On 10 April this year, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby turned 100. The day following the anniversary, New York’s Empire State Building was lit up in green (for the green light at the end of the dock, which Gatsby gazes at longingly). I so love the idea of a famous building being especially lit to celebrate a literary anniversary – it should happen more often! Other fabulous celebrations took place in the USA last month. A new musical of the novel went on stage, fans got together in Fitzgerald’s home state of Minnesota for a complete live reading of the book, Gatsby-themed parties and soirees were held at hotels and bars, restaurants have offered Great Gatsby dining experiences and even bakeries have joined the fun and produced cakes inspired by the novel. Libraries and museums are hosting exhibitions connected with the author and his book (his alma mater, Princeton, is hosting an exhibition to mark the centennial). There were roundtable discussions as to why the book is a contender for the title of ‘Great American Novel’ and why it has lasted. There’s even a new spin-off novel, Forged, by Danielle Teller.
The book was published by Charles Scribner & Sons on 10 April 1925. It received mixed reviews and was a commercial failure. During WWII it was chosen as one of the books to be distributed to soldiers. Fitzgerald died in 1940, so did not live to see how men at war identified with the book’s themes of loss and disillusionment. Before long, the book was on many an academic syllabus; it inspired musicals, ballets and more. And of course there are the film versions – a 1926 silent movie, a 1949 American film with Alan Ladd at Gatsby, the Robert Redford/Mia Farrow movie of 1974 which started a line of Gatsby-inspired fashions, a 2000 British-American TV film with Toby Stephens as Jay and Mira Sorvino as Daisy, G which is a 2002 movie with an all-black cast, and the 2013 film with Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan. The 2014 movie Affluenza is loosely based on the book.
I adore The Great Gatsby. It’s such a rich, complex novel, although so short, and it has an absolutely perfect ending. It’s time for a reread in this anniversary year. Perhaps it will help me make up my mind whether it is Gatsby or Huck Finn which is ‘the Great American Novel’?
Are you tempted to read, or reread The Great Gatsby in its 100th year? Let me know your thoughts in a comment.
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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Susannah Fullerton: F. Scott Fitzgerald is born
Susannah Fullerton: F. Scott Fitzgerald dies
Susannah Fullerton: The Great Gatsby is published
Susannah Fullerton: 100 Favourite Novels
Susannah Fullerton: Literary France Video Talk
The Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum
The F. Scott Fitzgerald Society
Heather Grant
I thoroughly enjoyed The Great Gatsby and have read it a number of times. Seeing it is the 100th anniversary I shall definitely reread it. I enjoyed the 1974 film and thought it followed the book very well.
I recently was in Sydney and picked up from Dymocks Tender is the Night which I did lend to someone and it wasn’t returned.
Also bought a book entitled The Wartime Library by Kate Thompson (love books about bookshops, libraries) which was set in Jersey in the Channel Islands during the German Occupation. It is a novel but based on fact and I found it fascinating and what the Islanders suffered during the occupation. Kate Thompson also wrote the Little Wartime Library which is set in London during the Blitz. She wrote that book during the COVID Lockdowns.
I do enjoy your Newsletters and have introduced a number of people to your Monthly Epistles.
Susannah Fullerton
Thanks for your kind comments about my newsletters. I read The Little Wartime Library and loved that, so will look for her other one. Have you read ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society about the island during the war?
I do so hate it when I lend books and don’t get them back. However, I don’t think ‘Tender is the Night’ is a patch on Gatsby.
Honey
I missed the significance of this novel and no movie adaptation helped me.
A podcast discussion of it had History Professor Wilfrid McClay, now of Hillsdale college, discussing it. I requested that I be permitted to ask him some questions. His responses were so clear that I reread the novel and wrote him to show him how much I learned from his note.
Now we have the broadway musical version. And they brag that Daisy, rather than being the self centered persona that Gatsby so wrongly admires, is a fascinating creature of delight.
If you like a book, don’t try to change it. Write your own book. That was what one of my favorite teachers used to say. This business of taking a classic and reinventing it and then taking credit for your adaptation is such a bore.
Susannah Fullerton
I tend to agree with yoour teacher. Write your own book rather than play with someone else’s. It ruins the whole idea of Fitzgerald’s novel if you make Daisy charming and delightful. I am glad your teached opened your eyes to the wonders of this book. I think it is incredible.