Book Review: Trimalchio: An Early Version of The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edited by James L.W. West III (2000)

 

The cover of Trimalchio: An Early Version of The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edited by James L.W. West III, 2000.

A reprint of the original dust jacket for The Great Gatsby, first published in 1925.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby is rightfully acclaimed as an American classic. If you’re curious about Fitzgerald’s writing and editing processes, you may enjoy reading Trimalchio: An Early Version of The Great Gatsby. Published in 2000 as part of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and edited by Fitzgerald scholar James L.W. West III, Trimalchio presents the reader with the galleys of Fitzgerald’s third novel.  

Trimalchio was for a time Fitzgerald’s preferred title for the novel. (He also considered Trimalchio in West Egg.) Trimalchio was a character in the Satyricon by Petronius, written in the first century, CE. Trimalchio is a giver of ostentatious parties, but ironically enough, those who attend his parties make little attempt to learn anything about their host. Sounds like a certain someone who lives in West Egg, doesn’t it, old sport? The allusion would have required an explanatory note, and I think it’s best that Fitzgerald went back to his original title for the novel, The Great Gatsby. 

Trimalchio is not radically different from The Great Gatsby. The events of the finished novel are all still here. There’s still a green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. Gatsby still wears a pink suit for the confrontation at the Plaza Hotel, and he still calls people “old sport.” But there are details here and there that are different. Fitzgerald did a significant amount of editing and rearranging in between sending Trimalchio off to Maxwell Perkins, his editor at Scribner’s, at the end of October 1924, and the publication of The Great Gatsby on April 10, 1925.  

Reading Trimalchio you see how Fitzgerald kept paring down the language, refining it. The party at Gatsby’s that Daisy and Tom attend becomes streamlined. In Trimalchio, the man “with the sort of blue nose” is identified as “’Augustus Waize,’ said Gatsby. ‘Oh, he’s just a small producer. He only does one play a year.’” (p.82) In Gatsby, it changes to: “Gatsby identified him, adding that he was a small producer.” (p.105) The language just keeps tightening as Fitzgerald removes anything extraneous from his narrative.  

A change that I found fascinating occurs near the end of Trimalchio, as Nick visits Meyer Wolfshiem: 

“I wondered if this partnership had included the World’s Series transaction in 1919—and what else it included. I kept wondering until last winter, when Wolfshiem was tried (but not convicted) on ten charges ranging from simple bribery to dealing in stolen bonds.” (p.138)  

The same passage in Gatsby is shortened to this: 

“I wondered if this partnership had included the World’s Series transaction in 1919.” (p.171) 

Fitzgerald is content to let the reader wonder about Wolfshiem’s shadowy activities, thus further shrouding him in mystery.  

Race in The Great Gatsby is a fascinating plot point, and there are scholars who have theorized that Jay Gatsby and Jordan Baker are both light-skinned Blacks “passing” as white. It’s a fascinating way to interpret those characters, and there are two passages in Trimalchio that were cut before publication related to race.  

In Gatsby, Jay and Daisy sit in front of Nick’s cottage for a while during Gatsby’s party that Daisy and Tom attend. Nothing is said about their conversation at the cottage. In Trimalchio, Nick goes over to tell them that Tom is looking for Daisy.  

Daisy tells Nick, “We’re having a row.” 

“What about?” 

“’Oh, about things,’ she replied vaguely. ‘About the future—the future of the black race. My theory is we’ve got to beat them down.’ 

“’You don’t know what you want,’ said Gatsby suddenly.” (p.84) 

Daisy’s comment “we’ve got to beat them down” is exactly what she says in Chapter I of both Trimalchio and Gatsby when Tom starts ranting about other races gaining dominance over whites. Is this Daisy’s way of awkwardly joking whenever the subject of race comes up? In Chapter I Daisy is obviously goading Tom. But Gatsby wasn’t present for the conversation that occurred in Chapter I, so while the reader and Nick might get Daisy’s call-back, Gatsby doesn’t know that Daisy is referencing that earlier conversation.  If you think that Gatsby is passing, that helps to explain his harsh comeback “You don’t know what you want.” Even if Daisy is making a joke, Gatsby would still be tremendously wounded by her comment, and it might be an indication to him of her true feelings towards Blacks.  

During the confrontation at the Plaza Hotel, Tom goes on a rant about modern morals. His dialogue is the same in Trimalchio and Gatsby: 

“Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white.”  

Jordan Baker’s response in Gatsby is: “’We’re all white here,’ murmured Jordan.” (p.130) 

Her response in Trimalchio is: “’We’re all white here,’ murmured Jordan. ‘Except possibly Tom.’” (p.103) 

If you don’t think any of the characters are passing, Jordan’s response in both books is quite hilarious. It would be akin to a character saying the same line in a Woody Allen movie. But if you think Jordan is passing, then her line could be a slightly defensive deflection, meant to steer the conversation away from race. And her extra line in Trimalchio becomes an especially hilarious attempt to annoy Tom by suggesting that he might be passing. In both versions of the novel, none of the characters respond to Jordan’s line.  

One thing that didn’t change in between Trimalchio and The Great Gatsby were the final seven paragraphs of the novel, beginning with “Gatsby’s house was still empty when I left” and closing with that beautiful, haunting, final line. Fitzgerald didn’t change anything about those seven paragraphs—they were already perfect.