The Great Gatsby
An Edition of the Manuscript

The manuscript of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby in its earliest surviving format.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (Author), James L. W. West, III (Edited by), Don C. Skemer (Edited by)

9781108445559, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 December 2022

240 pages, 20 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.4 cm, 0.341 kg

'Like a jazz album offering multiple takes on a single tune, the value of this edition lies in the access it offers to the creative process. Comparing it to the novel published in April 1925 reveals the decisions Fitzgerald made as he revised his greatest work and supplies fascinating insights into its evolution … Seeing The Great Gatsby as it might have been shows that Fitzgerald's drive for perfection matched that of his beloved hero.' Sarah Graham, The Times Literary Supplement

This edition presents the manuscript of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the earliest full version of the novel that survives. Study of this manuscript reveals much about the composition of the novel - about the development of its characters and themes and the revision of its language. Fitzgerald reworked the manuscript, putting it through several drafts and continuing to edit until a few weeks before publication. The period of its creation was an amalgamation of his talent, inspiration, and self-discipline which resulted in a masterpiece. An introduction by James L. W. West, III, the general editor of the series, gives the compositional history of the novel; a bibliographical commentary by Don C. Skemer, Curator of Manuscripts at Princeton University Library, describes the manuscript and gives the story of its preservation, acquisition, and restoration. The reading text is presented without emendation and with a minimum of editorial apparatus. This edition will allow critics, teachers, and students to study The Great Gatsby as a fluid text, evolving and progressing toward its final form from its very earliest incarnation.

Acknowledgments
Illustrations
Introduction
The holograph of The Great Gatsby
A note on the text
Text of the manuscript
Explanatory notes
Illustrations.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]