
character's name is a play on two popular automobile brands, the
Jordan Motor Car Company and the Baker Motor Vehicle, both of
Cleveland, Ohio, alluding to Jordan's "fast" reputation and the new
freedom presented to American women, especially flappers, in the
1920s.
* Myrtle WilsonGeorge B. Wilson's wife and Tom Buchanan's mistress.
Myrtle, who possesses a fierce vitality, is desperate to find refuge
from her disappointing marriage. She is accidentally killed by
Gatsby's car, as she mistakenly thinks Tom is still driving it and
runs after it.
* George B. Wilsona mechanic and owner of a garage. He is disliked by
both his wife, Myrtle, and Tom Buchanan, who describes him as "so dumb
he doesn't know he's alive". At the end of the novel, George shoots
Gatsby dead, wrongly believing he had been driving the car that killed
Myrtle, and then kills himself.
Writing and production
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Fitzgerald began outlining his third novel in June 1922. He longed to
produce an exquisite work that was beautiful and intricately
patterned, but the troubled production of his stage play 'The
Vegetable' repeatedly interrupted his progress. The play flopped, and
Fitzgerald wrote magazine stories that winter to pay debts incurred by
its production. He viewed these stories as all worthless, although
included among them was "Winter Dreams", which Fitzgerald described as
his first attempt at the Gatsby idea. "The whole idea of Gatsby", he
later explained to a friend, "is the unfairness of a poor young man
not being able to marry a girl with money. This theme comes up again
and again because I lived it".
In October 1922, after the birth of their only child, Frances Scott
"Scottie" Fitzgerald, the Fitzgeralds moved to Great Neck, New York,
on Long Island. Their neighbors in Great Neck included such newly
wealthy personages as writer Ring Lardner, actor Lew Fields and
comedian Ed Wynn. These figures were all considered to be 'nouveau
riche', unlike those who came from Manhasset Neck, which sat across
the bay from Great Neck--places that were home to many of New York's
wealthiest established families. This real-life juxtaposition gave
Fitzgerald his idea for "West Egg" and "East Egg". In the novel, Great
Neck (Kings Point) became the "new money" peninsula of West Egg and
Port Washington (Sands Point) became the "old money" East Egg. Several
Gold Coast mansions in the area served as inspiration for Gatsby's
estate including Land's End, Oheka Castle, and the since-demolished
Beacon Towers.
While living on Long Island, the Fitzgeralds' enigmatic neighbor was
Max Gerlach. Purportedly born in America to a German immigrant family,
Gerlach had been a major in the American Expeditionary Forces during
World , and he later became a gentleman bootlegger who lived like a
millionaire in New York. Flaunting his new wealth, Gerlach threw
lavish parties, never wore the same shirt twice, used the phrase "old
sport", and fostered myths about himself including that he was a
relation of the German Kaiser. These details about Gerlach inspired
Fitzgerald in his creation of Jay Gatsby.
During this same time period, the daily newspapers sensationalized the
Hall-Mills murder case over many months, and the highly publicized
case likely influenced the plot of Fitzgerald's novel. The case
involved the double-murder of a man and his lover on September 14,
1922, mere weeks before Fitzgerald arrived in Great Neck. Scholars
have speculated that Fitzgerald based certain aspects of the ending of
'The Great Gatsby' and various characterizations on this factual
incident.
Inspired by the Halls-Mills case, the mysterious persona of Gerlach
and the riotous parties he attended on Long Island, Fitzgerald had
written 18,000 words for his novel by mid-1923 but discarded most of
his new story as a false start. Some of this early draft resurfaced in
the 1924 short story "Absolution". In earlier drafts, Daisy was
originally named Ada and Nick was Dud, and the two characters had
shared a previous romance prior to their reunion on Long Island. These
earlier drafts were written from the viewpoint of an omniscient
narrator as opposed to Nick's perspective. A key difference in earlier
drafts is a less complete failure of Gatsby's dream. Another
difference is that the argument between Tom Buchanan and Gatsby is
more balanced, although Daisy still returns to Tom.
Work on 'The Great Gatsby' resumed in earnest in April 1924.
Fitzgerald decided to depart from the writing process of his previous
novels and told Perkins that he was intent on creating an artistic
achievement. He wished to eschew the realism of his previous two
novels and to compose a creative work of sustained imagination. To
this end, he consciously imitated the literary styles of Joseph Conrad
and Willa Cather. He was particularly influenced by Cather's 1923
work, 'A Lost Lady,' which features a wealthy married socialite
pursued by a variety of romantic suitors and who symbolically embodies
the American dream. He later wrote a letter to Cather apologizing for
any unintentional plagiarism. During this period of revisions, Scott
saw and was influenced by early sketches for the book's dust jacket
art. Soon after this burst of effort, work slowed while the
Fitzgeralds moved to the Villa Marie in Saint-Raphaël on the French
Riviera, where a marital crisis soon developed.
Despite his ongoing marital tension, Fitzgerald continued to write
steadily and submitted a near-final version of the manuscript to his
editor, Maxwell Perkins, on October 27. Perkins informed him in a
November letter that Gatsby was too vague as a character and that his
wealth and business, respectively, needed a convincing explanation.
Fitzgerald thanked Perkins for his detailed criticisms and claimed
that such feedback would enable him to perfect the manuscript. Having
relocated with his wife to Rome, Fitzgerald made revisions to the
manuscript throughout the winter.
Content after a few rounds of revision, Fitzgerald submitted the final
version in February 1925. Fitzgerald's alterations included extensive
revisions of the sixth and eighth chapters. He declined an offer of
$10,000 for the serial rights to the book so that it could be
published sooner. He received a $3,939 advance in 1923 and would
receive $1,981.25 upon publication.
Alternative titles
====================
Fitzgerald had difficulty choosing a title for his novel and
entertained many choices before reluctantly deciding on 'The Great
Gatsby', a title inspired by Alain-Fournier's 'Le Grand Meaulnes'.
Previously he had shifted between 'Among Ash Heaps and Millionaires',
'Trimalchio', 'Trimalchio in West Egg', 'On the Road to West Egg',
'Under the Red, White, and Blue', 'The Gold-Hatted Gatsby', and 'The
High-Bouncing Lover'. The titles 'The Gold-Hatted Gatsby' and 'The
High-Bouncing Lover' came from Fitzgerald's epigraph for the novel,
one which he wrote himself under the pen name of Thomas Parke
D'Invilliers.
Fitzgerald initially preferred titles referencing Trimalchio, the
crude upstart in Petronius's 'Satyricon', and even refers to Gatsby as
Trimalchio once in the novel.
Unlike Gatsby's spectacular parties, Trimalchio participated in the
orgies he hosted but, according to literary critic Tony Tanner, there
are subtle similarities between the two characters. By November 1924,
Fitzgerald wrote to Perkins that he had settled upon the title of
'Trimalchio in West Egg'.
Disliking Fitzgerald's chosen title of 'Trimalchio in West Egg',
editor Max Perkins persuaded him that the reference was too obscure
and that people would be unable to pronounce it. Zelda and Perkins
both expressed their preference for 'The Great Gatsby', and the next
month Fitzgerald agreed. A month before publication, after a final
review of the proofs, he asked if it would be possible to re-title it
'Trimalchio' or 'Gold-Hatted Gatsby', but Perkins advised against it.
On March 19, 1925,{{sfn|Tate|2007|p=87|ps=: "He settled on 'The Great
Gatsby' in December 1924, but in January and March 1925 he continued
to express his concern to Perkins about the title, cabling from on
March 19: }} Fitzgerald expressed enthusiasm for the title 'Under the
Red, White, and Blue', but it was too late to change it at that stage.
The novel was published as 'The Great Gatsby' on April 10, 1925.
Fitzgerald believed the book's final title to be merely acceptable and
often expressed his ambivalence with the name.
Dust jacket art
=================
The artwork for the first edition of 'The Great Gatsby,' known as
'Celestial Eyes,' is among the most celebrated in American literature
and represents a unique instance in literary history in which a
novel's commissioned artwork directly influenced the composition of
the text. Rendered in an Art Deco visual style, the artwork depicts
the disembodied face of a Jazz Age flapper with celestial eyes and
rouged mouth over a dark blue skyline. A little-known Barcelonan
painter named Francis Cugat--born Francisco Coradal-Cougat--was
commissioned by an unknown individual in Scribner's art department to
illustrate the cover while Fitzgerald was composing the novel.
In a preliminary sketch, Cugat drew a concept of a dismal gray
landscape inspired by Fitzgerald's original title for the novel,
'Among Ash Heaps and Millionaires'. Discarding this gloomy concept,
Cugat next drew a divergent study which became the prefiguration to
the final cover: A pencil and crayon drawing of a flapper's
half-hidden visage over Long Island Sound with scarlet lips, one
celestial eye, and a single diagonal tear. Expanding upon this study,
his subsequent drawing featured two bright eyes looming over a shadowy
New York cityscape. In later iterations, Cugat replaced the shadowy
cityscape with dazzling carnival lights evoking a Ferris wheel and
likely referencing the glittering amusement park at New York's Coney
Island. Cugat affixed reclining nudes within the flapper's irises and
added a green tint to the streaming tear. Cugat's final cover, which
Max Perkins hailed as a masterpiece, was the only work he completed
for Scribner's and the only book cover he ever designed.
Although Fitzgerald likely never saw the final gouache painting prior
to the novel's publication, Cugat's preparatory drafts influenced his
writing. Upon viewing Cugat's drafts before sailing for France in
April-May 1924, Fitzgerald was so enamored that he later told editor
Max Perkins that he had incorporated Cugat's imagery into the novel.
This statement has led many to analyze interrelations between Cugat's
art and Fitzgerald's text. One popular interpretation is that the
celestial eyes are reminiscent of those of optometrist T. J. Eckleburg
depicted on a faded commercial billboard near George Wilson's auto
repair shop. Author Ernest Hemingway supported this latter
interpretation and claimed that Fitzgerald had told him the cover
referred to a billboard in the valley of the ashes. Although this
passage has some resemblance to the imagery, a closer explanation can
be found in Fitzgerald's explicit description of Daisy Buchanan as the
"girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and
blinding signs".
Initial reviews
=================
Charles Scribner's Sons published 'The Great Gatsby' on April 10,
1925. Fitzgerald cabled Perkins the day after publication to monitor
reviews: "Any news?" "Sales situation doubtful [but] excellent
reviews", read a telegram from Perkins on April 20. Fitzgerald
responded on April 24, saying the cable dispirited him, closing the
letter with "Yours in great depression". Fitzgerald soon received
letters from contemporaries Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, and poet T.
S. Eliot praising the novel. Although gratified by such
correspondence, Fitzgerald sought public acclaim from professional
critics.
'The Great Gatsby' received generally favorable reviews from literary
critics of the day. Edwin Clark of 'The New York Times' felt the novel
was a mystical and glamorous tale of the Jazz Age. Similarly, Lillian
C. Ford of the 'Los Angeles Times' hailed the novel as a revelatory
work of art that "leaves the reader in a mood of chastened wonder".
The 'New York Post' described Fitzgerald's prose style as
scintillating and genuinely brilliant. The 'New York Herald Tribune'
was less impressed, referring to 'The Great Gatsby' as "a literary
lemon meringue" that nonetheless "contains some of the nicest little
touches of contemporary observation you could imagine--so light, so
delicate, so sharp". In 'The Chicago Daily Tribune', H. L. Mencken
judged the work's plot to be highly improbable, although he praised
the writing as elegant and the "careful and brilliant finish".
Several reviewers felt the novel left much to be desired following
Fitzgerald's previous works and criticized him accordingly. Harvey
Eagleton of 'The Dallas Morning News' predicted that the novel
signaled the end of Fitzgerald's artistic success. Ralph Coghlan of
the 'St. Louis Post-Dispatch' dismissed the work as an inconsequential
performance by a once-promising author who had grown bored and
cynical. Ruth Snyder of 'New York Evening World' lambasted the book's
style as painfully forced and declared the editors of her newspaper
were "quite convinced after reading 'The Great Gatsby' that Mr.
Fitzgerald is not one of the great American writers of today". John
McClure of 'The Times-Picayune' insisted the plot was implausible and
the book itself seemed raw in its construction.
After reading these reviews, Fitzgerald believed that many critics
misunderstood the novel. He despaired that "of all the reviews, even
the most enthusiastic, not one had the slightest idea what the book
was about". In particular, Fitzgerald resented criticisms of the
novel's plot as implausible since he had never intended for the story
to be realistic. Instead, he crafted the work to be a romanticized
depiction that was largely scenic and symbolic. According to his
friend John Peale Bishop, Fitzgerald further resented the fact that
critics failed to perceive the many parallels between the author's
life and the character of Jay Gatsby; in particular, that both created
a mythical version of themselves and attempted to live up to this
legend. Dispirited by critics failing to understand the novel,
Fitzgerald remained hopeful that the novel would at least be a
commercial success, perhaps selling as many as 75,000 copies.
To Fitzgerald's great disappointment, 'Gatsby' was a commercial
failure in comparison with his previous efforts, 'This Side of
Paradise' (1920) and 'The Beautiful and Damned' (1922). By October,
the book had sold fewer than 20,000 copies.
Although the novel went through two initial printings, many copies
remained unsold years later. Fitzgerald attributed the poor sales to
the fact that women tended to be the primary audience for novels
during this time, and 'Gatsby' did not contain an admirable female
character. According to his ledger, he earned only $2,000 from the
book. Although Owen Davis' 1926 stage adaptation and the
Paramount-issued silent film version brought in money for the author,
Fitzgerald lamented that the novel fell far short of the success he
had hoped for and would not bring him recognition as a serious
novelist in the public eye. With the onset of the Great Depression,
'The Great Gatsby' was regarded as little more than a nostalgic period
piece. By the time Fitzgerald died in 1940, the novel had fallen into
near obscurity.
Revival and reassessment
==========================
In 1940, Fitzgerald suffered a third and fatal heart attack and died
believing his work forgotten. His obituary in 'The New York Times'
hailed him as a brilliant novelist and cited 'Gatsby' as his greatest
work. In the wake of Fitzgerald's death, a strong appreciation for the
book gradually developed in writers' circles. Future authors Budd
Schulberg and Edward Newhouse were deeply affected by it, and John
O'Hara acknowledged its influence on his work. By the time that
'Gatsby' was republished in Edmund Wilson's edition of 'The Last
Tycoon' in 1941, the prevailing opinion in writers' circles deemed the
novel to be an enduring work of fiction.
In the spring of 1942, mere months after the United States' entrance
into World War II, an association of publishing executives created the
Council on Books in Wartime with the stated purpose of distributing
paperback Armed Services Editions books to combat troops. 'The Great
Gatsby' was one of them. Within the next several years, 155,000 copies
of 'Gatsby' were distributed to U.S. soldiers overseas, and the book
proved popular among beleaguered troops, according to the 'Saturday
Evening Post's' 1945 report.
By 1944, a full-scale Fitzgerald revival had occurred. Full-length
scholarly articles on Fitzgerald's works were being published in
periodicals and, by the following year, the earlier consensus among
professional critics that 'The Great Gatsby' was merely a sensational
story or a nostalgic period piece had effectively vanished. The
tireless promotional efforts of literary critic Edmund Wilson, who was
Fitzgerald's Princeton classmate and his close friend, led this
Fitzgerald revival. In 1951, three years after Zelda's death in a
hospital fire, Professor Arthur Mizener of Cornell University
published 'The Far Side of Paradise', the first biography of
Fitzgerald. Mizener's bestselling biography emphasized 'The Great
Gatsby's' positive reception by literary critics, which may have
further influenced public opinion and renewed interest in it.
By 1960--thirty-five years after the novel's original publication--the
book was steadily selling 100,000 copies per year. Renewed interest in
it led 'The New York Times' editorialist Mizener to proclaim the novel
was a masterwork of 20th-century American literature. By 1974, 'The
Great Gatsby' had attained its status as a literary masterwork and was
deemed a contender for the title of the "Great American Novel".
By the mid-2000s, many literary critics considered 'The Great Gatsby'
to be one of the greatest novels ever written, and the work was part
of the assigned curricula in the near majority of U.S. high schools.
As of early 2020, 'The Great Gatsby' had sold almost 30 million copies
worldwide and continues to sell an additional 500,000 copies annually.
Numerous foreign editions of the novel have been published, and the
text has been translated into 42 different languages. The work is
Scribner's most popular title; in 2013, the e-book alone sold 185,000
copies. The American Library Association lists the book as among the
most challenged classics in U.S. literature. The novel's U.S.
copyright expired on January 1, 2021, when all works published in 1925
entered the public domain. Since then, numerous altered and incomplete
reprints have flooded the market.
The American Dream
====================
Following the novel's revival, later critical writings on 'The Great
Gatsby' focused on Fitzgerald's disillusionment with the American
Dream in the hedonistic Jazz Age, a name for the era which Fitzgerald
claimed to have coined. In 1970, scholar Roger L. Pearson asserted
that Fitzgerald's work--more so than other twentieth century
novels--is especially linked with this conceptualization of the
American dream. Pearson traced the literary origins of this dream to
Colonial America. The dream is the belief that every individual,
regardless of their origins, may seek and achieve their desired goals,
"be they political, monetary, or social. It is the literary expression
of the concept of America: The land of opportunity".
However, Pearson noted that Fitzgerald's particular treatment of this
theme is devoid of the discernible optimism in the writings of earlier
American authors. He suggests Gatsby serves as a false prophet of the
American dream, and pursuing the dream only results in dissatisfaction
for those who chase it, owing to its unattainability. In this
analytical context, the green light on the Buchanans' dock (visible
across Long Island Sound from Gatsby's house) is frequently
interpreted as a symbol of Gatsby's unrealizable goal to win Daisy
and, consequently, to achieve the American Dream. Also, scholar Sarah
Churchwell points out that adultery in the novel is linked to the loss
of faith and broken promises, which symbolizes the corruption of the
American Dream.
Class permanence
==================
Scholars and writers commonly ascribe Gatsby's inability to achieve
the American Dream to entrenched class disparities in American
society. The novel underscores the limits of the American lower class
to transcend their station of birth. Scholar Sarah Churchwell contends
that Fitzgerald's novel is a tale of class warfare in a
status-obsessed country that refuses to acknowledge publicly it even
has a class system.
Although scholars posit different explanations for the continuation of
class differences in the United States, there is a consensus regarding
the novel's message in conveying its underlying permanence. Although
'Gatsby's' fundamental conflict occurs between entrenched sources of
socio-economic power and upstarts like Gatsby who threaten their
interests, Fitzgerald's novel shows that a class permanence persists
despite the country's capitalist economy that prizes innovation and
adaptability. Dianne Bechtel argues Fitzgerald plotted the novel to
illustrate that class transcends wealth in America. Even if the poorer
Americans become rich, they remain inferior to those Americans with
"old money". Consequently, Gatsby and other characters in the novel
are trapped in a rigid American class system.
Gender relations
==================
Besides exploring the difficulties of achieving the American dream,
'The Great Gatsby' explores societal gender expectations during the
Jazz Age. The character of Daisy Buchanan has been identified
specifically as personifying the emerging cultural archetype of the
flapper. Flappers were typically young, modern women who bobbed their
hair and wore short skirts. They also drank alcohol and had premarital
sex.
Despite the newfound societal freedoms attained by flappers in the
1920s, Fitzgerald's work critically examines the continued limitations
upon women's agency during this period. In this context, although
early critics viewed the character of Daisy to be a "monster of
bitchery", later scholars such as Leland S. Person Jr. asserted that
Daisy's character exemplifies the marginalization of women in the
elite social environment that Fitzgerald depicts.
Writing in 1978, Person noted Daisy is more of a hapless victim than a
manipulative victimizer. She is the target first of Tom's callous
domination and next of Gatsby's dehumanizing adoration. She
involuntarily becomes the holy grail at the center of Gatsby's
unrealistic quest to be steadfast to a youthful concept of himself.
The ensuing contest of wills between Tom and Gatsby reduces Daisy to a
trophy wife whose sole existence is to augment her possessor's
socio-economic success.
As an upper-class white woman living in East Egg during this time
period, Daisy must adhere to societal expectations and gender norms
such as actively fulfilling the roles of dutiful wife, nurturing
mother, and charming socialite. Many of Daisy's choices--ultimately
culminating in the fatal car crash and misery for all those
involved--can be partly attributed to her prescribed role as a
"beautiful little fool" who is reliant on her husband for financial
and societal security. Her decision to remain with her husband,
despite her feelings for Gatsby, is because of the security that her
marriage to Tom Buchanan provides.
Race and displacement
=======================
Many scholars have analyzed the novel's treatment of race and
displacement; in particular, a perceived threat posed by newer
immigrants to older Americans, triggering concerns over a loss of
socio-economic status. In one instance, Tom Buchanan--the novel's
antagonist--claims that he, Nick, and Jordan are racially superior
Nordics. Tom decries immigration and advocates white supremacy. A
fictional book alluded to by Tom is Goddard's 'The Rise of the Colored
Empires', which is a parody by Fitzgerald of Lothrop Stoddard's 'The
Rising Tide of Color,' a 1920s bestseller. Stoddard warned that
immigration would alter America's racial composition and destroy the
country.
Analyzing these elements, literary theorist Walter Benn Michaels
contends that Fitzgerald's novel reflects a historical period in
American literature characterized by fears over the influx of Southern
and Eastern European immigrants whose "otherness" challenged
Americans' sense of national identity. Such anxieties were more
salient in national discourse than the societal consequences of World
War I, and the defining question of the period was who constituted "a
real American".
In this context of immigration and displacement, Tom's hostility
towards Gatsby, who is the embodiment of "latest America", has been
interpreted as partly embodying status anxieties of the time involving
anti-immigrant sentiment. Gatsby--whom Tom belittles as "Mr. Nobody
from Nowhere"--functions as a cipher because of his obscure origins,
his unclear ethno-religious identity and his indeterminate class
status. Although his ethnicity is vague, his last name Gatz and his
father's adherence to the Lutheran religion indicate his family are
recent German immigrants. This would preclude them from the coveted
status of Old Stock Americans. Consequently, Gatsby's socio-economic
ascent is deemed a threat not only due to his status as 'nouveau
riche', but because he is perceived as an outsider.
Because of such themes, 'The Great Gatsby' captures the perennial
American experience as it is a story about change and those who resist
it--whether such change comes in the form of a new wave of immigrants,
the 'nouveau riche', or successful minorities. Since Americans living
in the 1920s to the present are largely defined by their fluctuating
socio-economic circumstances and must navigate a society with
entrenched racial and ethnic prejudices, Fitzgerald's depiction of
resultant status anxieties and social conflict has been highlighted by
scholars as still enduringly relevant nearly a hundred years after the
novel's publication.
Sexuality and identity
========================
Photo of Fitzgerald dressed as a woman circa 1915
Questions regarding the sexuality of characters have been raised for
decades and--augmented by biographical details about the author--have
given rise to queer readings. During his lifetime, Fitzgerald's
sexuality became a subject of debate among his friends and
acquaintances. As a youth, Fitzgerald had a close relationship with
Father Sigourney Fay, a possibly gay Catholic priest, and Fitzgerald
later used his last name for the idealized romantic character of Daisy
Fay. After college, Fitzgerald cross-dressed during outings in
Minnesota. Years later, while drafting 'The Great Gatsby', rumors
dogged Fitzgerald among the American expat community in Paris that he
was gay. Soon after, Fitzgerald's wife Zelda Fitzgerald likewise
doubted his heterosexuality and asserted that he was a closeted
homosexual. She publicly belittled him with homophobic slurs, and she
alleged that Fitzgerald and fellow writer Ernest Hemingway engaged in
homosexual relations. These incidents strained the Fitzgeralds'
marriage at the time of the novel's publication.
Although Fitzgerald's sexuality is a subject of scholarly debate, such
biographical details lent credence to critical interpretations that
his fictional characters are either gay or bisexual surrogates. As
early as 1945, critics such as Lionel Trilling noted that characters
in 'The Great Gatsby', such as Jordan Baker, were implied to be
"vaguely homosexual", and, in 1960, writer Otto Friedrich commented
upon the ease of examining the thwarted relations depicted in
Fitzgerald's fiction through a queer lens. In recent decades,
scholarship has focused sharply on the sexuality of Nick Carraway. In
one instance in the novel, Carraway departs a drunken orgy with a
"pale, feminine" man named Mr. McKee and--following suggestive
ellipses--Nick next finds himself standing beside a bed while McKee
sits between the sheets clad only in his underwear. Such scenes have
led scholars to describe Nick as possessing an overt queerness and
prompted analyses about his emotional attachment to Jay Gatsby. For
these reasons, the novel has been described as an exploration of
sexual identity during a historical era typified by the societal
transition towards modernity.
Technology and environment
============================
Technological and environmental criticisms of 'Gatsby' seek to place
the novel and its characters in a broader historical context. In 1964,
Leo Marx argued in 'The Machine in the Garden' that Fitzgerald's work
evinces a tension between a complex pastoral ideal of a bygone America
and the societal transformations caused by industrialization and
machine technology. Specifically, the valley of the ashes, in between
East and West Egg, represents a man-made wasteland which is a
byproduct of the industrialization that has made Gatsby's booming
lifestyle, including his automobile, possible. Marx argues that
Fitzgerald, via Nick, expresses a pastoral longing typical of other
1920s American writers like William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway.
Although such writers cherish the pastoral ideal, they accept that
technological progress has deprived this ideal of nearly all meaning.
In this context, Nick's repudiation of the eastern United States
represents a futile attempt to withdraw into nature. Yet, as
Fitzgerald's work shows, any technological demarcation between the
eastern and western United States has vanished, and one cannot escape
into a pastoral past.
In 2018, scholar Kyle Keeler argued that the voracious pursuit of
wealth as criticized in Fitzgerald's novel offers a warning about the
perils of environmental destruction in pursuit of self-interest.
According to Kyle Keeler, Gatsby's quest for greater status manifests
as self-centered, anthropocentric resource acquisition. Inspired by
the predatory mining practices of his fictional mentor Dan Cody,
Gatsby participates in extensive deforestation amid World War I and
then undertakes bootlegging activities reliant upon exploiting South
American agriculture. Gatsby conveniently ignores the wasteful
devastation of the valley of ashes to pursue a consumerist lifestyle
and exacerbates the wealth gap that became increasingly salient in
1920s America. For these reasons, Keeler argues that--while Gatsby's
socioeconomic ascent and self-transformation depend upon these very
factors--each one is nonetheless partially responsible for the ongoing
ecological crisis.
Antisemitism
==============
'The Great Gatsby' has been accused of antisemitism because of its use
of Jewish stereotypes. One of the novel's supporting characters is
Meyer Wolfsheim, a Jewish friend and mentor of Gatsby. A corrupt
profiteer who assists Gatsby's bootlegging operations and who fixed
the 1919 World Series, he appears only twice in the novel, the second
time refusing to attend Gatsby's funeral. Fitzgerald describes
Wolfsheim as "a small, flat-nosed Jew", with "tiny eyes" and "two fine
growths of hair" in his nostrils. Evoking ethnic stereotypes regarding
the Jewish nose, he describes Wolfsheim's nose as "expressive",
"tragic", and able to "flash... indignantly". The fictional character
of Wolfsheim is an allusion to real-life Jewish gambler Arnold
Rothstein, a notorious New York crime kingpin whom Fitzgerald met once
in undetermined circumstances. Rothstein was blamed for match fixing
in the Black Sox Scandal that tainted the 1919 World Series.
Wolfsheim has been interpreted as representing the Jewish miser
stereotype. Richard Levy, author of 'Antisemitism: A Historical
Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution', claims that Wolfsheim
serves to link Jewishness with corruption. In a 1947 article for
'Commentary', Milton Hindus, an assistant professor of humanities at
the University of Chicago, stated that while he believed the book was
a superb literary achievement, Wolfsheim was its most abrasive
character, and the work contains an antisemitic undertone. However,
Hindus argued the Jewish stereotypes displayed by Wolfsheim were
typical of the time when the novel was written and set and that its
antisemitism was of the "habitual, customary, 'harmless,' unpolitical
variety". A 2015 article by essayist Arthur Krystal agreed with
Hindus' assessment that Fitzgerald's use of Jewish caricatures was not
driven by malice and merely reflected commonly held beliefs of his
time. He notes the accounts of Frances Kroll, a Jewish woman and
secretary to Fitzgerald, who claimed that Fitzgerald was hurt by
accusations of antisemitism and responded to critiques of Wolfsheim by
claiming he merely "fulfilled a function in the story and had nothing
to do with race or religion".
Plays
=======
Florence Eldridge as Daisy and James Rennie as Gatsby in the first
stage adaptation of 'The Great Gatsby', 1926.
The first stage adaptation was produced by William Brady, a veteran
theatrical impresario and promoter of prize fights, who acquired the
rights only a few days after first reading the novel in the spring of
1925. The script was written by the American dramatist Owen Davis, who
had won a Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for his play, 'Icebound'. Davis
dramatically altered the structure of the novel, rearranging the
action in chronological order, eliminating prominent elements such as
the valley of ashes and the scene in the Plaza Hotel, and inventing
minor characters.
The play, directed by George Cukor and starring James Rennie as Gatsby
and Florence Eldridge as Daisy, opened on Broadway on February 2,
1926. It was well received by critics and the public, and the run was
extended past the originally scheduled closing date, finally ending on
May 22, after 112 performances. The production, with some changes in
the cast, then moved to Chicago, where it opened on August 1. Its
popularity again led to an extension of the run, which came to an end
in late September. A brief one-week return engagement at New York's
Shubert Theater began on October 4, after which a road production
traveled to several other cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia,
Detroit, St. Louis, Denver, and Minneapolis.
In July 2006, a stage adaptation written by Simon Levy and directed by
David Esbjornson premiered at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis to
celebrate the opening of its new building. In 2010, critic Ben
Brantley of 'The New York Times' highly praised the debut of 'Gatz',
an Off-Broadway staging of the novel's full text by Elevator Repair
Service. The New York Metropolitan Opera commissioned John Harbison to
compose an operatic treatment of the novel to commemorate the 25th
anniversary of James Levine's debut. The work, called 'The Great
Gatsby', premiered on December 20, 1999.
The novel has also been adapted for ballet performances. In 2009,
BalletMet premiered a version at the Capitol Theatre in Columbus,
Ohio. In 2010, The Washington Ballet premiered a version at the
Kennedy Center. The show received an encore run the following year.
Film
======
The first film version of the novel appeared in 1926. A version of
Owen Davis's Broadway play of the same year, it was directed by
Herbert Brenon and starred Warner Baxter, Lois Wilson and William
Powell. It is a famous example of a lost film. Reviews suggest it may
have been the most faithful adaptation of the novel, but a trailer of
the film at the National Archives is all that is known to exist.
Reportedly, Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda loathed the silent version.
Zelda wrote to an acquaintance that the film was "rotten". She and
Scott left the cinema midway through the film.
Following the 1926 film was 1949's 'The Great Gatsby', directed by
Elliott Nugent and starring Alan Ladd, Betty Field and Macdonald
Carey. Twenty-five years later in 1974, 'The Great Gatsby' appeared
onscreen again. It was directed by Jack Clayton and starred Robert
Redford as Gatsby, Mia Farrow as Daisy, and Sam Waterston as Nick
Carraway. Most recently, 'The Great Gatsby' was directed by Baz
Luhrmann in 2013 and starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, Carey
Mulligan as Daisy, and Tobey Maguire as Nick.
In 2021, visual effects company DNEG Animation announced they would be
producing an animated film adaptation of the novel directed by William
Joyce and written by Brian Selznick.
Television
============
'Gatsby' has been retold as a short-form television movie multiple
times. The first was in 1955 as an NBC episode for 'Robert Montgomery
Presents' starring Robert Montgomery, Phyllis Kirk, and Lee Bowman.
The episode was directed by Alvin Sapinsley. In 1958, CBS filmed
another adaptation as an episode of 'Playhouse 90', also titled 'The
Great Gatsby,' which was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starred
Robert Ryan, Jeanne Crain and Rod Taylor. Most recently, the novel was
adapted as an A&E movie in 2000. 'The Great Gatsby' was directed
by Robert Markowitz and starred Toby Stephens as Gatsby, Mira Sorvino
as Daisy, and Paul Rudd as Nick.
Musicals
==========
The Yale Dramatic Association performed the first musical production
of 'The Great Gatsby' in Summer 1956. For the production, Aubrey L.
Goodman adapted Fitzgerald's novel and wrote the lyrics for 14 songs
by composer Robert E. Morgan. The show was performed in the University
Theatre at Yale University to sold-out performances. After the Yale
production, a number of musical adaptations followed.
A second musical adaptation debuted in Spring 1998, undertaken by
Stage One, with Colin Stevens as Gatsby and Ann Marcuson as Jordan
Baker. Directed by Phil Smith with an original score by Thomas
Johnson, this jazz adaptation premiered at the Pavilion Theatre in
Rhyl, Wales. As a jazz adaptation, Johnson's original score emphasized
saxophone and brass sextet instruments.
In 2023, the third musical adaptation, with music and lyrics by Jason
Howland and Nathan Tysen and a book by Kait Kerrigan began a one-month
limited engagement at the Paper Mill Playhouse. The Broadway tryout
began its previews on October 12, 2023, followed by an official
opening night scheduled for ten days later. The production concluded
on November 12 of the same year. Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada
starred as the leading roles of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan, with
Samantha Pauly and Noah J. Ricketts as Jordan Baker and Nick Carraway.
The production transferred to Broadway for previews on March 29, 2024,
and opened officially on April 25th, 2024.
In Spring 2024, 'Gatsby: An American Myth', a fourth musical
adaptation with music and lyrics by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett
and a book by Martyna Majok premiered at the American Repertory
Theater. The production starred Isaac Cole Powell as Jay Gatsby and
Ben Levi Ross as Nick Carraway. On May 25, 2024, the show began
previews and opened officially on June 5 of the same year. It closed
on August 3rd, 2024.
Literature
============
Since entering the public domain in 2021, retellings and expansions of
'The Great Gatsby' have become legal to publish. 'Nick' by Michael
Farris Smith (2021) imagines the backstory of Nick Carraway. That same
year saw the publication of 'The Chosen and the Beautiful' by Nghi Vo,
a retelling with elements of the fantasy genre while tackling issues
of race and sexuality, and 'The Pursued and the Pursuing' by AJ
Odasso, a queer partial retelling and sequel in which Jay Gatsby
survives. Anna-Marie McLemore's own queer retelling, 'Self-Made Boys:
A Great Gatsby Remix', was released in 2022 and was longlisted for the
National Book Award for Young People's Literature.
Radio
=======
The novel has been adapted into a series of radio episodes. The first
radio episode was a 1950 half-hour-long adaptation for CBS' 'Family
Hour of Stars' starring Kirk Douglas as Gatsby. The novel was read
aloud by the BBC World Service in ten parts in 2008. In a 2012 BBC
Radio 4 broadcast, 'The Great Gatsby' took the form of a Classic
Serial dramatization. It was created by dramatist Robert Forrest.
Video games
=============
In 2010, Oberon Media released a casual hidden object game called
'Classic Adventures: The Great Gatsby'. In 2011, developer Charlie
Hoey and editor Pete Smith created an 8-bit-style online game of 'The
Great Gatsby' called 'The Great Gatsby for NES'; in 2022, after the
Adobe Flash end of life they adapted this game to an actual NES ROM
file, which can also be played on their website. In 2013, 'Slate'
released a short symbolic adaptation called 'The Great Gatsby: The
Video Game'.
Print sources
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* The 1945 essays by Lionel Trilling and William Troy were collected
in Alfred Kazin's 1951 anthology 'F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Man and His
Work'.
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External links
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[
https://brtom.typepad.com/indexing/an-index-to-the-great-gatsby.html
"An Index to 'The Great Gatsby'"]
*
[
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/04/14/t-magazine/14document.html
'The Great Gatsby' - "A Book by Its Covers"] at 'T: The New York Times
Style Magazine'.
License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby
