The Gatsby Factor

THE GATSBY FACTOR (320kbs-m4a/64mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 25th September 2021

Recorded on both sides of the Atlantic - Sarah Churchwell explores the enduring popularity of The Great Gatsby as a novel and as a source of inspiration for film and stage adaptations.

Back in 2011, it became a 'major motion picture' for the fourth time in its life - in a version by Baz Luhrmann.

In Britain, academic and broadcaster Sue visits the Northern Ballet and Wilton's Music Hall in London - both with versions of Gatsby

While in New York, she hears about the locations for the novel - the extreme wealth of north shore Long Island where Gatsby has his mansion, and the contrasting 'valley of ashes' where the poorer characters live.

Featuring luminaries at the New York Times who consider why this novel, more than any other, has burned its way into American consciousness.

How was Scott Fitzgerald in this the slimmest of novels, and with Gatsby the vaguest of protagonists, able to crack 'the kernal of the American fable'?

Producer: Susan Marling

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in May 2013.