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The Great Gatsby: The Only Authorized Edition
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The Great Gatsby: The Only Authorized Edition Paperback - 2004

by Fitzgerald, F. Scott

  • Used
  • Paperback

Description

Scribner, 2004-09-29. paperback. UsedGood. 5x0x8. Good condition.No marking/highlighting.Cover and pages may show some wear.Not Satisfied? Contact us to get a refund.
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Details

  • Title The Great Gatsby: The Only Authorized Edition
  • Author Fitzgerald, F. Scott
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition [ Edition: Repri
  • Condition UsedGood
  • Pages 180
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Scribner, Old Tappan, New Jersey, USA
  • Date 2004-09-29
  • Bookseller's Inventory # BRG-40_6_381
  • ISBN 9780743273565 / 0743273567
  • Weight 0.35 lbs (0.16 kg)
  • Dimensions 8 x 5.25 x 0.56 in (20.32 x 13.34 x 1.42 cm)
  • Reading level 1070
  • Themes
    • Catalog Heading: Classics
    • Curriculum Strand: Language Arts/Literature
    • Topical: Family
    • Topical: Friendship
  • Library of Congress subjects Psychological fiction, Love stories
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About this book

Written in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be one of the author’s greatest works. Set in New York City and Long Island during the Roaring Twenties, the focus of the story is (of course) its title character, Jay Gatsby, and his unswerving desire to be reunited with Daisy Buchanan, the love he lost five years earlier. However, Nick Carraway, who happens to be both Gatsby’s neighbor and Daisy’s cousin, narrates Gatsby's journey from poverty to wealth, into the arms of his beloved, and eventually to death.

The Great Gatsby is undoubtedly one of the greatest American literary documents of the 1920s, the decade for which Fitzgerald himself coined the term “Jazz Age.” However, in writing the book, Fitzgerald was in fact holding up a mirror to the society of which he was a part. In true Modernist fashion, The Great Gatsby addresses the social issues of the period — namely materialism and displaced spirituality — that ultimately led the decline of the era.

The novel’s initial sales situation was less than impressive; fewer than 25,000 copies were sold by Fitzgerald’s death in 1940. But The Great Gatsby gained great popularity during WWII as the critical mainstream began to embrace the author’s work. The Armed Services Editions circulated 150,000 copies to troops alone. Today, The Great Gatsby has sold over 25 million copies worldwide, sells an additional 500,000 copies annually, and is Scribner's most popular title. Ranked #2 on the Modern Library’s list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century, the novel is also listed on their Top 100 Novels as well as The Observer’s All-Time 100 Best Novels and Time Magazine’s 100 Best Modern Novels.

The Great Gatsby has resulted in a number of adaptations, including Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 major motion picture starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, and Joel Edgerton.

Summary

A true classic of twentieth-century literature, this edition has been updated by Fitzgerald scholar James L.W. West III to include the author’s final revisions and features a note on the composition and text, a personal foreword by Fitzgerald’s granddaughter, Eleanor Lanahan—and a new introduction by two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s (from publisher).

From the publisher

The mysterious Jay Gatsby embodies the American notion that it is possible to redefine oneself and persuade the world to accept that definition. Gatsby\\\’s youthful neighbor, Nick Carraway, fascinated with the display of enormous wealth in which Gatsby revels, finds himself swept up in the lavish lifestyle of Long Island society during the Jazz Age. Considered Fitzgerald\\\’s best work, The Great Gatsby is a mystical, timeless story of integrity and cruelty, vision and despair.

First Edition Identification

Charles Scribner’s Sons first published The Great Gatsby in April of 1925. A highly valued collectible, first editions can be identified by a number of points of issue, including a typo on the back of the dust jacket that spells “jay Gatsby” with a lowercase “j,” over which a correction has been made (by hand) in ink or with a stamp. Other points specific to the first edition include “chatter” on page 60, line 16; “northern” on page 119, line 22; “sick in tired” on page 205, lines 9-10; and “Union Street Station” on page 211, lines 7-8.

The cover of the first edition of The Great Gatsby is among the most celebrated in American literature. Artist Francis Cugat’s design depicts disembodied eyes and a mouth over a blue skyline with images of naked women reflected in the irises. It has been said that Fitzgerald so loved the art (which was completed before the book), that he rewrote parts of the book to better incorporate it.

With its original dust jacket, the rare first edition of The Great Gatsby has sold for between $100,000 and $150,000. Not too shabby — considering that same book sold for just $2 in 1925.

Categories

Media reviews

Citations

  • Chronicle of Higher Education, 04/17/2009, Page 12
  • New Yorker (The), 09/22/2014, Page 101
  • People Weekly, 02/15/2010, Page 58

About the author

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1896. He attended Princeton University, joined the United States Army during World War I, and published his first novel, This Side of Paradise, in 1920. That same year he married Zelda Sayre and for the next decade the couple lived in New York, Paris, and on the Riviera. Fitzgerald's masterpieces include The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. He died at the age of forty-four while working on The Last Tycoon. Fitzgerald's fiction has secured his reputation as one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century.