Writing The Great Gatsby

Abstract

The Fitzgeralds’ first visit to Europe had occurred in the summer of 1921. The version of The Beautiful I and Damned that would be serialized in Metropolitan Magazine having been sent to Harold Ober in April, and with Zelda already pregnant with their daughter Scottie, the couple sailed in the Aquitania from New York to Southampton in the first week of May. In the course of the next two months they visited London, Oxford and Cambridge as well as Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome. Given the future frequency and duration of their European visits, it comes as something of a surprise to recognize that this first trip was not a success. Of the cities visited, only Oxford appears to have impressed them. At least in London Shane Leslie was on hand to take them on an exciting night-time tour of the docks area — and Lady Randolph Churchill had them to lunch with Winston Churchill. But both France and Italy they disliked intensely. The problem almost certainly was their sense of isolation. Accustomed to a supportive social circle of friends and acquaintances — and indeed to their Jazz Age celebrity in America — in France and Italy they were unreceived and unknown, their isolation intensified by the fact that English was their only language. The role of anonymous tourists was clearly one not at all to their taste.