Celebrate ‘The Great Gatsby’ turning 100 with this $500 ultimate edition

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece The Great Gatsby conjures up images of gilded Art Deco opulence: cloche hats and shimmering flapper dresses; a freeflow of French 75s and festivities. And that’s thanks, in part, to kaleidoscopic films like Baz Lurhmann’s 2013 adaptation of the novel. 

But when you read Gatsby, you discover a less glamorous narrative that has perhaps been overshadowed by contemporary Jazz Age visual clichés—one that is essentially a dark portrait of its times with a bit of rot at its core, thanks to the titular swindling bootlegger Jay Gatsby. And that’s what luxe publisher The Folio Society sought to reflect in its brilliant limited-edition illustrated edition of the novel, which is out today on the centennial of the book’s initial publication.

“[We] wanted to move away from the sort of prescribed images that have been cemented in our consciousness,” Folio Head of Editorial James Rose says. “100 years on, I think it’s Fitzgerald’s look at the American Dream—and the abandonment of the American Dream.” 

NEW ILLUSTRATIONS CAPTURE THE BOOK’S DUALITY

Folio is known for its embrace of art, design, and high-end production, and for this edition they commissioned New York–based Japanese artist Yuko Shimizu to bring the book to visual life. Rose says the publisher has worked with Shimizu before, and she has an innate ability to interpret a text and make it her own, as well as suss out hidden meanings and take an unconventional approach. Given that unconventional is exactly what Folio was going for with its interpretation of one of the most famous and well-trodden novels of all time, Shimizu was an ideal fit. 

“Yuko got that instantly,” Rose says. She didn’t view the novel through the lens of the glamorous, glitzy jazz parties and flapper girls the period is known for, according to Rose. “Once you peel back those layers, underneath it’s really quite horrid. […] She wanted to bring that out and actually show that behind all of this surface veneer of money and success, there’s actually a very dark undercurrent.”

As the gilded first impressions fade, readers discover that the mysterious millionaire Gatsby is in fact a charlatan. The antagonist Tom Buchanan breaks his mistress’ nose. Then there’s the fatal car crash and the climactic murder. Rose says Folio gives its artists a large degree of autonomy, and Shimizu came up with a list of scenes to illustrate—ultimately bringing all of those above and more to life across 13 pieces. 

“When they came in, I think we were all stunned by them,” Rose says. In her style they’re gorgeous yet tragic—which strikes at the heart of the book at large. 

GAZING UPON THE AMERICAN DREAM

The Great Gatsby in the most literal sense of the cliché needs no introduction. So, Folio elected to commission an afterword instead of a foreword, especially since analysis of the novel could end up spoiling its biggest moments. 

Who could you bring in to deliver an unexpected take on an unexpected edition?Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk. Though there’s more connective tissue there than you might think.

“Chuck’s one of the foremost American novelists at the moment, and his books deal with that undercurrent of violence,” Rose says. “Particularly if you look at Fight Club, it is essentially about the male gaze on the American Dream. And this is just a continuation of exactly what F. Scott Fitzgerald was doing 100 years before.”

Rose says he wasn’t sure what exactly Palahniuk would turn in—but he hoped it would offer a look at the book from a fresh angle, and that’s exactly what the author did, exploring it almost as a morality tale, and (humorously, naturally) drawing parallels to everything from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to Rosemary’s Baby.

“We should all be able to lament as beautifully as [Fitzgerald] did,” Palahniuk writes in the afterword. “Regardless of shaping the future, we should all be able to revisit our past with such skill and humility.”

BOTH TIMELY AND TIMELESS

True to Folio’s output and its fan-favorite limited editions, the production is appropriately opulent.

Shimizu illustrated the exterior, as well, which features the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, a signature thematic element of the novel. The book is bound in goatskin leather, with green foil and gilded edges. It’s printed on Dolce Vita Ivory paper, with Sirio Pearl Cocktail Blue Moon endpapers (“which is just the best name for any paper—and I don’t know why, it makes me think of Jazz Age cocktails,” Rose notes.)

Each book is signed by Shimizu and Palahniuk, and housed in a custom cloth box that is screenprinted with a design by Shimizu in gold foil, featuring custom lettering by Atelier Olschnsky Grafik und Design OG in Vienna. The project was also printed and bound by Graphicom in Italy, which is renowned for its sheer craft and eye for detail.

To keep things truly limited, Folio is only producing 500 of the books, which sell for $500 each.

“We will never do a 100th anniversary, centenary edition of Great Gatsby ever again,” Rose says. “So for us, we need to be very forensic about the materials that we use and get them just right. We’ve got one chance to get it absolutely perfect.”

It’s a remarkably gorgeous object—and yet indeed contains illustrated horror right there on the case itself (those headlights . . . ), bringing the concept full circle.

A century on, why are we still so entranced by Gatsby? Rose says the class and social divides at the heart of the book persist to this day. “These are timeless themes . . . so I think Gatsby has an unlimited ability to find its way into a new generation,” he says. “It’s not just relevant—I think it’s slightly prescient for America today. Alarmingly so, perhaps.”

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