80-462: The Fire Within is a 1963 French drama film starring Maurice Ronet. The Fire Within also may refer to: Fire Within may refer to: The Fire Within The Fire Within ( French : Le Feu follet , pronounced [lə fø fɔlɛ] ; "The Manic Fire" or " Will-O'-the-Wisp ") is a 1963 drama film written and directed by Louis Malle . It is based on the 1931 novel Will O'
160-436: A Ferris wheel and likely referencing the glittering amusement park at New York's Coney Island . Cugat affixed reclining nudes within the flapper's irizes and added a green tint to the streaming tear. Cugat's final cover, which Max Perkins hailed as a masterpiece, was the only work he completed for Scribner's and the only book cover he ever designed. Although Fitzgerald likely never saw the final gouache painting prior to
240-551: A Plaza Hotel suite, Gatsby and Tom argue about the affair. Gatsby insists Daisy declare that she never loved Tom. Daisy claims she loves Tom and Gatsby, upsetting both. Tom reveals Gatsby is a swindler whose money comes from bootlegging alcohol. Upon hearing this, Daisy chooses to stay with Tom. Tom scornfully tells Gatsby to drive her home, knowing that Daisy will never leave him. While returning to East Egg, Gatsby and Daisy drive by Wilson's garage and their car strikes Myrtle, killing her instantly. Later Gatsby reveals to Nick that Daisy
320-590: A certain ambivalence towards the Jazz Age, an era whose themes he would later regard as reflective of events in his own life. The Great Gatsby reflects various events in Fitzgerald's youth. He was a young Midwesterner from Minnesota . Like the novel's narrator who went to Yale , he was educated at an Ivy League school, Princeton . There the 18-year-old Fitzgerald met Ginevra King , a 16-year-old socialite with whom he fell deeply in love. Although Ginevra
400-467: A critical and scholarly re-examination, and the work soon became a core part of most American high school curricula and a part of American popular culture. Numerous stage and film adaptations followed in the subsequent decades. Gatsby continues to attract popular and scholarly attention. Scholars emphasize the novel's treatment of social class , inherited versus self-made wealth , gender , race , and environmentalism , and its cynical attitude towards
480-518: A dark blue skyline. A little-known Barcelonan painter named Francis Cugat —born Francisco Coradal-Cougat—was commissioned by an unknown individual in Scribner's art department to illustrate the cover while Fitzgerald was composing the novel. In a preliminary sketch, Cugat drew a concept of a dismal gray landscape inspired by Fitzgerald's original title for the novel, Among Ash Heaps and Millionaires . Discarding this gloomy concept, Cugat next drew
560-435: A divergent study which became the prefiguration to the final cover: A pencil and crayon drawing of a flapper's half-hidden visage over Long Island Sound with scarlet lips, one celestial eye, and a single diagonal tear. Expanding upon this study, his subsequent drawing featured two bright eyes looming over a shadowy New York cityscape. In later iterations, Cugat replaced the shadowy cityscape with dazzling carnival lights evoking
640-402: A false start. Some of this early draft resurfaced in the 1924 short story "Absolution". In earlier drafts, Daisy was originally named Ada and Nick was Dud, and the two characters had shared a previous romance prior to their reunion on Long Island. These earlier drafts were written from the viewpoint of an omniscient narrator as opposed to Nick's perspective. A key difference in earlier drafts
720-525: A final review of the proofs, he asked if it would be possible to re-title it Trimalchio or Gold-Hatted Gatsby , but Perkins advised against it. On March 19, 1925, Fitzgerald expressed enthusiasm for the title Under the Red, White, and Blue , but it was too late to change it at that stage. The novel was published as The Great Gatsby on April 10, 1925. Fitzgerald believed the book's final title to be merely acceptable and often expressed his ambivalence with
800-691: A letter to Cather apologizing for any unintentional plagiarism. During this period of revisions, Scott saw and was influenced by early sketches for the book's dust jacket art. Soon after this burst of effort, work slowed while the Fitzgeralds moved to the Villa Marie in Saint-Raphaël on the French Riviera , where a marital crisis soon developed. Despite his ongoing marital tension, Fitzgerald continued to write steadily and submitted
880-456: A mythical version of themselves and attempted to live up to this legend. Dispirited by critics failing to understand the novel, Fitzgerald remained hopeful that the novel would at least be a commercial success, perhaps selling as many as 75,000 copies. To Fitzgerald's great disappointment, Gatsby was a commercial failure in comparison with his previous efforts, This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Beautiful and Damned (1922). By October,
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#1732776071559960-459: A near-final version of the manuscript to his editor, Maxwell Perkins , on October 27. Perkins informed him in a November letter that Gatsby was too vague as a character and that his wealth and business, respectively, needed a convincing explanation. Fitzgerald thanked Perkins for his detailed criticisms and claimed that such feedback would enable him to perfect the manuscript. Having relocated with his wife to Rome, Fitzgerald made revisions to
1040-426: A party ensues, which ends with Tom slapping Myrtle and breaking her nose after she mentions Daisy. One morning, Nick receives a formal invitation to a party at Gatsby's mansion. Once there, Nick is embarrassed that he recognizes no one and begins drinking heavily until he encounters Jordan. While chatting with her, he is approached by a man who introduces himself as Jay Gatsby and insists that both he and Nick served in
1120-507: A third and fatal heart attack and died believing his work forgotten. His obituary in The New York Times hailed him as a brilliant novelist and cited Gatsby as his greatest work. In the wake of Fitzgerald's death, a strong appreciation for the book gradually developed in writers' circles. Future authors Budd Schulberg and Edward Newhouse were deeply affected by it, and John O'Hara acknowledged its influence on his work. By
1200-611: A title for his novel and entertained many choices before reluctantly deciding on The Great Gatsby , a title inspired by Alain-Fournier 's Le Grand Meaulnes . Previously he had shifted between Among Ash Heaps and Millionaires , Trimalchio , Trimalchio in West Egg , On the Road to West Egg , Under the Red, White, and Blue , The Gold-Hatted Gatsby , and The High-Bouncing Lover . The titles The Gold-Hatted Gatsby and The High-Bouncing Lover came from Fitzgerald's epigraph for
1280-461: Is a less complete failure of Gatsby's dream. Another difference is that the argument between Tom Buchanan and Gatsby is more balanced, although Daisy still returns to Tom. Work on The Great Gatsby resumed in earnest in April 1924. Fitzgerald decided to depart from the writing process of his previous novels and told Perkins that he was intent on creating an artistic achievement. He wished to eschew
1360-617: Is disgusted by the detachment of her new drug-using friends and leaves. He meets the Minville brothers, who, though the Algerian War is over, are still fighting against Algerian independence, at the Café Flore . After they leave, he drinks an alcoholic beverage left on the table. He soon begins to feel sick, so he goes to Cyrille and Solange Lavauds' house early to take a nap before the party to which they invited him. A fancy dinner
1440-441: Is married to Tom Buchanan, formerly a Yale football star whom Nick knew during his college days. The couple has recently relocated from Chicago to a mansion directly across the bay from Gatsby's estate. There, Nick encounters Jordan Baker, an insolent flapper and golf champion who is a childhood friend of Daisy's. Jordan confides to Nick that Tom keeps a mistress, Myrtle Wilson, who brazenly telephones him at his home and who lives in
1520-447: Is not one of the great American writers of today". John McClure of The Times-Picayune insisted the plot was implausible and the book itself seemed raw in its construction. After reading these reviews, Fitzgerald believed that many critics misunderstood the novel. He despaired that "of all the reviews, even the most enthusiastic, not one had the slightest idea what the book was about". In particular, Fitzgerald resented criticisms of
1600-481: Is that the celestial eyes are reminiscent of those of optometrist T. J. Eckleburg depicted on a faded commercial billboard near George Wilson's auto repair shop. Author Ernest Hemingway supported this latter interpretation and claimed that Fitzgerald had told him the cover referred to a billboard in the valley of the ashes. Although this passage has some resemblance to the imagery, a closer explanation can be found in Fitzgerald's explicit description of Daisy Buchanan as
1680-536: Is the English translation of a line from Malle's film. The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald . Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island , near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway 's interactions with Jay Gatsby , the mysterious millionaire with an obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan . The novel
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#17327760715591760-504: Is the literary expression of the concept of America: The land of opportunity". However, Pearson noted that Fitzgerald's particular treatment of this theme is devoid of the discernible optimism in the writings of earlier American authors. He suggests Gatsby serves as a false prophet of the American dream, and pursuing the dream only results in dissatisfaction for those who chase it, owing to its unattainability. In this analytical context,
1840-463: Is thus similar to Jay Gatsby in that he became engaged while a military officer stationed far from home and then sought immense wealth in order to provide for the lifestyle to which his fiancée had become accustomed. After his success as a short-story writer and as a novelist, Fitzgerald married Zelda in New York City, and the newly-wed couple soon relocated to Long Island. Despite enjoying
1920-451: Is underway when Alain wakes up. His friends are welcoming and glad to see him, but an intellectual named Brancion is not impressed by a story Cyrille tells about one of Alain's drunken escapades. Cyrille gives Alain another drink, and Alain ends up ranting about how he is incapable of wanting or desiring anything, even Solange, his beautiful former lover. In front of Cyrill, Alain asks Solange to save him, but she gently rebuffs him. He heads for
2000-421: Is undeserved, as he was never able to hold on to a woman, and he has always wanted to love and be loved. Waking up back in his room at the clinic, Alain packs up his belongings. Solange calls to remind him to come over for lunch, and he promises he will be there. She tries to share some kind words, but he says he does not understand and hangs up. After finishing reading The Great Gatsby , Alain shoots himself in
2080-485: The 3rd Infantry Division during the war. Gatsby attempts to ingratiate himself with Nick and when Nick leaves the party, he notices Gatsby watching him. In late July, Nick and Gatsby have lunch at a speakeasy . Gatsby tries impressing Nick with tales of his war heroism and his Oxford days. Afterward, Nick meets Jordan again at the Plaza Hotel . Jordan reveals that Gatsby and Daisy met around 1917 when Gatsby
2160-593: The American Dream in the hedonistic Jazz Age, a name for the era which Fitzgerald claimed to have coined. In 1970, scholar Roger L. Pearson asserted that Fitzgerald's work—more so than other twentieth century novels—is especially linked with this conceptualization of the American dream. Pearson traced the literary origins of this dream to Colonial America . The dream is the belief that every individual, regardless of their origins, may seek and achieve their desired goals, "be they political, monetary, or social. It
2240-758: The American Dream . The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary masterpiece and a contender for the title of the Great American Novel . Set on the prosperous Long Island of 1922, The Great Gatsby provides a critical social history of Prohibition-era America during the Jazz Age. F. Scott Fitzgerald 's fictional narrative fully renders that period—known for its jazz music, economic prosperity, flapper culture, libertine mores, rebellious youth, and ubiquitous speakeasies . Fitzgerald uses many of these 1920s societal developments to tell his story, from simple details like petting in automobiles to broader themes such as bootlegging as
2320-537: The Midwest and a World War I veteran—journeys to New York City to obtain employment as a bond salesman . He rents a bungalow in the Long Island village of West Egg, next to a luxurious estate inhabited by Jay Gatsby , an enigmatic multi-millionaire who hosts dazzling soirées yet does not partake in them. One evening, Nick dines with a distant cousin, Daisy Buchanan , in the old money town of East Egg. Daisy
2400-591: The Paramount -issued silent film version brought in money for the author, Fitzgerald lamented that the novel fell far short of the success he had hoped for and would not bring him recognition as a serious novelist in the public eye. With the onset of the Great Depression , The Great Gatsby was regarded as little more than a nostalgic period piece. By the time Fitzgerald died in 1940, the novel had fallen into near obscurity. In 1940, Fitzgerald suffered
2480-465: The " valley of ashes ", a sprawling refuse dump. That evening, Nick sees Gatsby standing alone on his lawn, staring at a green light across the bay. Days later, Nick reluctantly accompanies a drunken and agitated Tom to New York City by train. En route, they stop at a garage inhabited by mechanic George Wilson and his wife Myrtle. Myrtle joins them, and the trio proceed to a small New York apartment that Tom has rented for trysts with her. Guests arrive and
The Fire Within (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue
2560-423: The "girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs". Charles Scribner's Sons published The Great Gatsby on April 10, 1925. Fitzgerald cabled Perkins the day after publication to monitor reviews: "Any news?" "Sales situation doubtful [but] excellent reviews", read a telegram from Perkins on April 20. Fitzgerald responded on April 24, saying the cable dispirited him, closing
2640-472: The American Dream to entrenched class disparities in American society. The novel underscores the limits of the American lower class to transcend their station of birth . Scholar Sarah Churchwell contends that Fitzgerald's novel is a tale of class warfare in a status-obsessed country that refuses to acknowledge publicly it even has a class system. Although scholars posit different explanations for
2720-413: The Jazz Age. The character of Daisy Buchanan has been identified specifically as personifying the emerging cultural archetype of the flapper. Flappers were typically young, modern women who bobbed their hair and wore short skirts. They also drank alcohol and had premarital sex . Despite the newfound societal freedoms attained by flappers in the 1920s, Fitzgerald's work critically examines
2800-873: The Wisp by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle , which was inspired by the life of poet Jacques Rigaut . The film stars Maurice Ronet and features Léna Skerla, Jean-Paul Moulinot , Bernard Tiphaine , Bernard Noël, Jeanne Moreau (who had previously worked with Ronet and Malle in Elevator to the Gallows ), Jacques Sereys , and Alexandra Stewart in supporting roles. The score consists of music composed by Erik Satie and performed by pianist Claude Helffer . Alain Leroy has been living and receiving treatment for his alcoholism at Dr. La Barbinais' rehabilitation clinic in Versailles for
2880-549: The bay at the green light emanating from the end of Daisy's dock. Fitzgerald began outlining his third novel in June 1922. He longed to produce an exquisite work that was beautiful and intricately patterned, but the troubled production of his stage play The Vegetable repeatedly interrupted his progress. The play flopped, and Fitzgerald wrote magazine stories that winter to pay debts incurred by its production. He viewed these stories as all worthless, although included among them
2960-470: The bay from Great Neck—places that were home to many of New York's wealthiest established families. This real-life juxtaposition gave Fitzgerald his idea for "West Egg" and "East Egg". In the novel, Great Neck ( Kings Point ) became the "new money" peninsula of West Egg and Port Washington ( Sands Point ) became the "old money" East Egg. Several Gold Coast mansions in the area served as inspiration for Gatsby's estate including Land's End, Oheka Castle , and
3040-437: The book had sold fewer than 20,000 copies. Although the novel went through two initial printings, many copies remained unsold years later. Fitzgerald attributed the poor sales to the fact that women tended to be the primary audience for novels during this time, and Gatsby did not contain an admirable female character. According to his ledger, he earned only $ 2,000 from the book. Although Owen Davis ' 1926 stage adaptation and
3120-416: The clinic, Alain spends most of his time alone in his room—reading, playing with knickknacks, trying to write, looking out the window, and examining his handgun. Dr. La Barbinais is happy to hear that Alain spent time with a woman and did not drink, and, telling Alain he has been cured for some time, suggests he think about moving out and getting on with his life. When Alain says he will drink again if he leaves
3200-420: The clinic, the doctor tells him that fear will fade with time and encourages him to try to reconcile with Dorothy again. Alain says he will be gone by the end of the week, and, before going to sleep that night, pledges to kill himself the next day. In the morning, Alain hitches a ride to Paris and cashes a check Lydia gave him, supposedly to repay an old gambling debt. Then, he contacts some old friends and spends
3280-559: The continuation of class differences in the United States, there is a consensus regarding the novel's message in conveying its underlying permanence. Although Gatsby ' s fundamental conflict occurs between entrenched sources of socio-economic power and upstarts like Gatsby who threaten their interests, Fitzgerald's novel shows that a class permanence persists despite the country's capitalist economy that prizes innovation and adaptability. Dianne Bechtel argues Fitzgerald plotted
The Fire Within (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3360-459: The door, promising a concerned Cyrill he will be back, and Cyrill invites him to lunch the next day. Michel "Milou" Bostel, a young man currently living a life of drinking and partying similar to the one Alain used to live, leaves the Lavauds' party at the same time as Alain. They ride the bus together and walk around Paris at night, and Alain confesses that he feels his reputation as a ladies' man
3440-612: The double-murder of a man and his lover on September 14, 1922, mere weeks before Fitzgerald arrived in Great Neck. Scholars have speculated that Fitzgerald based certain aspects of the ending of The Great Gatsby and various characterizations on this factual incident. Inspired by the Halls–Mills case, the mysterious persona of Gerlach and the riotous parties he attended on Long Island, Fitzgerald had written 18,000 words for his novel by mid-1923 but discarded most of his new story as
3520-474: The earlier consensus among professional critics that The Great Gatsby was merely a sensational story or a nostalgic period piece had effectively vanished. The tireless promotional efforts of literary critic Edmund Wilson, who was Fitzgerald's Princeton classmate and his close friend, led this Fitzgerald revival. In 1951, three years after Zelda's death in a hospital fire, Professor Arthur Mizener of Cornell University published The Far Side of Paradise ,
3600-606: The entirety of the novel. Roger Ebert wrote that "perhaps Fitzgerald's words 'compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired ' is the best possible description of Thompson's life's work." By the mid-2000s, many literary critics considered The Great Gatsby to be one of the greatest novels ever written, and the work was part of the assigned curricula in the near majority of U.S. high schools. As of early 2020, The Great Gatsby had sold almost 30 million copies worldwide and continues to sell an additional 500,000 copies annually. Numerous foreign editions of
3680-437: The exclusive Long Island milieu, Fitzgerald quietly disapproved of the extravagant parties, and the wealthy persons he encountered often disappointed him. While striving to emulate the rich, he found their privileged lifestyle to be morally disquieting. Although Fitzgerald—like Gatsby—had always admired the rich, he nonetheless possessed a smoldering resentment towards them. In spring 1922, Nick Carraway —a Yale alumnus from
3760-432: The film 3.5 stars (out of four), calling it "probably Malle's best early film." Roger Ebert gave the film the same rating, describing it as a "triumph of style." Malle has been an influence of American director Wes Anderson , with Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) being particularly influenced by The Fire Within . Tenenbaums even features a character saying the line "I'm going to kill myself tomorrow", which
3840-427: The first biography of Fitzgerald. Mizener's bestselling biography emphasized The Great Gatsby ' s positive reception by literary critics, which may have further influenced public opinion and renewed interest in it. By 1960—thirty-five years after the novel's original publication—the book was steadily selling 100,000 copies per year. Renewed interest in it led The New York Times editorialist Mizener to proclaim
3920-586: The green light on the Buchanans' dock (visible across Long Island Sound from Gatsby's house) is frequently interpreted as a symbol of Gatsby's unrealizable goal to win Daisy and, consequently, to achieve the American Dream. Also, scholar Sarah Churchwell points out that adultery in the novel is linked to the loss of faith and broken promises, which symbolizes the corruption of the American Dream. Scholars and writers commonly ascribe Gatsby's inability to achieve
4000-481: The heart. The film was the official French submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 36th Academy Awards , but it was not chosen as one of the final five nominees in the category. The Fire Within has an approval rating of 82% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , based on 11 reviews, and an average rating of 7.7/10. In his 2006 Movie Guide , Leonard Maltin gave
4080-432: The illicit source of Gatsby's fortune. Fitzgerald conveys the hedonism of Jazz Age society by placing a relatable plotline within the historical context of the most raucous and flashiest era in American history. In Fitzgerald's eyes, the era represented a morally permissive time when Americans of all ages became disillusioned with prevailing social norms and obsessed with pleasure-seeking. Fitzgerald himself had
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#17327760715594160-467: The letter with "Yours in great depression". Fitzgerald soon received letters from contemporaries Willa Cather , Edith Wharton , and poet T. S. Eliot praising the novel. Although gratified by such correspondence, Fitzgerald sought public acclaim from professional critics. The Great Gatsby received generally favorable reviews from literary critics of the day. Edwin Clark of The New York Times felt
4240-511: The manuscript throughout the winter. Content after a few rounds of revision, Fitzgerald submitted the final version in February 1925. Fitzgerald's alterations included extensive revisions of the sixth and eighth chapters. He declined an offer of $ 10,000 for the serial rights to the book so that it could be published sooner. He received a $ 3,939 advance in 1923 and would receive $ 1,981.25 upon publication. Fitzgerald had difficulty choosing
4320-439: The name. The artwork for the first edition of The Great Gatsby, known as Celestial Eyes , is among the most celebrated in American literature and represents a unique instance in literary history in which a novel's commissioned artwork directly influenced the composition of the text. Rendered in an Art Deco visual style, the artwork depicts the disembodied face of a Jazz Age flapper with celestial eyes and rouged mouth over
4400-479: The nicest little touches of contemporary observation you could imagine—so light, so delicate, so sharp". In The Chicago Daily Tribune , H. L. Mencken judged the work's plot to be highly improbable, although he praised the writing as elegant and the "careful and brilliant finish". Several reviewers felt the novel left much to be desired following Fitzgerald's previous works and criticized him accordingly. Harvey Eagleton of The Dallas Morning News predicted that
4480-508: The novel have been published, and the text has been translated into 42 different languages. The work is Scribner's most popular title; in 2013, the e-book alone sold 185,000 copies. The novel's U.S. copyright expired on January 1, 2021, when all works published in 1925 entered the public domain . Since then, numerous altered and incomplete reprints have flooded the market. Following the novel's revival, later critical writings on The Great Gatsby focused on Fitzgerald's disillusionment with
4560-476: The novel signaled the end of Fitzgerald's artistic success. Ralph Coghlan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch dismissed the work as an inconsequential performance by a once-promising author who had grown bored and cynical. Ruth Snyder of New York Evening World lambasted the book's style as painfully forced and declared the editors of her newspaper were "quite convinced after reading The Great Gatsby that Mr. Fitzgerald
4640-458: The novel to illustrate that class transcends wealth in America. Even if the poorer Americans become rich, they remain inferior to those Americans with "old money". Consequently, Gatsby and other characters in the novel are trapped in a rigid American class system. Besides exploring the difficulties of achieving the American dream, The Great Gatsby explores societal gender expectations during
4720-410: The novel was a masterwork of 20th-century American literature . By 1974, The Great Gatsby had attained its status as a literary masterwork and was deemed a contender for the title of the " Great American Novel ". Hunter S. Thompson retyped pages of The Great Gatsby "just to get a feeling of what it was like to write that way." According to Thompson's friend William Nack , Thompson once retyped
4800-578: The novel was a commercial disappointment. It sold fewer than 20,000 copies by October, and Fitzgerald's hopes of a monetary windfall from the novel were unrealized. When the author died in 1940, he believed himself to be a failure and his work forgotten. During World War II , the novel experienced an abrupt surge in popularity when the Council on Books in Wartime distributed free copies to American soldiers serving overseas. This new-found popularity launched
4880-535: The novel was a mystical and glamorous tale of the Jazz Age. Similarly, Lillian C. Ford of the Los Angeles Times hailed the novel as a revelatory work of art that "leaves the reader in a mood of chastened wonder". The New York Post described Fitzgerald's prose style as scintillating and genuinely brilliant. The New York Herald Tribune was less impressed, referring to The Great Gatsby as "a literary lemon meringue" that nonetheless "contains some of
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#17327760715594960-415: The novel's plot as implausible since he had never intended for the story to be realistic. Instead, he crafted the work to be a romanticized depiction that was largely scenic and symbolic. According to his friend John Peale Bishop , Fitzgerald further resented the fact that critics failed to perceive the many parallels between the author's life and the character of Jay Gatsby; in particular, that both created
5040-453: The novel's publication, Cugat's preparatory drafts influenced his writing. Upon viewing Cugat's drafts before sailing for France in April–May 1924, Fitzgerald was so enamored that he later told editor Max Perkins that he had incorporated Cugat's imagery into the novel. This statement has led many to analyze interrelations between Cugat's art and Fitzgerald's text. One popular interpretation
5120-494: The novel, one which he wrote himself under the pen name of Thomas Parke D'Invilliers . Fitzgerald initially preferred titles referencing Trimalchio , the crude upstart in Petronius 's Satyricon , and even refers to Gatsby as Trimalchio once in the novel. Unlike Gatsby's spectacular parties, Trimalchio participated in the orgies he hosted but, according to literary critic Tony Tanner , there are subtle similarities between
5200-586: The past four months. He is separated from his American wife, Dorothy, who is in New York, where he also lived while they were together, and spends his first night away from the clinic to have a tryst with Lydia, one of Dorothy's friends, who is in France for a visit. Lydia tells Alain he is cured and should come back to New York with her, but he does not want to, and, though he says it is "serious", she cannot stay with him due to work obligations, so they part ways. At
5280-416: The realism of his previous two novels and to compose a creative work of sustained imagination. To this end, he consciously imitated the literary styles of Joseph Conrad and Willa Cather . He was particularly influenced by Cather's 1923 work, A Lost Lady , which features a wealthy married socialite pursued by a variety of romantic suitors and who symbolically embodies the American dream. He later wrote
5360-482: The rest of the day having a series of reunions. Dubourg, Alain's former drinking buddy, has settled into a comfortable life with his wife Fanny and her two young daughters, and is writing a book about ancient Egypt . He tries to impress upon Alain the virtues of his predictable, adult existence and invites Alain to move in with him, but Alain, saying he does not want to grow old, refuses. Next, Alain sees Eva. They talk about how all of their friends have changed, but Alain
5440-555: The same shirt twice, used the phrase "old sport", and fostered myths about himself including that he was a relation of the German Kaiser . These details about Gerlach inspired Fitzgerald in his creation of Jay Gatsby . During this same time period, the daily newspapers sensationalized the Hall–Mills murder case over many months, and the highly publicized case likely influenced the plot of Fitzgerald's novel. The case involved
5520-507: The since-demolished Beacon Towers . While living on Long Island, the Fitzgeralds' enigmatic neighbor was Max Gerlach . Purportedly born in America to a German immigrant family, Gerlach had been a major in the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I, and he later became a gentleman bootlegger who lived like a millionaire in New York. Flaunting his new wealth, Gerlach threw lavish parties, never wore
5600-468: The sparsely attended funeral. After Gatsby's death, Nick comes to hate New York and decides that Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and he were all Midwesterners unsuited to Eastern life . Nick encounters Tom and initially refuses to shake his hand. Tom admits he was the one who told George that Gatsby owned the vehicle that killed Myrtle. Before returning to the Midwest, Nick returns to Gatsby's mansion and stares across
5680-549: The time that Gatsby was republished in Edmund Wilson 's edition of The Last Tycoon in 1941, the prevailing opinion in writers' circles deemed the novel to be an enduring work of fiction. In the spring of 1942, mere months after the United States' entrance into World War II , an association of publishing executives created the Council on Books in Wartime with the stated purpose of distributing paperback Armed Services Editions books to combat troops . The Great Gatsby
5760-463: The two characters. By November 1924, Fitzgerald wrote to Perkins that he had settled upon the title of Trimalchio in West Egg . Disliking Fitzgerald's chosen title of Trimalchio in West Egg , editor Max Perkins persuaded him that the reference was too obscure and that people would be unable to pronounce it. Zelda and Perkins both expressed their preference for The Great Gatsby , and the next month Fitzgerald agreed. A month before publication, after
5840-764: Was " Winter Dreams ", which Fitzgerald described as his first attempt at the Gatsby idea. "The whole idea of Gatsby", he later explained to a friend, "is the unfairness of a poor young man not being able to marry a girl with money. This theme comes up again and again because I lived it". In October 1922, after the birth of their only child, Frances Scott "Scottie" Fitzgerald , the Fitzgeralds moved to Great Neck, New York , on Long Island. Their neighbors in Great Neck included such newly wealthy personages as writer Ring Lardner , actor Lew Fields and comedian Ed Wynn . These figures were all considered to be nouveau riche , unlike those who came from Manhasset Neck , which sat across
5920-527: Was an officer in the American Expeditionary Forces . They fell in love, but when Gatsby was deployed overseas, Daisy reluctantly married Tom. Gatsby hopes that his newfound wealth and dazzling parties will make Daisy reconsider. Gatsby uses Nick to stage a reunion with Daisy, and the two embark upon an affair. In September, Tom discovers the affair when Daisy carelessly addresses Gatsby with unabashed intimacy in front of him. Later, at
6000-598: Was commissioned as a second lieutenant . While awaiting deployment to the Western front where he hoped to die in combat, he was stationed at Camp Sheridan in Montgomery, Alabama , where he met Zelda Sayre , a vivacious 17-year-old Southern belle . After learning that Ginevra had married wealthy Chicago businessman William "Bill" Mitchell, Fitzgerald asked Zelda to marry him. Zelda agreed but postponed their marriage until he became financially successful. Fitzgerald
6080-453: Was driving the car, but that he intends to take the blame for the accident to protect her. Nick urges Gatsby to flee to avoid prosecution, but he refuses. After Tom tells George that Gatsby owns the car that struck Myrtle, a distraught George assumes the owner of the vehicle must be Myrtle's lover. George fatally shoots Gatsby in his mansion's swimming pool, then kills himself. Several days after Gatsby's murder, his father Henry Gatz arrives for
6160-408: Was inspired by a youthful romance Fitzgerald had with socialite Ginevra King , and the riotous parties he attended on Long Island's North Shore in 1922. Following a move to the French Riviera , Fitzgerald completed a rough draft of the novel in 1924. He submitted it to editor Maxwell Perkins , who persuaded Fitzgerald to revise the work over the following winter. After making revisions, Fitzgerald
6240-473: Was madly in love with him, her upper-class family openly discouraged his courtship of their daughter because of his lower-class status, and her father purportedly told him that "poor boys shouldn't think of marrying rich girls". Rejected by Ginevra's family as a suitor because of his lack of financial prospects, a suicidal Fitzgerald enlisted in the United States Army amid World War I and
6320-487: Was one of them. Within the next several years, 155,000 copies of Gatsby were distributed to U.S. soldiers overseas, and the book proved popular among beleaguered troops, according to the Saturday Evening Post ' s 1945 report. By 1944, a full-scale Fitzgerald revival had occurred. Full-length scholarly articles on Fitzgerald's works were being published in periodicals and, by the following year,
6400-563: Was satisfied with the text, but remained ambivalent about the book's title and considered several alternatives. Painter Francis Cugat 's dust jacket art, named Celestial Eyes , greatly impressed Fitzgerald, and he incorporated its imagery into the novel. After its publication by Scribner's in April 1925, The Great Gatsby received generally favorable reviews, though some literary critics believed it did not equal Fitzgerald's previous efforts. Compared to his earlier novels, This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Beautiful and Damned (1922),
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