Adapting Fitzgerald

Abstract Taking off from the widespread perception that Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film adaptation of The Great Gatsby was more successful in adapting Fitzgerald’s plot and characters than the themes, tone, or spirit widely identified with the author, this article asks what it means to adapt Fitzgerald, as opposed to adapting one of his novels or stories. After briefly considering the possibility that the best adaptations of Fitzgerald are his autobiographical stories or memoirs or the biographies about him written by other hands, it considers a wide range of Fitzgerald merchandise, from tote bags to T-shirts, as adaptations of the author and concludes by asking which elements would be most likely to be included in the hypothetical theme park Fitzgeraldland and which elements would be most likely to pose problems that would cause their omission from Fitzgeraldland.