Skip to main content

Gatsby's second life




It seems the novel would have died the same death as its namesake had it not been for its inclusion in the Armed Services Editions in 1945.  Maureen Corrigan notes in her new book on The Great Gatsby that the novel had floundered for decades, unable to sell, due it seems to its lack of strong female characters.  Even Fitzgerald lamented that this was the case in a market driven by women readers at the time.  Not even a film version in 1926 could boost sales.

So We Read On appears to be an engaging new look at the novel.  Corrigan herself said she was nonplussed by the novel upon first reading, but after 50 readings has come to regard it as America's greatest novel.  Of course, she's not alone in this opinion.  The Great Gatsby frequently tops lists and is number two (behind Ulysses) in the Modern Library Top 100.


The novel has been reprinted many times in many different languages, resulting in more than 25 million copies sold worldwide.  When Fitzgerald died in 1940, the book had only sold 25,000 copies.  The Armed Services Edition distributed 123,000 copies in 1945.  Surprisingly, you can still get a first printing of the original edition for a reasonable price.

The book seems fitting today.  Jordan Belfort looked like a modern-day Gatsby in The Wolf of Wall Street, helped by Leonardo DiCaprio having played Gatsby in Luhrmann's misguided film earlier the same year.  Corrigan says the takeaway from this novel is: "you can't escape the past, but isn't it noble to try?"  I guess that depends on how many embittered persons you leave in your wake.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer.  Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions.  I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters.  Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs.  Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77.  I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not.  Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud.  -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!