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Penguin Essentials the Great Gatsby
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Penguin Essentials the Great Gatsby Mass market paperbound - 2011

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

About this book

Written in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be one of the author’s greatest works. Set in New York City and Long Island during the Roaring Twenties, the focus of the story is (of course) its title character, Jay Gatsby, and his unswerving desire to be reunited with Daisy Buchanan, the love he lost five years earlier. However, Nick Carraway, who happens to be both Gatsby’s neighbor and Daisy’s cousin, narrates Gatsby's journey from poverty to wealth, into the arms of his beloved, and eventually to death.

The Great Gatsby is undoubtedly one of the greatest American literary documents of the 1920s, the decade for which Fitzgerald himself coined the term “Jazz Age.” However, in writing the book, Fitzgerald was in fact holding up a mirror to the society of which he was a part. In true Modernist fashion, The Great Gatsby addresses the social issues of the period — namely materialism and displaced spirituality — that ultimately led the decline of the era.

The novel’s initial sales situation was less than impressive; fewer than 25,000 copies were sold by Fitzgerald’s death in 1940. But The Great Gatsby gained great popularity during WWII as the critical mainstream began to embrace the author’s work. The Armed Services Editions circulated 150,000 copies to troops alone. Today, The Great Gatsby has sold over 25 million copies worldwide, sells an additional 500,000 copies annually, and is Scribner's most popular title. Ranked #2 on the Modern Library’s list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century, the novel is also listed on their Top 100 Novels as well as The Observer’s All-Time 100 Best Novels and Time Magazine’s 100 Best Modern Novels.

The Great Gatsby has resulted in a number of adaptations, including Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 major motion picture starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, and Joel Edgerton.

First Edition Identification

Charles Scribner’s Sons first published The Great Gatsby in April of 1925. A highly valued collectible, first editions can be identified by a number of points of issue, including a typo on the back of the dust jacket that spells “jay Gatsby” with a lowercase “j,” over which a correction has been made (by hand) in ink or with a stamp. Other points specific to the first edition include “chatter” on page 60, line 16; “northern” on page 119, line 22; “sick in tired” on page 205, lines 9-10; and “Union Street Station” on page 211, lines 7-8.

The cover of the first edition of The Great Gatsby is among the most celebrated in American literature. Artist Francis Cugat’s design depicts disembodied eyes and a mouth over a blue skyline with images of naked women reflected in the irises. It has been said that Fitzgerald so loved the art (which was completed before the book), that he rewrote parts of the book to better incorporate it.

With its original dust jacket, the rare first edition of The Great Gatsby has sold for between $100,000 and $150,000. Not too shabby — considering that same book sold for just $2 in 1925.

Details

  • Title Penguin Essentials the Great Gatsby
  • Author F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Binding Mass Market Paperbound
  • Edition Re-issue
  • Pages 176
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin UK
  • Date 2011
  • ISBN 9780241951477 / 024195147X
  • Weight 0.26 lbs (0.12 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.1 x 4.35 x 0.5 in (18.03 x 11.05 x 1.27 cm)
  • Reading level 1070
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About the author

Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and educated at Princeton. Stationed in Alabama, he met and later married Zelda Sayre. His first novel, This Side of Paradise, was published in 1920 and was a tremendous critical and commercial success. Fitzgerald followed with The Beautiful and the Damned in 1922, The Great Gatsby in 1925 and Tender is the Night in 1934. He was working on The Last Tycoon (1941) when he died, in Hollywood, in 1940.

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Great Gatsby
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Great Gatsby

by Fitzgerald, F Scott

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Penguin Essentials the Great Gatsby
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Penguin Essentials the Great Gatsby

by Fitzgerald, F. Scott

  • Used
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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780241951477 / 024195147x
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The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

by F Scott Fitzgerald

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Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780241951477 / 024195147x
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Paperback / softback. New. New Book; Fast Shipping from UK; Not signed; Not First Edition; Everybody who is anybody is seen at the glittering parties held in millionaire Jay Gatsby's mansion in West Egg, east of New York. The riotous throng congregates in his garden, coolly debating Gatsby's origins and mysterious past. None
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The Great Gatsby
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The Great Gatsby

by Fitzgerald, F Scott (Author)

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Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780241951477 / 024195147X
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The Great Gatsby: Scott F. Fitzgerald (Penguin Essentials, 6)

The Great Gatsby: Scott F. Fitzgerald (Penguin Essentials, 6)

by Fitzgerald, F Scott

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Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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