“The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each others’ names.”
After the dizzying success of Tales of the Jazz Age in 1922, Fitzgerald submitted a very different work to his publishers two years later. Originally entitled Tremalchio, the novel was extensively revised at the galley stage, and emerged with a new title: The Great Gatsby. The novel sold poorly, however, and it was not until after Fitzgerald’s death in 1940 that The Great Gatsby began to be regarded as his greatest work—and by many as the great American novel.
When Nick Carraway rents a cottage in an exclusive part of Long Island, he becomes curious about his neighbour in the mansion next door, where extravagant parties extend into the early hours. Jay Gatsby turns out to care little for partying, but is obsessed with winning back Daisy Buchanan, an early love who is now married and living just across the water.
This Broadview edition provides a reliable text at a very reasonable price. It contains textual notes but no appendices or introduction.