Chapter by Chapter Countdown to Gatsby; Chapter Two

Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson, Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan, Adelaide Clemens as Catherine, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway and Kate Mulvany as Mrs. McKee in The Great Gatsby.

"The apartment was on the top floor-a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath. The living-room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it, so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles. The only picture was an over-enlarged photograph, apparently a hen sitting on a blurred rock. Looked at from a distance, however, the hen resolved itself into a bonnet, and the countenance of a stout old lady beamed down into the room. Several old copies of "Town Tattle" lay on the table together with a copy of "Simon Called Peter," and some of the small scandal magazines of Broadway. Mrs. Wilson was first concerned with the dog. A reluctant elevator-boy went for a box full of straw and some milk, to which he added on his own initiative a tin of large, hard dog-biscuits-one of which decomposed apathetically in the saucer of milk all afternoon. Meanwhile Tom brought out a bottle of whiskey from a locked bureau door."

The Great Gatsby opens 9 days from now on May 10th. I thought it would be a kick to post a passage from each chapter and pair it with one of the studio's production stills. The art department has captured the flavor of Tom and Myrtle's city hideaway with its' overlarge furniture and overdone decor but I sorely miss Fitzgerald's 'over-enlarged photograph, apparently a hen sitting on a blurred rock.' I see two black and white photos; the one on the right looks like a glamour shot; can't really tell about the one on the left, there's just a small corner visible behind Tom and Myrtle. What do you think of the set design? Does it line up with the picture you created in your mind when you read the book? Myrtle sure looks happy here; too bad later in the chapter she won't know what hit her!

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Read The Great Gatsby in its entirety at publicbookshelf.com