The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, F. Scott - 1925

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925. First edition. Near Fine. First issue, with the four main issue points present: 1) pg. 60, line 16 "chatter" 2) pg. 119, line 22 "northern" 3) pg. 205, lines 9-10 "sick in tired" 4) pg. 211, lines 7-8 "Union Street station." Original publisher's cloth binding with gilt to spine and blind embossing to front board. Near Fine with the spine a bit cocked, but otherwise an attractive copy of this exceptional novel, which introduced the Lost Generation to the world.

Fitzgerald's masterpiece and one of the great novels of the 20th century. Fitzgerald intended the novel to be a "consciously artistic achievement" and "something extraordinary and beautiful and simple, and intricately patterned." The book took Fitzgerald two years to write, and he worked on it under a variety of different titles, including Dinner at Trimalchio's and Under the Red, White and Blue.

Unfortunately, when it was first released The Great Gatsby was neither a commercial nor a critical success. In fact, even though Fitzgerald received a great deal of praise from many literary lights of the period -- including TS Eliot and Willa Cather -- the book did not achieve its current level of popularity and renown until after Fitzgerald's death, when it was distributed as a cheap paperback to GIs during World War II. The book has maintained its critical and commercial acclaim ever since, and has sold over 25 million copies. In 1960, the Times would call it "a classic of twentieth century American fiction." It has been adapted into numerous film versions, including a 1974 production starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, and with a script by Francis Ford Coppola. "A curious book, a mystical, glamourous story of today" (Contemporary New York Times Review). Near Fine.