The Fifth Guest in The Great Gatsby: An Online Symposium

Abstract

In October 2008, Fitzgerald Society member Ronald Pelosi sent an e-mail to James West, pointing out a possible emendation involving a fifth guest in the first chapter of The Great Gatsby. Ron and Jim exchanged e-mails, and Peter L. Hays solicited additional opinion in an item entitled You Do the Math, published in the December 2008 issue of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society Newsletter. Robert Beuka, editor of the Newsletter , and West, general editor of the Cambridge Fitzgerald Edition, decided that it might be interesting to take the responses that resulted from the Newsletter piece and combine them with comments solicited from other Society members and from scholarly editors who have worked with the writings of Modernist authors. The results are published below. Occasionally a textual crux will generate a history of commentary. One thinks of sullied vs. solid in Hamlet I.ii; of coiled fish vs. soiled fish in Melville's White-Jacket; and of orgastic vs. orgiastic on the last page of Gatsby. Debates over contested readings typically go on for many years and involve a good bit of back and forth in scholarly journals. Today, however, we can gather opinion much more quickly through e-mail. Below is the e-mail message that was sent out for reactions. Then follow comments from interested parties. Given the informal nature of this piece, the respondents are identified only by name only, without appended titles, ranks, or honorifics. Herewith the text of the e-mail: