{"id":993,"date":"2014-05-20T11:44:52","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T07:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/?p=993"},"modified":"2014-11-19T14:06:43","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T10:06:43","slug":"facts-about-the-great-gatsby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/facts-about-the-great-gatsby\/","title":{"rendered":"Facts about The Great Gatsby"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gatsby_1925_jacket\"<\/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>\n

2.\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":"

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