ABSTRACT
The Great Gatsby was Fitzgerald’s fourth major novel. He was twentyeight when he started writing it and he would work just ten months on the project. While writing, he remarked to his editor Maxwell Perkins: “I want to write something new-something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned” (Prigozy 1998: ix). In this quest, Fitzgerald made alteration after alteration. Indeed, it has been noted that “Gatsby achieved its greatness in proof” (Prigozy 1998: x). Matthew J. Bruccoli goes even further by saying that the art of Fitzgerald’s fi ction is rewriting (1992: ix). On its completion, aware of its stylistic quality, Fitzgerald told Perkins “I’ve found my line-from now on this comes fi rst” (Prigozy 1998: xii). The Great Gatsby became Fitzgerald’s most successful novel, but initially it was a commercial fl op. The fi rst print run sold just 20,000 copies, far fewer than the 70,000 that were hoped for. A second print run was commissioned, but by the time Fitzgerald died fi fteen years later it had stopped selling. The apotheosis of the novel began after Gatsby’s death. In the 1950s it boomed, and by 1960 it had, as mentioned, reached the top of the Scribner bestseller list, where it has remained unchallenged ever since (Bruccoli 1992: 203-05).
