For Further Reference

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

Bruccoli, Matthew Joseph. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. With a Genealogical Afterword by Scottie Fitzgerald Smith. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981. Bruccoli, while considering Fitzgerald's life a heroic quest, aims to revise popular myths and correct factual inaccuracies from previous biographies. This work stands as the most meticulously researched book on Fitzgerald's life.

Cowley, Malcolm, and Robert Cowley, eds. Fitzgerald and the Jazz Age. New York: Scribner's, 1966. Provides context for the era in which Fitzgerald matured.

Eble, Kenneth. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1963. The finest brief overview of Fitzgerald's life and works. Offers a comprehensive and balanced evaluation of his writing.

Goldhurst, William. F. Scott Fitzgerald and His Contemporaries. Cleveland and New York: World, 1963. Details Fitzgerald's relationships with Hemingway, Edmund Wilson, John O'Hara, and other contemporaries.

Le Vot, Andre. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Translated by William Byron. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983. Merges traditional biography with critical and psychological analysis. Features several outstanding chapters on The Great Gatsby.

Long, Robert E. The Achieving of "The Great Gatsby." Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1979. A focused and in-depth analysis of the composition and significance of The Great Gatsby.

Miller, James E. F. Scott Fitzgerald: His Art and His Technique. New York: New York University Press, 1967. Arguably remains the best single work on Fitzgerald's fiction.

Phillips, Gene D. Fiction, Film and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1986. Offers an informative look at the adaptation of Fitzgerald's works into films, along with his involvement in screenwriting.

Media Adaptations

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

  • The first film adaptation of The Great Gatsby was produced by Richard Maibaum and directed by Elliott Nugent. The movie stars Alan Ladd, Betty Field, Macdonald Carey, Barry Sullivan, and Shelley Winters. It was released by Paramount in 1949.
  • The second adaptation was produced by David Merrick, directed by Jack Clayton, and the screenplay was written by Francis Ford Coppola. This version stars Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, Sam Waterston, and Karen Black. It was released by Paramount in 1974 and is available from Paramount Home Video.
  • The novel has been recorded twice. One recording was done by The Audio Partners, Listening Library. It consists of three unabridged sound cassettes, narrated by Alexander Scourby, released in 1985.
  • The other audio recording was produced by Recorded Books, Audiobooks. It also consists of three unabridged sound cassettes, narrated by Frank Muller, released in 1984.

Bibliography and Further Reading

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

Sources

Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen Twenties. New York: Harper & Row, 1957.

Benét, William Rose. “An Admirable Novel,” in Saturday Review of Literature, May 9, 1925.

Commager, Henry Steele. The American Mind: An Interpretation of American Thought and Character Since the 1880s. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950.

Donaldson, Scott. “F. Scott Fitzgerald,” in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 9: American Novelists, 1910—1945, edited by James J. Martine. Gale, 1981, pp. 3-18.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Preface and notes by Matthew J. Bruccoli. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992.

Holman, C. Hugh, and William Harmon. Handbook to Literature. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992.

Le Vot, Andre. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography, translated by William Byron. Doubleday, 1983.

Mizener, Arthur. The Far Side of Paradise (biography; includes several letters to Fitzgerald). Avon, 1965.

Turnbull, Andrew. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1962.

Turnbull, Andrew, ed. The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1963.

Wilson, Edmund. In a letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald dated April 11, 1925, in his Letters on Literature and Politics: 1912-1972, edited by Elena Wilson. Farrar, Straus, 1977, pp. 121-22.

For Further Study

Bloom, Harold, ed. F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby': Modern Critical Interpretations. Chelsea House, 1986. This book features eight articles, including an introduction, on the novel's structure, Gatsby as an “American” novel, and the wasteland. It also includes David Parker's article, "Two Versions of the Hero.”

Bloom, Harold, ed. Gatsby, Major Literary Characters Series. Chelsea House, 1991. This extensive collection of articles focuses on the novel's “hero,” Gatsby, beginning with 25 critical extracts about the character and the author from letters, reviews, and articles. Notably, it includes Arnold Weinstein's article, “Fiction as Greatness: The Case of Gatsby” (1985), which interprets the novel as a narrative about creating meaning or belief. This encompasses both Gatsby's self-fictionalization and Nick's account of it. The collection also contains an influential early piece on the theme of time by R. W. Stallman, “Gatsby and the Hole in Time” (1955).

Bruce, M. J., ed. New Essays on 'The Great Gatsby'. Cambridge University Press, 1985. This shorter work, containing five articles and an introduction, provides an engaging overview of the novel's impact on fiction and criticism over the years. Richard Anderson's article, “Gatsby's Long Shadow: Influence and Endurance," is particularly noteworthy.

Cass, Colin S. “‘Pandered in Whispers’: Narrative Reliability in The Great Gatsby,” in College Literature, Vol. 7, 1980, pp. 113-24. This article examines Nick Carraway's role as the novel's narrator and assesses his reliability in recounting events.

Crosland, A.T. A Concordance to F. Scott Fitzgerald's ‘The Great Gatsby’. Gale, 1975. This concordance offers cross-referenced lists of every word in the novel, aiding in the analysis of the usage and frequency of specific words or word groups (such as “eye,” “blind,” “see,” “blink,” “wink,” and the notable accidental use of “irises”).

Donaldson, Scott, ed. Critical Essays on F. Scott Fitzgerald's ‘The Great Gatsby’. G. K. Hall, 1984. This comprehensive collection of critical essays (21 in total) includes an introduction and excerpts from letters exchanged with Fitzgerald regarding the novel. It contains several now-classic articles or chapters from other books. The essays cover sources for the novel, the intricate revisions during its composition, and the historical context of the work.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli. Cambridge University Press, 1991. Bruccoli's critical edition of the novel includes the helpful “apparatus” (notes linked to specific pages in the novel) that were originally published separately in 1974 when the novel was still under copyright. This edition clarifies many of the novel's more obscure references and highlights some of its notable inconsistencies (such as the age of Daisy Fay's daughter). Bruccoli, a prolific Fitzgerald biographer and critic, has also edited numerous editions of Fitzgerald's correspondence, manuscript facsimiles, notebooks, and even financial ledgers.

Fitzgerald-Hemingway Annual, various years. This annual periodical focuses on the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.

Kazin, Alfred. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Man and His Work. Twayne, 1951. This compilation of essays on Fitzgerald's literature is considered one of the finest single volumes of criticism on the author. Organized chronologically, it includes early reviews of his first novel and other critical responses to Fitzgerald's work.

Lockridge, Ernest, ed. Twentieth-Century Interpretations of ‘The Great Gatsby’: A Collection of Critical Essays. Prentice Hall, 1968. This earlier collection features seven articles and nine brief “View Points” on the novel, summarizing a variety of different approaches to the text.

Malin, Irving. “‘Absolution’: Absolving Lies,” in The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: New Approaches in Criticism, edited by Jackson Bryer. University of Wisconsin Press, 1982. This article connects themes from the short story to The Great Gatsby. The author argues that Fitzgerald can be considered, to some extent, a religious writer.

Mellow, James R. Invented Lives. Houghton Mifflin, 1984. This book provides a comprehensive portrait of Fitzgerald, exploring his quest for fame, his tumultuous marriage, and a retrospective look at an era that continues to captivate with its diversity and intrigue.

Tuttleton, James. The Novel of Manners. Norton, 1972. This book offers insightful analysis of Fitzgerald's ability to portray social and cultural norms in 1920s American society. It also references works by Henry James and other authors.

Get Ahead with eNotes

Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.

Get 48 Hours Free Access
Previous

Historical and Social Context

Loading...