Which edition of The Great Gatsby should you read?
The Great Gatsby was written in English and entered the US public domain on 1 January 2021, and new editions have kept arriving since. Below are eight of them. All but one print the whole novel. What they differ on is the text they start from and what comes with it.
The text itself is a real difference here. Fitzgerald rewrote the novel heavily in proof, and the first edition carried errors from that rewriting. The Norton prints the 1925 first American edition. The Cambridge Edition rebuilds the text from the manuscript and the surviving proofs. Trimalchio prints the version before the rewriting.
| Edition | Text | What comes with it | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scribner (“The Only Authorized Edition”) | The novel, described by Scribner as the original text with the author’s own revisions | Foreword by Fitzgerald’s granddaughter, introduction by Jesmyn Ward | 208 pp, paperback |
| Penguin Classics | The novel | Introduction by Min Jin Lee, notes by Philip McGowan | 240 pp, paperback |
| Norton Critical Edition | The 1925 first American edition | Annotations, sources, ledger and notebook extracts, three stories, 22 letters, reviews and criticism | 584 pp, paperback |
| Cambridge Edition, ed. Bruccoli | A critical text from the manuscript and surviving proofs | Textual apparatus, early draft material, notes on geography and chronology | 282 pp, paperback |
| Cambridge Centennial Edition | The established text, ed. James L. W. West III | Introduction by Sarah Churchwell, historical context, many illustrations | 278 pp, hardcover |
| Everyman’s Library | The novel | Introduction by Malcolm Bradbury, chronology, ribbon marker, cloth binding | 208 pp, hardcover |
| Audiobook, read by Jake Gyllenhaal | The novel, read aloud | One voice | 4 hrs 49 min |
| Trimalchio | The earlier version Fitzgerald sent his editor | Editorial apparatus by James L. W. West III | 216 pp, paperback |
The text with nothing around it is free on Project Gutenberg, which added it in January 2021.
Each edition, in more detail
The Scribner paperback (“The Only Authorized Edition”)
You have not read it yet, or not since school, and you want the novel from its own publisher with a short way in. the whole novel. Scribner describes the text as the original with the author’s own revisions.
Buy the paperback — Bookshop.org
Other ways to get it: Paperback — Amazon · Ebook — Kobo · Kindle — Amazon
Borrow it free: Borrow on Libby · Find at your library — WorldCat
The Penguin Classics edition, introduction by Min Jin Lee
You want to read it properly, with the slang and the places explained, and an introduction that argues with it a little. the whole novel.
Buy the paperback — Bookshop.org
Other ways to get it: Paperback — Amazon · Ebook — Kobo · Kindle — Amazon
Borrow it free: Borrow on Libby · Find at your library — WorldCat
The Norton Critical Edition, ed. David Alworth
You read the back matter, and you want Fitzgerald’s letters and the first reviews in the same book as the novel. the 1925 first American edition text, with a note on the text and annotations by David Alworth.
Buy the paperback — Bookshop.org
Other ways to get it: Paperback — Amazon · Ebook — Kobo · Kindle — Amazon
Borrow it free: Borrow on Libby · Find at your library — WorldCat
The Cambridge Edition, ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli
You have read it, and you want the text closest to what Fitzgerald wrote, with the evidence shown. the novel, in a critical text drawn from the manuscript, the surviving proofs and Fitzgerald’s later revisions to key passages.
Buy the paperback — Bookshop.org
Other ways to get it: Paperback — Amazon · Ebook — Kobo · Kindle — Amazon
Borrow it free: Borrow on Libby · Find at your library — WorldCat
The Cambridge Centennial Edition
You want a copy to keep for the novel’s hundredth year, with the world of 1922 laid out around the text. the established text of the novel, edited by James L. W. West III.
Buy the hardcover — Bookshop.org
Other ways to get it: Hardcover — Amazon · Ebook — Kobo · Kindle — Amazon
Borrow it free: Borrow on Libby · Find at your library — WorldCat
The Everyman’s Library hardcover
You are buying it for someone, or for a shelf you mean to keep. the whole novel.
Buy the hardcover — Bookshop.org
Other ways to get it: Hardcover — Amazon · Ebook — Kobo · Kindle — Amazon
Borrow it free: Borrow on Libby · Find at your library — WorldCat
The audiobook read by Jake Gyllenhaal
You take books in by ear, and you want the novel itself in an afternoon. the novel’s words, read aloud.
Borrow it free: The free text — Project Gutenberg · Find at your library — WorldCat
Trimalchio: An Early Version of The Great Gatsby
You know the novel well, and you want to see it before Fitzgerald rewrote it in proof. the story and the people, in the version Fitzgerald submitted to Maxwell Perkins at Scribner’s.
Buy the paperback — Bookshop.org
Other ways to get it: Paperback — Amazon · Ebook — Kobo · Kindle — Amazon
Borrow it free: Borrow on Libby · Find at your library — WorldCat
Common questions
Which edition of The Great Gatsby should I read first?
The Scribner paperback or the Penguin Classics edition. Both print the whole novel with an introduction: Jesmyn Ward’s in the Scribner, Min Jin Lee’s in the Penguin, which also has notes for the slang and the places. If you would rather keep a copy, the Everyman’s Library hardcover has a cloth binding and a ribbon marker.
Which edition of The Great Gatsby is closest to what Fitzgerald wrote?
The Cambridge Edition, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli, rebuilds the text from Fitzgerald’s manuscript and the surviving proofs, with his later revisions to key passages, and shows its evidence in a textual apparatus. The Norton Critical Edition prints the 1925 first American edition instead.
What is Trimalchio?
The version of the novel Fitzgerald submitted to Maxwell Perkins at Scribner’s, before he rewrote it in proof. Cambridge University Press published it for the first time, edited by James L. W. West III. Two chapters were rewritten completely for the published novel, and Gatsby’s past is revealed in a wholly different way.
What is in the Norton Critical Edition of The Great Gatsby?
The 1925 text with annotations by David Alworth, then Fitzgerald’s sources, extracts from his ledger and notebooks, three related short stories, twenty-two letters about the novel, writing on the Jazz Age, the first reviews, the revival and later criticism: 584 pages.
Is The Great Gatsby free to read?
Yes. The novel entered the US public domain in 2021, and Project Gutenberg has the full text.
Or see every version — all 29 of them.