Picturing The Great Gatsby

 

The jacket: Gatsby's "gorgeous car".

Gatsby's Rolls-Royce 40/50 ("Silver Ghost") is simplified to essentials without losing any of its power. (Nick Carraway's description, the owner's naïve pride and Tom Buchanan's contemptuous epithet "circus wagon" all emphasize that Gatsby's car was vast, luxurious and ornate.)

These are illustrations by Charles Raymond for a 1968 Folio Society edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. By 1968 the novel was an acknowledged classic. It wasn't a success on first publication, and when Fitzgerald died in 1940 he had little reason to think his work would be remembered. 

From what I can see Charles Raymond's work as an illustrator hasn't been particularly acclaimed. His best-known commission was Dr Alex Comfort's bestseller The Joy of Sex (1972), for which he supplied the watercolour illustrations, and was also the model (with his wife Edeltraud) for Chris Foss's pen and ink drawings.

Anyway, I think he did a fantastic job with The Great Gatsby. Of course I didn't read it in this fancy Folio edition (which I found at Mum and Dad's) but in a handy bung-it-in-the-backpack paperback, and later I re-read it online. 

But when I looked at these illustrations they gave me new thoughts about what I'd been reading. I stopped seeing the novel as mainly about the American Dream and projection and imagination and delusion and class and wealth. It is certainly about all those things, but only because it's also about very physical things, bodies and bodywork, the punch packed by Tom Buchanan, the thrill of Daisy's voice, Gatsby's smile, Myrtle Wilson's sensual vitality, the liberating and deadly horsepower of automobiles.

Frontispiece: Jay Gatsby. There was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding (Ch 5).

Illustration for p. 24: Daisy Buchanan. Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it (Ch 1).

Illustration for p. 46: Jordan Baker. Jordan Baker came out of the house and stood at the head of the marble steps (Ch 3).

Illustration for p. 51: the man in Gatsby's library. A stout, middle-aged man, with enormous owl-eyed spectacles, was sitting somewhat drunk on the edge of a great table (Ch 3).

Illustration for p. 89: Daisy and Gatsby. And as she said something low in his ear he turned towards her with a rush of emotion (Ch 5).

Illustration for p. 109: Daisy in motoring gear. She walked close to Gatsby (Ch 7).

Illustration for p. 143: George B. Wilson. The gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass (Ch 8).

Illustration for p. 146: Henry C. Gatz (Gatsby's father). A solemn old man, very helpless and dismayed, bundled up in a long cheap ulster (Ch 9).