![\"Gatsby_1925_jacket\"](\"http:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Gatsby_1925_jacket.gif\")
<\/a>1.Would a Great American Novel by any other name be as sweet? Based on the other titles F. Scott Fitzgerald considered for\u00a0Gatsby<\/i>, I\u2019d have to say no. At one time or another, all of these were in consideration:\u00a0Among Ash-Heaps and Millionaires; Trimalchio; Trimalchio in West Egg; On the Road to West Egg; Under the Red, White, and Blue; Gold-Hatted Gatsby<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0The High-Bouncing Lover.<\/i><\/p>\n2.\u00a0Fitzgerald was quite close to choosing one of the\u00a0Trimalchio<\/i>\u00a0titles until someone persuaded him that the reference was too \u00a0obscure. The original Trimalchio was a character in a first century work of fiction called\u00a0Satyricon<\/i>. The story had other\u00a0famous fans, too; you can find mentions of Trimalchio in\u00a0Les Miserables<\/i>,\u00a0Pompeii<\/i>, and works by H.P. Lovecraft, Henry Miller and Octavio Paz, among others.<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0The Great Gatsby<\/i>\u00a0was partly inspired by a French novel called\u00a0Le Grand Meaulnes<\/i>, written in 1913. It has since been\u00a0translated into English with the titles\u00a0The Wanderer<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0The Lost Estate<\/i>.<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0The famous cover of the book was designed by Francis Cugat, who later went on to become a designer for \u00a0actor\/director\/producer Douglas Fairbanks. Fitzgerald so loved Cugat\u2019s art that he rewrote parts of the book to better \u00a0incorporate it.<\/p>\n
5. The poet who \u201cwrote\u201d the novel\u2019s epigraph never actually existed. He was a character in Fitzgerald\u2019s\u00a0previous book,\u00a0This \u00a0Side of Paradise<\/i>. Fitzgerald also occasionally used it as his pen name. Here\u2019s the epigraph:<\/p>\n
\u201cThen wear the gold hat, if that will move her;
\nIf you can bounce high, bounce for her too,
\nTill she cry, \u201cLover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover,
\nI must have you!\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
6. At the time of its publication in 1925, the novel cost just $2.<\/p>\n
7. Unlike Fitzgerald\u2019s previous two novels,\u00a0Gatsby<\/i>\u00a0was not a commercial success. It sold just 20,000 copies in its entire first\u00a0 year of publication.<\/p>\n
8.Fitzgerald was convinced that the reason the book wasn\u2019t a rousing success was because\u00a0Gatsby<\/i>\u00a0didn\u2019t have a single admirable female character\u2014and, at the time, the majority of people reading novels were women. He also thought that the title, which was only \u201cfair,\u201d resulted in poor sales.<\/p>\n
9.Gatsby<\/i>\u00a0wasn\u2019t a critical success with everyone, either. Here\u2019s a few of the not-so-rave reviews:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy [Fitzgerald] should be called an author, or why any of us should behave as if he were, has never been satisfactorily \u00a0explained to me.\u201d \u2014The\u00a0Brooklyn Daily Eagle<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are quite convinced after reading\u00a0The Great Gatsby<\/i>\u00a0that Mr. Fitzgerald is not one of the great writers of to-day.\u201d \u2014The New York Evening World<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cScott Fitzgerald\u2019s new novel,\u00a0The Great Gatsby<\/i>, is in form no more than a glorified anecdote, and not too probable at that.\u201d \u2014The\u00a0Baltimore Evening Sun<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1.Would a Great American Novel by any other name be as sweet? Based on the other titles F. Scott Fitzgerald considered for\u00a0Gatsby, I\u2019d have to say no. At one time or another, all of these were in consideration:\u00a0Among Ash-Heaps and Millionaires; Trimalchio; Trimalchio in West Egg; On the Road to West Egg; Under the Red, … Continue reading Facts about The Great Gatsby<\/span>