The Great Gatsby is a
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by the
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author
F. Scott FitzgeraldFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
. First published in
1925, it is set on
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
's
North ShoreThe North Shore of Long Island is the area along Long Island's northern coast, bordering Long Island Sound. The region has long been the most affluent on Long Island, as well as the most affluent in the New York metropolitan area, which has earned it the nickname "the Gold Coast." Though some...
and in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
from spring to autumn of 1922.
The novel takes place following the
First World WarWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. American society enjoyed prosperity during the
"roaring" 1920sThe Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America, but also in London, Berlin and Paris for a period of sustained economic prosperity. The phrase was meant to emphasize the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism...
as the economy soared. At the same time,
ProhibitionProhibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
, the ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol as mandated by the
Eighteenth AmendmentThe Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution established Prohibition in the United States. The separate Volstead Act set down methods of enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, and defined which "intoxicating liquors" were prohibited, and which were excluded from prohibition...
, made millionaires out of bootleggers. After its republishing in 1945 and 1953, it quickly found a wide readership and is today widely regarded as a paragon of the
Great American NovelThe "Great American Novel" is the concept of a novel that is distinguished in both craft and theme as being the most accurate representative of the zeitgeist in the United States at the time of its writing. It is presumed to be written by an American author who is knowledgeable about the state,...
, and a literary classic. The
Modern LibraryThe Modern Library is a publishing company. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, it was purchased in 1925 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer...
named it the second best novel of the 20th Century.
Writing and publication
With
The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald made a conscious departure from the writing process of his previous novels. He started planning it in June 1922, after completing his play
The Vegetable and began composing it in 1923. He ended up discarding most of it as a false start, some of which resurfaced in the story "Absolution". Unlike his previous works, Fitzgerald intended to edit and reshape
Gatsby thoroughly, believing that it held the potential to launch him toward literary acclaim. He told his editor
Maxwell PerkinsWilliam Maxwell Evarts Perkins , was the editor for Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe. He has been described as the most famous literary editor.-Career:...
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 editing, 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 NeckThe term Great Neck is commonly applied to a peninsula on the North Shore of Long Island, which includes the village of Great Neck, the village of Great Neck Estates, the village of Great Neck Plaza, and others, as well as an area south of the peninsula near Lake Success and the border of Queens...
,
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
in October 1922, appropriating Great Neck as the setting for
The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald's neighbors included such newly wealthy New Yorkers as writer
Ring LardnerRinggold Wilmer Lardner was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical takes on the sports world, marriage, and the theatre.-Personal life:...
, actor
Lew FieldsLew Fields , born as Moses Schoenfeld, was an American actor, comedian, vaudeville star, theatre manager and producer....
and comedian
Ed WynnEd Wynn was a popular American comedian and actor noted for his Perfect Fool comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a dramatic actor....
. Great Neck, on the shores of
Long Island SoundLong Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...
, sat across a bay from
Manhasset NeckManhasset Bay, New York, is an embayment in western Long Island off Long Island Sound. Manhasset Bay forms the northeastern boundary of the Great Neck Peninsula and the southwestern boundary of Cow Neck...
or
Cow Neck PeninsulaThe North Shore of Long Island is the area along Long Island's northern coast, bordering Long Island Sound. The region has long been the most affluent on Long Island, as well as the most affluent in the New York metropolitan area, which has earned it the nickname "the Gold Coast." Though some...
, which includes the communities of
Port WashingtonPort Washington is a hamlet and census-designated place in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the community population was 15,846....
,
ManhassetManhasset is a hamlet and neighborhood in Nassau County, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the population was 8,080....
,
Port Washington NorthPort Washington North is a village in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 3,154 at the 2010 census.The Village of Port Washington North is in the Town of North Hempstead.-Geography:...
and
Sands PointSands Point is a village located at the northernmost tip of the Cow Neck Peninsula on the North Shore of Long Island in Nassau County, New York. As of the United States 2010 Census, the village population was 2,675. The Incorporated Village of Sands Point is in the Town of North...
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 1923, the Fitzgeralds moved to the
French RivieraThe Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
, where the novel was finished. In November he sent the draft to his editor Maxwell Perkins and his agent
Harold OberHarold Ober was an American literary agent.In 1907 — two years after graduating from Harvard with a degree in literature — Harold Ober became a literary agent at the Paul R. Reynolds Literary Agency. By 1908 he was representing such authors as Jack London and H. G. Wells. In 1929, he opened his...
. The Fitzgeralds moved to Rome for the winter. Fitzgerald made revisions through the winter after Perkins informed him that the novel was too vague and Gatsby's biographical section too long. Content after a few rounds of revision, Fitzgerald 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 CugatFrancis Cugat was an artist whose most famous work was the original 1925 cover of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.- Biography :...
was commissioned to illustrate the book while Fitzgerald was in the midst of writing it. The cover was completed before the novel, with Fitzgerald so enamored by it that he told his publisher he had "written it into" the novel.
Fitzgerald's remarks about incorporating the painting into the novel led to the interpretation that the eyes are reminiscent of those of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg (the novel's erstwhile 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." Although this passage has some resemblance to the painting, a closer explanation can be found in the description of Daisy Buchanan as the "girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs".
Ernest HemingwayErnest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
recorded in
A Moveable FeastA Moveable Feast is a set of memoirs by American author Ernest Hemingway about his years in Paris as part of the American expatriate circle of writers in the 1920s. The book describes Hemingway's apprenticeship as a young writer in Europe during the 1920s with his first wife, Hadley...
that when Fitzgerald lent him a copy of
The Great Gatsby to read, he immediately disliked the cover, but "Scott told me not to be put off by it, that it had to do with a billboard along a highway in Long Island that was important in the story. He said he had liked the jacket and now he didn't like it."
Title
The title was hard to choose. Fitzgerald was ambivalent about it, shifting between
Gatsby;
Among Ash-Heaps and Millionaires;
TrimalchioTrimalchio is a character in the Roman novel The Satyricon by Petronius. He plays a part only in the section titled Cena Trimalchionis . Trimalchio is a freedman who through hard work and perseverance has attained power and wealth...
;
Trimalchio in West Egg;
On the Road to West Egg;
Under the Red, White, and Blue;
Gold-Hatted Gatsby and
The High-Bouncing Lover. Initially, he preferred
Trimalchio, after the crude
parvenuA Parvenu is a person who is a relative newcomer to a socioeconomic class. The word is borrowed from the French language; it is the past participle of the verb parvenir...
in
PetroniusGaius Petronius Arbiter was a Roman courtier during the reign of Nero. He is generally believed to be the author of the Satyricon, a satirical novel believed to have been written during the Neronian age.-Life:...
's
SatyriconSatyricon is a Latin work of fiction in a mixture of prose and poetry. It is believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius, though the manuscript tradition identifies the author as a certain Titus Petronius...
. Unlike Fitzgerald's protagonist, Trimalchio participated in the audacious and libidinous orgies that he hosted. That Fitzgerald refers to Gatsby by the proposed title once in the novel reinforces the view that it would have been a misnomer. As Tony Tanner observed, there are subtle similarities between the two.
On November 7, 1924, Fitzgerald wrote to Perkins — "I have now decided to stick to the title I put on the book [...]
Trimalchio in West Egg" but was eventually persuaded that the reference was too obscure and that people would not be able to pronounce it. His wife 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, Fitzgerald asked if the book could be renamed
Under the Red, White and Blue but it was at that stage too late to change.
The Great Gatsby was published on April 10, 1925. Fitzgerald remarked that "the title is only fair, rather bad than good".
Plot
Nick Carraway, having graduated from Yale and fought in World War I, has returned home to begin a career. He is restless and has decided to move to New York to learn the bond business. The novel opens early in the summer of 1922 in West Egg, Long Island, where Nick has rented a house next to Gatsby's mansion.
Tom and Daisy Buchanan live across the bay in the more fashionable East Egg. Daisy is Nick's cousin and Tom had been in the same senior society at Yale College. They invite Nick to dinner at their mansion where he meets a young woman named Jordan Baker, whom Daisy wants Nick to date. Daisy, who is still as beautiful and charming as she ever was, now has a young child. Tom is muscular, brusque and considers himself an intellectual. During dinner the phone rings, and when Tom and Daisy leave the room, Jordan informs Nick that the caller is Tom's mistress from New York.
Myrtle Wilson, Tom's mistress, lives in a section of Long Island known as the Valley of Ashes, where Myrtle's husband, George Wilson, owns a garage. Painted on a large billboard nearby is a fading advertisement for an ophthalmologist: a set of huge eyes looking through a pair of glasses.
Around three weeks after that evening at the Buchanans', Tom takes Nick to meet the Wilsons. He then takes Nick and Myrtle to New York to a party in a flat he is renting for her. The party breaks up when Myrtle insolently starts shouting Daisy's name, and Tom breaks her nose with a blow of his open hand.
Several weeks later Nick is invited to one of Gatsby's elaborate parties. He attends with Jordan and finds that many of the guests are uninvited and know very little about their host, leading to much speculation about his past. Nick meets Gatsby and notices that he does not drink or join in the revelry of the party.
On the way to lunch in New York with Nick, Gatsby tells Nick that he is the son of a rich family ("all dead now") from San Francisco and that he attended
OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. During lunch Gatsby introduces Nick to his business associate, Meyer Wolfsheim, who fixed the World Series in 1919. Nick is astonished and slightly unsettled.
At tea that afternoon Nick finds out that Gatsby wants Nick to arrange a meeting between him and Daisy. Gatsby and Daisy had loved each other five years ago, but he was penniless and chose to let Daisy believe that he was as well off as she was. Gatsby was then sent overseas by the army. Daisy had given up waiting for him and had married Tom. After the War, Gatsby decided to win Daisy back by buying a house in West Egg and throwing lavish parties in the hopes that she would attend. His house is directly across the bay from hers, and he can see a green light at the end of Daisy's dock.
Gatsby and Daisy meet for the first time in five years, and he tries to impress her with his mansion and his wealth. Daisy is overcome with emotion and their relationship begins anew. She and Tom finally attend one of Gatsby's parties, but she dislikes it. Gatsby remarks unhappily that their relationship is not like how it was five years ago.
Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Nick and Jordan get together at Daisy's house, where they meet Daisy's young daughter, whom Daisy treats as a mere pet that she quickly gives back to a maid when the child has provided a moment's entertainment. The group decide to go to the city to escape the heat. Tom, Jordan and Nick take Gatsby's car, a yellow Rolls-Royce. Daisy and Gatsby go in Tom's car, a blue coupé. On the way to the city, Tom stops at Wilson's garage to fill up the tank. Wilson is distraught and ill, saying his wife has been having an affair, though he doesn't know with whom. Tom feels Myrtle watching them from the window.
The party goes to a hotel suite, where Tom confronts Gatsby about his relationship with Daisy. Gatsby demands that Daisy leave Tom and tell him that she never loved him. Daisy is unwilling to do either, admitting that she did love Tom once, which shocks Gatsby. Tom accuses Gatsby of
bootleggingRum-running, also known as bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law...
and other illegal activities, and Daisy begs to go home. Gatsby and Daisy drive back together in Gatsby's car, followed by the rest of the party in Tom's car.
On the way home by Wilson's garage, Myrtle runs out into the street, believing it to be Tom coming by in his car, and the yellow Rolls-Royce hits and kills her before speeding off. Gatsby tells Daisy, who was driving, that he'll take the blame. When Tom arrives at Wilson's garage shortly afterward, he is horrified to find Myrtle dead. He believes Gatsby killed her and drives home in tears. Once home, Tom and Daisy seem to have reconciled. After a sleepless night, Nick goes over to Gatsby's house where Gatsby ponders the uncertainty of his future with Daisy.
Wilson has been restless from grief, convinced that Myrtle's death was not accidental. He goes around town inquiring about the yellow Rolls-Royce. While Gatsby is relaxing in his pool, Wilson shoots and kills him before killing himself.
Nick struggles to arrange Gatsby's funeral, finding that while he was well-connected in life, very few people, especially business associates like Wolfsheim, are willing to attend. Daisy is unable to be reached after going off on vacation with Tom. In the end, only Nick, a few servants, Mr. Gatz (Gatsby's father) and "Owl-eyes" are present. Mr. Gatz proudly tells Nick about his son, who was born James Gatz and worked tirelessly to improve and reinvent himself. Nick decides to move back West, breaking things off with Jordan Baker. After Tom reveals that he told Wilson that the yellow car was Gatsby's, Nick loses respect for the Buchanans and shakes Tom's hand one last time before going on his own way.
Major characters
- Nick Carraway (narrator
A narrator is, within any story , the fictional or non-fictional, personal or impersonal entity who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for...
)—bond salesman from the Midwest, a YaleRapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
graduate, a World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
veteran, and a resident of West Egg. He is Gatsby's next-door neighbor.
- Jay Gatsby (originally James Gatz)—a young, mysterious millionaire later revealed to be a bootlegger, originally from North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
, with shady business connections and an obsessive love for Daisy Fay Buchanan, whom he had met when he was a young officer in World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
- Daisy Buchanan née
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Fay—an attractive and effervescent, if shallow, young woman; Nick's second cousinIn kinship terminology, a cousin is a relative with whom one shares one or more common ancestors. The term is rarely used when referring to a relative in one's immediate family where there is a more specific term . The term "blood relative" can be used synonymously and establishes the existence of...
, once removed; and the wife of Tom Buchanan. Daisy is believed to have been inspired by Fitzgerald's own youthful romance with Chicago heiress Ginevra KingGinevra King was an American socialite, a Chicago, Illinois, debutante and the inspirational muse for several characters in the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald.-Early life:...
.
- Tom Buchanan—millionaire who lives on East Egg, and Daisy's husband. Buchanan has parallels with William Mitchell, the Chicagoan who married Ginevra King. Buchanan and Mitchell were both Chicagoans with an interest in polo
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
. Like Ginevra's father, whom Fitzgerald resented, Buchanan attended YaleRapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
and is a white supremacistWhite supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...
.
- Jordan Baker—She is Daisy Buchanan's long-time friend, a professional golfer with a slightly shady reputation. Fitzgerald told Maxwell Perkins that Jordan was based on the golfer Edith Cummings
Edith Cummings was one of the premier amateur golfers of her generation. She was one of the Big Four debutantes in Chicago, at the end of the First World War. She became nationally famous following her 1923 victory in the U.S. Women's Amateur...
, a friend of Ginevra King. Her name is a play on the two then-popular automobile brands, the The Jordan Motor Car Company and the Baker Motor VehicleBaker Motor Vehicle Company was a manufacturer of Brass Era electric automobiles in Cleveland, Ohio from 1899 to 1914.-History:The first Baker vehicle was a two seater with a selling price of US$850. One was sold to Thomas Edison as his first car. Edison also designed the nickel-iron batteries used...
, alluding to Jordan's "fast" reputation and the freedom now presented to Americans, especially women, in the 1920s.
- George B. Wilson—a mechanic and owner of a garage.
- Myrtle Wilson—George Wilson's unstable wife and Tom Buchanan's mistress.
Minor characters
- Meyer Wolfsheim—a Jewish man Gatsby describes as a gambler who had fixed the World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
. Wolfsheim is a clear allusionAn allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, people, places, events, literary work, myths, or works of art, either directly or by implication. M. H...
to Arnold RothsteinArnold Rothstein , nicknamed "The Brain", was a New York businessman and gambler who became a famous kingpin of the Jewish mafia. Rothstein was also widely reputed to have been behind baseball's Black Sox Scandal, in which the 1919 World Series was fixed...
, a New York crime kingpin who was notoriously blamed for the Black Sox ScandalThe Black Sox Scandal took place around and during the play of the American baseball 1919 World Series. Eight members of the Chicago White Sox were banned for life from baseball for intentionally losing games, which allowed the Cincinnati Reds to win the World Series...
which tainted the 1919 World SeriesThe 1919 World Series matched the American League champion Chicago White Sox against the National League champion Cincinnati Reds. Although most World Series have been of the best-of-seven format, the 1919 World Series was a best-of-nine series...
.
- Catherine—Myrtle Wilson's sister.
- Chester and Lucille McKee—Myrtle's New York friends.
- "Owl-eyes"—a drunken party-goer whom Nick meets in Gatsby's library. One of the few people to attend Gatsby's funeral.
- Ewing "The Boarder" Klipspringer—a sponger who virtually lives at Gatsby's mansion.
- Pammy Buchanan—the Buchanans' two-year-old daughter.
- Henry C. Gatz—Gatsby's somewhat estranged father in North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
.
- Michaelis—George Wilson's neighbor.
- Dan Cody—an adventurer who was Gatsby's mentor as a youth.
Reception
The Great Gatsby received mostly positive reviews, but not the commercial success of Fitzgerald's previous novels
This Side of ParadiseThis Side of Paradise is the debut novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Published in 1920, and taking its title from a line of the Rupert Brooke poem Tiare Tahiti, the book examines the lives and morality of post-World War I youth. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive Princeton University...
and
The Beautiful and DamnedThe Beautiful and Damned, first published by Scribner's in 1922, is F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel. The novel provides a portrait of the Eastern elite during the Jazz Age, exploring New York Café Society. As with his other novels, Fitzgerald's characters are complex, especially in their...
. The book went through two printings. Years later, some of these copies were still unsold. Many of Fitzgerald's literary friends, however, wrote him letters praising the novel.
When Fitzgerald died in 1940, he had been largely forgotten. His obituary in
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
mentioned
Gatsby as evidence that he had great potential that he never reached. But people began to read his book again, aided in part by the
Armed Services EditionsArmed Services Editions were small, compact, paperback books printed by the Council on Books in Wartime for distribution within the American military during World War II. This program was in effect from 1943 to 1946. The ASEs were designed to provide entertainment to soldiers serving overseas,...
giving away around 150,000 copies of
Gatsby to the American military in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
In 1951 Arthur Mizener published
The Far Side of ParadiseThe Far Side of Paradise is a biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald by Arthur Mizener. It was the first biography about Fitzgerald to be published and is credited with renewing public interest in the subject...
, a biography of Fitzgerald. By the 1960s,
Gatsbys reputation was established, and it is frequently mentioned as one of the great American novels.
Critics have viewed it differently in each decade, and in recent years
BrechtianBertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
,
FreudianSigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
, postmodernist and feminist perspectives have joined the more traditional interpretations.
Film
The Great Gatsby has been filmed six times and is being filmed for a seventh time:
- The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a silent film adaptation of the novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film was directed by Herbert Brenon, produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky at Famous Players-Lasky, and released by Paramount Pictures. The film is a famous example of a lost film....
, in 1926-Events:*August - Warner Brothers debuts the first Vitaphone film, Don Juan. The Vitaphone system used multiple 33⅓ rpm disc records developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric to play back audio synchronized with film....
by Herbert Brenon – a silent movieSilent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...
of a stage adaptation, starring Warner BaxterWarner Leroy Baxter was an American actor, known for his role as The Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona , for which he won the second Academy Award for Best Actor in the 1928–1929 Academy Awards. Warner Baxter started his movie career in silent movies...
, Lois Wilson, and William PowellWilliam Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
. It is a famous example of a lost filmA lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
. Reviews suggest that it may have been the most faithful adaptation of the novel, but a trailer of the film at National ArchivesThe National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents, which comprise the National Archives...
is all that is known to exist.
- The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a 1949 film made by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Elliott Nugent and produced by Richard Maibaum, from a screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Cyril Hume based on the novel of the same title by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the play by Owen Davis. The music score was by Robert...
, in 1949The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...
by Elliott NugentElliott Nugent was an American actor, writer, and film director. He successfully made the transition from silent film to sound. He directed The Cat and the Canary , starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard...
– starring Alan Ladd-Early life:Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was the only child of Ina Raleigh Ladd and Alan Ladd, Sr. He was of English ancestry. His father died when he was four, and his mother relocated to Oklahoma City where she married Jim Beavers, a housepainter...
, Betty FieldBetty Field was an American film and stage actress. Through her father, she was a direct descendant of the Pilgrims John Alden and Priscilla Mullins....
, and Shelley WintersShelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television; her career spanned over 50 years until her death in 2006...
; for copyright reasons, this film is not readily available.
- The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a 1974 romantic drama film distributed by Newdon Productions and Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Jack Clayton and produced by David Merrick, from a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola based on F...
, in 1974The year 1974 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 7 - Blazing Saddles is released in the USA.*August 7 - Peter Wolf, lead singer of The J...
, by Jack ClaytonJack Clayton was a British film director who specialised in bringing literary works to the screen.-Career:A native of East Sussex, Clayton started his career as a child actor on the 1929 film Dark Red Roses...
– the most famous screen version, starring Sam WaterstonSamuel Atkinson "Sam" Waterston is an American actor and occasional producer and director. Among other roles, he is noted for his Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Sydney Schanberg in 1984's The Killing Fields, and his Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning portrayal of Jack McCoy...
as narrator Nick Carraway, with Mia FarrowMia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
as Daisy Buchanan and Robert RedfordCharles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
as Gatsby, with a scriptA screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
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- The Great Gatsby, in 2000
The year 2000 in film involved some significant events.The top grosser worldwide was Mission: Impossible II. Domestically in North America, Gladiator won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor ....
by Robert MarkowitzRobert Markowitz is an American film/television director. He has directed a number television films that include Too Young to Die? , Decoration Day , The Tuskegee Airmen , The Great Gatsby , The Pilot's Wife , Word of Honor and among other films.He also directed episodes...
– a made-for-TVTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
movie starring Toby StephensToby Stephens is an English stage, television and film actor who has appeared in films in both Hollywood and Bollywood. He is best known for playing megavillain Gustav Graves in the James Bond film Die Another Day , Edward Fairfax Rochester in the BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre and Philip...
, Paul RuddPaul Stephen Rudd is an American actor and screenwriter. He has primarily appeared in comedies, and is known for his roles in the films Clueless, Wet Hot American Summer, Anchorman, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Dinner for Schmucks, The Object of My...
and Mira SorvinoMira Katherine Sorvino is an American actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mighty Aphrodite and is also known for her role as Romy White in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.- Early life :Sorvino was born in Tenafly, New Jersey...
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- G
G is a film released in 2002 by Christopher Scott Cherot. It made its worldwide premiere on May 10, 2002 at the Tribeca Film Festival in USA. It made its theatrical premiere on October 28, 2005 in the US, more than 3 years from its initial premiere. Since then, it has been released on DVD in Spain,...
, in 2002 by Christopher Scott CherotChristopher Scott Cherot , born November, 1967, in The Bronx, New York, is an American film director best known for Hav Plenty , a true story that he wrote, edited, produced, acted in and directed.-Projects:Mr...
- a modernized, loosely based adaptation starring Richard T. JonesRichard Timothy Jones is an American film and television actor.Jones was born in Kobe, Japan and raised in Carson, California. He is the son of Lorene, a computer analyst, and Clarence Jones, a professional baseball player and the hitting instructor for the Cleveland Indians. He also has an older...
, Blair UnderwoodBlair Underwood is an American television and film actor. He is perhaps best known as headstrong attorney Jonathan Rollins from the NBC legal drama L.A. Law, a role he portrayed for seven years. He has gained critical acclaim throughout his career, receiving numerous Golden Globe Award...
, and Chenoa MaxwellChenoa Maxwell is an American actress and photographer.-Career:Maxwell is best known for her starring role in the 1997 romantic comedy Hav Plenty and as the recurring character Lena Turner on the hit UPN sitcom Girlfriends...
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- The Great Gatsby, in 2007 by Lee Kang-hoon – a Korean adaptation starring Kang Kyeong-joon, Park Ye-jin
Park Ye-jin is a South Korean actress. Park made her acting debut in the movie Memento Mori and was able to build her career as an intelligent and elegant actress. She had this fixed image of her until she became part of a variety show, Family Outing...
and MC MongMC Mong is a South Korean hip hop artist who is known for his comic disposition and his upbeat songs. He graduated from Dong-Ah Broadcasting College. MC Mong has collaborated with many well known artists, including Kim Tae Woo from G.o.d., Ock Ju-hyun, Ivy, Crown J, Lena Park, Park Hyo Shin, SG...
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- The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is an upcoming drama romance film adaptation of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald's highly praised 1925 novel of the same name. It will be directed by Baz Luhrmann, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby and Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, as well as Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway...
, to be directed by Baz LuhrmannMark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for The Red Curtain Trilogy, which includes his films Strictly Ballroom, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!...
and starring Leonardo DiCaprioLeonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
, Amitabh BachchanAmitabh Bachchan is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades...
, Carey MulliganCarey Hannah Mulligan is an English actress. She made her film debut as Kitty Bennet in Pride & Prejudice . She had roles in numerous British programmes and, in 2007, made her Broadway debut in The Seagull to critical acclaim....
, Tobey MaguireTobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire is an American actor and producer. He began his career in the 1980s, and has achieved his greatest fame for his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films.-Early life:...
, Callan McAuliffeCallan McAuliffe is an Australian actor. He starred in the American feature films Flipped and I Am Number Four. He will also star in the 2012 films, The Great Gatsby and Paradise Lost.-Life and career:...
, Isla FisherIsla Lang Fisher is an actress and author. She began acting on Australian television, on the short-lived soap opera Paradise Beach before playing Shannon Reed on the soap opera Home and Away...
, Elizabeth Debicki- External links :...
, and Joel EdgertonJoel Edgerton is an Australian film and television actor.-Early life:Edgerton was born in Blacktown, Sydney, to a homemaker mother and a solicitor/property developer father, Michael. His brother, Nash Edgerton, is a stuntman and filmmaker...
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Television
The second season of the Showtime television series
CalifornicationCalifornication is an American comedy-drama that premiered on Showtime on August 13, 2007. The show was created by Tom Kapinos. The protagonist, Hank Moody , is a troubled novelist whose move to California, coupled with his writer's block, complicates his relationships with his longtime girlfriend...
, starting with its second episode "The Great Ashby", is partly a modern take on the novel, with the characters Lew Ashby, Janie Jones and Hank Moody as modern versions of Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan and Nick Carraway.
Opera
An
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic treatment of the novel was commissioned from
John HarbisonJohn Harris Harbison is an American composer, best known for his operas and large choral works.-Life:...
by the
New York Metropolitan OperaThe Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the debut of
James LevineJames Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of May 2011 he has...
. The work, which is also called
The Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby is an opera in two acts written by American composer John Harbison. The libretto, also by Harbison, was adapted from the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Additional popular song lyrics were by Murray Horwitz...
, premiered on December 20, 1999.
Books
- Ernesto Quiñonez's Bodega Dreams adapted The Great Gatsby to Spanish Harlem
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem and El Barrio, is a section of Harlem in the northeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Harlem is one of the largest predominantly Latino communities in New York City. It includes the area formerly known as Italian Harlem, in which...
- The Great Gatsby, a graphic novel adaptation by Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n cartoonist Nicki GreenbergNicki Greenberg is a Melbourne-based Australian comic artist and illustrator.Her graphic novel adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was published in 2007 by Allen & Unwin in Australia and by Penguin in Canada...
- The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
Christopher Aram Bohjalian, who goes by the pen name Chris Bohjalian, is an American novelist. Bohjalian is the author of 14 novels, including New York Times bestsellers Midwives, "Secrets of Eden," The Law of Similars, Before You Know Kindness, The Double Bind and Skeletons at the Feast...
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.
- The young adult novel Jake Reinvented by Gordon Korman is a modern version of The Great Gatsby in which the characters are high school students.
- Daisy Buchanan's Daughter (2011) by Christopher Jewett is the purported autobiography of Tom and Daisy Buchanan's daughter
Radio
- In October 2008, the BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
commissioned and broadcast an abridged 10-part reading of the story, read from the view of Nick Carraway by Trevor White.
Music
- In April 2010, the folk duo Reg & Phil released a song entitled "Daisy Buchanan" on their self-titled album. The song, told by an anonymous narrator, directly addresses the novel's titular character.
Theater
- The Guthrie Theater produced the only "official" stage adaptation to be approved by the Fitzgerald Estate since 1926 to commemorate the opening of its new theatre in July 2006. Written by Simon Levy
Simon Levy is an award-winning theatre director and playwright, who has been the Producing Director/Dramaturg with The Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles since 1993.- Biography :Levy was born in Surrey, England and grew up in San Francisco...
, directed by David EsbjornsonDavid Esbjornson is an award-winning director and producer who has worked throughout the United States in regional theatres and on Broadway, and has established strong and productive relationships with some of the profession’s top playwrights, actors, and companies...
, and subsequently produced by Seattle Repertory TheatreSeattle Repertory Theatre is a major regional theatre located in Seattle, Washington, at the Seattle Center. It is a member of Theatre Puget Sound and Theatre Communications Group. Founded in 1963, it is led by Artistic Director Jerry Manning and Managing Director Benjamin Moore...
, a revised/reworked version, to be directed by Timothy Sheader, is in pre-production for a London opening in 2011.
- Elevator Repair Service
Elevator Repair Service are a New York-based theater ensemble founded by director John Collins and a group of actors in 1991.ERS have performed in various New York including Performance Space 122, The Performing Garage, HERE, The Ontological at St. Mark's Church, The Flea, The Kitchen, and Soho...
, an experimental theater group, produced a theater version of The Great Gatsby, entitled "Gatz." It is set in an office and read and performed by actor Scott Shepherd along with a cast of 12 other actors.
Computer games
- In 2010 a casual Hidden Object game called Classic Adventures: The Great Gatsby was released by Oberon Media
Oberon Media is a multi-platform casual games company, delivering casual games solutions across online, social, mobile/Smartphone, interactive TV and retail categories...
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- As a tribute to old NES
-Localities:In Norway:* Nes, Akershus, a municipality in the county of Akershus in Norway* Nes, Buskerud, a municipality in the county of Buskerud in Norway* Nes, Hedmark, a former municipality in the county of Hedmark in Norway...
games, developer Charlie Hoey and editor Pete Smith created an 8-bit version of The Great Gatsby that is playable online.
External links
- The Great Gatsby, from Project Gutenberg Australia
Project Gutenberg Australia, abbreviated as PGA, is an Internet site which was founded in 2001 by Colin Choat. The site hosts free ebooks or e-texts which are in the public domain in Australia. The ebooks have been prepared and submitted by volunteers...
, plain text.
- The Great Gatsby, in Wikilivres.info