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The Great Gatsby and Related Stories [Deckle Edge Paper]: The Library of America Corrected Text
Library of America presents the definitive novel of the Jazz Age in an authoritative new text—along with a quartet of brilliant stories that explore variations on the theme of desperate longing for an unattainable someone or something
Boats against the current, we are borne back ceaselessly to The Great Gatsby . Its unforgettable characters—the conflicted narrator Nick Carraway, the golden girl Daisy Buchanan, and the mysterious Jay Gatsby—its indelible symbols and soaring prose, and its large themes of money, class, and American optimism have an enduring fascination and make The Great Gatsby a frequent candidate for “the Great American novel.”
Now readers can experience F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece in an edition that brings us closest to his original vision for the work. Drawn from the authoritative Library of America edition of Fitzgerald’s collected writings, this deluxe paperback presents a new, corrected text of The Great Gatsby by preeminent Fitzgerald scholar James L. W. West III, incorporating emendations the author made on galley proofs and in his personal copy of the book.
Fitzgerald’s masterpiece is joined here by four contemporary stories—the “Gatsby cluster”—in which he explores variations on the theme of desperate longing for an unattainable someone or “Winter Dreams,” “The Rich Boy,” “Absolution,” and “Rags Martin-Jones and the Pr-nce of W-les.” Essential reading for fans of the novel, these, too, are presented in newly corrected texts.
Rounding out this special edition is a selection of thirteen letters between Fitzgerald and Maxwell Perkins, his editor at Scribner’s, about the composition, editing, and publication of The Great Gatsby , offering a fascinating glimpse into the genesis of an American classic. Other features include a preface by the editor, a detailed chronology of Fitzgerald’s life and career, and helpful explanatory and textual notes.
Boats against the current, we are borne back ceaselessly to The Great Gatsby . Its unforgettable characters—the conflicted narrator Nick Carraway, the golden girl Daisy Buchanan, and the mysterious Jay Gatsby—its indelible symbols and soaring prose, and its large themes of money, class, and American optimism have an enduring fascination and make The Great Gatsby a frequent candidate for “the Great American novel.”
Now readers can experience F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece in an edition that brings us closest to his original vision for the work. Drawn from the authoritative Library of America edition of Fitzgerald’s collected writings, this deluxe paperback presents a new, corrected text of The Great Gatsby by preeminent Fitzgerald scholar James L. W. West III, incorporating emendations the author made on galley proofs and in his personal copy of the book.
Fitzgerald’s masterpiece is joined here by four contemporary stories—the “Gatsby cluster”—in which he explores variations on the theme of desperate longing for an unattainable someone or “Winter Dreams,” “The Rich Boy,” “Absolution,” and “Rags Martin-Jones and the Pr-nce of W-les.” Essential reading for fans of the novel, these, too, are presented in newly corrected texts.
Rounding out this special edition is a selection of thirteen letters between Fitzgerald and Maxwell Perkins, his editor at Scribner’s, about the composition, editing, and publication of The Great Gatsby , offering a fascinating glimpse into the genesis of an American classic. Other features include a preface by the editor, a detailed chronology of Fitzgerald’s life and career, and helpful explanatory and textual notes.
388 pages, Paperback
Published September 5, 2023
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5 people want to read
About the author
F. Scott Fitzgerald
2,103 books25.6k followersFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald, widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age, a term he popularized in his short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age. During his lifetime, he published four novels, four story collections, and 164 short stories. Although he achieved temporary popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald received critical acclaim only after his death and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
Born into a middle-class family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was raised primarily in New York state. He attended Princeton University where he befriended future literary critic Edmund Wilson. Owing to a failed romantic relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King, he dropped out in 1917 to join the United States Army during World War I. While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda Sayre, a Southern debutante who belonged to Montgomery's exclusive country-club set. Although she initially rejected Fitzgerald's marriage proposal due to his lack of financial prospects, Zelda agreed to marry him after he published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920). The novel became a cultural sensation and cemented his reputation as one of the eminent writers of the decade.
His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him further into the cultural elite. To maintain his affluent lifestyle, he wrote numerous stories for popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, and Esquire. During this period, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), received generally favorable reviews but was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 23,000 copies in its first year. Despite its lackluster debut, The Great Gatsby is now hailed by some literary critics as the "Great American Novel". Following the deterioration of his wife's mental health and her placement in a mental institute for schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934).
Struggling financially because of the declining popularity of his works during the Great Depression, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood, where he embarked upon an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter. While living in Hollywood, he cohabited with columnist Sheilah Graham, his final companion before his death. After a long struggle with alcoholism, he attained sobriety only to die of a heart attack in 1940, at 44. His friend Edmund Wilson edited and published an unfinished fifth novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), after Fitzgerald's death. In 1993, a new edition was published as The Love of the Last Tycoon, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli.
Born into a middle-class family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was raised primarily in New York state. He attended Princeton University where he befriended future literary critic Edmund Wilson. Owing to a failed romantic relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King, he dropped out in 1917 to join the United States Army during World War I. While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda Sayre, a Southern debutante who belonged to Montgomery's exclusive country-club set. Although she initially rejected Fitzgerald's marriage proposal due to his lack of financial prospects, Zelda agreed to marry him after he published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920). The novel became a cultural sensation and cemented his reputation as one of the eminent writers of the decade.
His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him further into the cultural elite. To maintain his affluent lifestyle, he wrote numerous stories for popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, and Esquire. During this period, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), received generally favorable reviews but was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 23,000 copies in its first year. Despite its lackluster debut, The Great Gatsby is now hailed by some literary critics as the "Great American Novel". Following the deterioration of his wife's mental health and her placement in a mental institute for schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934).
Struggling financially because of the declining popularity of his works during the Great Depression, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood, where he embarked upon an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter. While living in Hollywood, he cohabited with columnist Sheilah Graham, his final companion before his death. After a long struggle with alcoholism, he attained sobriety only to die of a heart attack in 1940, at 44. His friend Edmund Wilson edited and published an unfinished fifth novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), after Fitzgerald's death. In 1993, a new edition was published as The Love of the Last Tycoon, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 1, 2025
I read this in two days. I swear I could’ve finished it in one if I weren’t so lazy. Honestly, I was trying to slow down because I didn’t want it to end. Each chapter felt long, though.
And man, I loved the quality of this edition—such nice paper!
What did I think of the book? Let’s start with the introduction—one of the best I’ve ever read.
The opening lines of The Great Gatsby are iconic:
“In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
‘Whenever you feel like criticizing someone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in the world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had.’”
Nick Carraway is our narrator, our observer. The story isn’t really about him, though he’s involved in some way. Instead, he tells us about Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby.
What’s interesting is that the introduction sets Nick up as someone who withholds judgment, yet as the story progresses, we see him narrating subjectively—observing but also judging.
I understand now why The Great Gatsby is about love and illusion. I think everyone has had a Daisy before. I had a Daisy.
When you love someone, but not for who they are now—for who you imagined them to be. You don’t pursue them to truly know them, but to fulfill your own fantasy. You put them on a pedestal, refusing to see the truth, refusing to accept that they’ve changed. To you, they are still the person they were five years ago—because that’s the version you fell in love with.
But love can’t survive like that. Relationships fall apart when we refuse to see that people grow. Because change is growth. If you don’t change, you don’t grow.
That’s why we love not only because of, but we also love despite.
You grow together. You change together. And you love everything anyway.
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” - This is the final line. We let the the past shackle us, and it constantly pulls as back as we strive to move forward.
Gatsby’s love—extravagant, unwavering—shows us this isn’t the way to love.
So, how do we love, then?
And man, I loved the quality of this edition—such nice paper!
What did I think of the book? Let’s start with the introduction—one of the best I’ve ever read.
The opening lines of The Great Gatsby are iconic:
“In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
‘Whenever you feel like criticizing someone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in the world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had.’”
Nick Carraway is our narrator, our observer. The story isn’t really about him, though he’s involved in some way. Instead, he tells us about Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby.
What’s interesting is that the introduction sets Nick up as someone who withholds judgment, yet as the story progresses, we see him narrating subjectively—observing but also judging.
I understand now why The Great Gatsby is about love and illusion. I think everyone has had a Daisy before. I had a Daisy.
When you love someone, but not for who they are now—for who you imagined them to be. You don’t pursue them to truly know them, but to fulfill your own fantasy. You put them on a pedestal, refusing to see the truth, refusing to accept that they’ve changed. To you, they are still the person they were five years ago—because that’s the version you fell in love with.
But love can’t survive like that. Relationships fall apart when we refuse to see that people grow. Because change is growth. If you don’t change, you don’t grow.
That’s why we love not only because of, but we also love despite.
You grow together. You change together. And you love everything anyway.
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” - This is the final line. We let the the past shackle us, and it constantly pulls as back as we strive to move forward.
Gatsby’s love—extravagant, unwavering—shows us this isn’t the way to love.
So, how do we love, then?
Displaying 1 of 1 review