Which novel is F. Scott Fitzgerald best known for?

F. Scott Fitzgerald is best known for The Great Gatsby.

Published by Charles Scribner’s Sons on April 10, 1925, the novel follows Nick Carraway’s observations of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire determined to reunite with Daisy Buchanan. Set on Long Island during the Jazz Age, it explores wealth, ambition, social class, memory, and the elusive American Dream.

The novel was not an immediate commercial success. Fitzgerald’s earlier books, This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned, initially sold better, while Gatsby sold fewer than 20,000 copies by October 1925. Its reputation grew substantially after Fitzgerald’s death, and by the mid-20th century it was widely regarded as a major American novel.

A common mix-up is assuming that “best known for” means Gatsby was Fitzgerald’s first or most commercially successful novel. It was actually his third novel, but its carefully controlled prose, symbolic imagery, and enduring place in school curricula made it his signature work.