THE GREAT GATSBY - First British Edition (1926)

<p>The extremely scarce first English edition of Fitzgerald's masterpiece, regarded today as one of the great, if not the greatest, American novels of the twentieth century. Printed in a considerably smaller run to the true first American edition, which had a print-run of 20,870 copies, with various sources estimating the British print-run to have been as low&nbsp;as 1500-3000 copies.</p>

<p>Publisher's dark blue cloth lettered in gilt to spine. Rubbing to corners and spine ends. Cloth split at top of spine along the front hinge (4cm). Internally clean. The front end-paper has been pasted onto the pastedown with the effect that the book opens on the half-title page. Binding tight.</p>

<p>William Collins, Fitzgerald's English publisher&nbsp;for his two previous novels, had extreme reservations about The Great Gatsby being a commercial success and therefore turned down the work when it was submitted for publication on the grounds that it would 'reduce the number of his readers rather than to increase them'.</p>

<p>It is interesting to note that The Great Gatsby was all but forgotten at the time of the author's death in 1940, but interest was gradually revived following the years after WWII and today, despite Collins's&nbsp;earlier lack of faith, it has proven to be an enduring work of fiction, being a standard prescribed work in most&nbsp;secondary schools and all universities.&nbsp;</p>