The Great Gatsby: Collins Classroom Classics

Exam board: AQA A, AQA B, OCRLevel & Subject: AS and A Level LiteratureFirst teaching: September 2015First examination: June 2017

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota to Edward and Mary Fitzgerald, he was raised in Buffalo in a middle-class Catholic family. Fitzgerald excelled in school from a young age and was known as an active and curious student, primarily of literature. In 1908 the family returned to St. Paul, where Fitzgerald published his first work of fiction, a detective story, at the age of 13. He completed his high school education at the Newman School in New Jersey before enrolling at Princeton University. In 1917, reeling from an ill-fated relationship and waning in his academic pursuits, Fitzgerald dropped out of Princeton to join the Army. While stationed in Alabama, he began a relationship with Zelda Sayre, a Montgomery socialite. In 1919, he moved to New York City, where he struggled to launch his career as a writer. His first novel, This Side of Paradise (1920), was a resounding success, earning Fitzgerald a sustainable income and allowing him to marry Zelda. Following the birth of his daughter Scottie in 1921, Fitzgerald published his second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned (1922), and Tales of the Jazz Age (1922), a collection of short stories. His rising reputation in New York's social and literary scenes coincided with a growing struggle with alcoholism and the deterioration of Zelda's mental health. Despite this, Fitzgerald managed to complete his masterpiece The Great Gatsby (1925), a withering portrait of corruption and decay at the heart of American society. After living for several years in France in Italy, the end of the decade marked the decline of Fitzgerald's reputation as a writer, forcing him to move to Hollywood in pursuit of work as a screenwriter. His alcoholism accelerated in these last years, leading to severe heart problems and eventually his death at the age of 44. By this time, he was virtually forgotten by the public, but critical reappraisal and his influence on such writers as Ernest Hemingway, J.D. Salinger, and Richard Yates would ensure his status as one of the greatest figures in twentieth-century American fiction.

Adapted with skill and economy of story-telling, this would be the ideal stage version for companies wishing to bring the famous story of Jay Gatsby to life on-stage.

“[Fitzgerald] had one of the rarest qualities in all literature—charm. It’s not a matter of pretty writing or clear style. It’s a kind of subdued magic, controlled and exquisite, the sort of thing you get from good string quartets.” 
— Raymond Chandler
“[Gatsby’s] exuberant ambitions and his abrupt tragedy have merged with the story of America, in its self-creation and its failure.”  — The New Yorker
“Fitzgerald’s novel is a portal to the savage heart of the human spirit, affords a glimpse at our humanity and wonders at our enormous capacity to dream, to imagine, to hope and to persevere.”  — Irish Times
“[Gatsby] is a celebration of intemperance, and a condemnation of its destructiveness. It is about trying to recapture our fleeting joys, about the fugitive nature of delight. It is a tribute to possibility, and a dirge about disappointment. It is a book in which the glory of imagination smacks into the grimness of real life.”  — The Guardian
“A stunning illumination of the world, not only a miracle of talent but a triumph of technique.”  — Richard Yates

Acknowledgments; Illustrations; Introduction; The holograph of The Great Gatsby; A note on the text; Text of the manuscript; Explanatory notes; Illustrations.