April 10 marks 100 years since F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third novel hit shelves. “The Great Gatsby,” which tells the story of the rise and fall of poor-man-turned-millionaire Jay Gatsby through the eyes of his friend, Nick Carraway, sold fewer than 40,000 copies between the time it was published and when Fitzgerald died 15 years later.
But the book took on a life of its own in the subsequent years, entering classrooms as part of curriculum in the 1950s. Today, it is one of the publisher’s best sellers, has a musical adaptation on Broadway, and is the theme of countless parties. Why has this book, which was initially met with lukewarm reviews and sales, endured and become such a staple of American literature?
