An Index to The Great Gatsby

Madame de Maintenon
rose from poverty to become the second wife of French King Louis XIV.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Maintenon

Biography in English
http://www.kings.edu/womens_history/demaintenon.html

Madison Avenue
is a street in New York City which is traditionally identified with the advertising business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Avenue

Mæcenas
was a wealthy patron of the arts in ancient Rome. "His name is the symbol of the wealthy, generous patron of the arts."

http://www.bartleby.com/65/ma/Maecenas.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maecenas

Marie Antoinette
became Queen of France when her husband assumed the throne in 1774\

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette

http://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/95nov/antoinette.html

Marseilles
is a port city on the Mediterranean coast of France.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marseille

http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/bouches/marseill/marseill.htm

Mendelssohn's Wedding March
has become the most famous music associated with weddings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_March_%28Mendelssohn%29

http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Strasse/1955/mendelssohn.htm

"Merton College Library"
literally refers to the library of that College at Oxford, but in the novel Nick puts it in quotation marks to indicate that it is either a witty expression of his own or what Gatsby himself calls the library. Perhaps the name is written on the door.

http://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merton_College

Midas
was a legendary Greek king whose touch turned matter to gold.

http://www.loggia.com/myth/midas.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midas

Montauk Point
is the eastern-most extremity of Long Island.

The Montauk Point Lighthouse
http://www.montauklighthouse.com/

Monte Carlo
is a resort in Monaco, famous for its gambling houses.

http://www.monte-carlo.mc/principalitymonaco/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Carlo

Montenegro
is one of the Balkan states which formed the nation of Yugoslavia

http://www.montenet.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegro

Montreal
is the largest city in Quebec, Canada.

Bilingual
http://www.montreal.com/

In French
http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal

Morgan
(John Pierpoint, 1837-1913) was one of the most successful financiers of 19th century America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pierpoint_Morgan

The Morgan family biographies
http://www.bartleby.com/65/mo/Morgan.html

Negro
was the term commonly used in the past by African Americans and non-African Americans alike. See the following for a sense of the complexity of what a people are called - and what they choose to call themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/negro

http://www.unia-acl.org/archive/who_r_we.htm
http://www.daveyd.com/nword.html
http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/aavesem/aave.sum/Baugh91.html
http://www.iath.virginia.edu/vshadow2/HIUS403/freedmen/national/national15.html

New Haven
is frequently used in the novel in a synecdochic manner to refer to Yale University, which is located at New Haven, CT.

The City of New Haven
http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Haven%2C_Connecticut

Yale University
http://www.yale.edu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale

Orderi di Danilo

See a photo of an actual medal of this order
http://public.srce.hr/hpm/p0170003.htm

Owl-eyes
used in reference to the drunk in the library, hints that he knows some truth or has some wisdom concerning Gatsby. At least, this is one common interpretation. In Greek mythology the owl is asssociated with Athena, goddess of wisdom.

http://www.davidicke.net/symbolism/ancient/owlcoin.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/athena

Oxford
is a British university, "one of the oldest English-language universities in the world."
http://www.bartleby.com/65/ox/OxfordUn.html

University of Oxford
http://www.ox.ac.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oxford

Palm Beach
on the southeastern coast of Florida was developed as a resort town in the 1890s by Henry Flagler, a co-founder of Standard Oil (with John D. Rockefeller and Samuel Andrews).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Beach%2C_Florida

Palm Beach On-Line
http://www.pbol.com/

pasquinade
is "a satire or lampoon, especially one that ridicules a specific person, traditionally written and posted in a public place." American Heritage Dictionary

Pennsylvania Station
in New York City, was contructed in 1910 and demolished in 1964.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Station

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/Penn%20Station/penn.html
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Pennsylvania_Station.html

Platonic conception
refers, first of all, to the Greek philosopher's idealism, the belief that only ideas (pure forms) are really real. There is also a pun on the term "conception," leaning on the word's associations with thinking as well as with matters of sexual reproduction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato

Plaza Hotel
is located on Fifth Avenue and Central Park South.

A History of The Plaza

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_Hotel

Port Roosevelt
is, as Bruccoli points out in his notes for the novel (210), not an identifiable location.

Punch Bowl, the
is a volcanic crater on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

http://www.geocities.com/wongweikang/punch.html

Queens, borough of
is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located on western Long Island. It was incorporated into NYC in 1898.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens

Queensboro Bridge
stretches across the East River, connecting the borough of Queens to Manhattan Island.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensboro_Bridge

http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/queensboro/

Red Cross
is an international humanitarian relief organization whose American branch was founded by Clara Barton in 1881.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cross

http://www.redcross.org/
http://www.the-forum.com/posters/warfish.htm

Restoration
refers, in the novel, to a style of architecture that arose during the period of the English Restoration, beginning in 1660 (with the restoration of the monarchy after the Puritan Commonwealth and Protectorate).

http://www.studiosoft.it/AntiqueEnglishFurniture.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_the_United_Kingdom

"Rise of the Colored Empires, The"
is, as described by Bruccoli in his notes to the novel (208), a veiled allusion to The Rising Tide of Color by Lothrop Stoddard, published in 1920.

Read what Tom read, if he weren't a fictional character:
http://www.churchoftrueisrael.com/stoddard/

roadhouse
is a generally shoddy and disreputable bar, often on the outskirts of town.

Rockefeller, John D.
was a spectacularly wealthy industrialist and philanthropist of the 19th century. Before the Supreme Court broke up his Standard Oil Trust, he made over $1 billion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller

Rolls-Royce
is a British company famous for its automobile and aircraft engines. Its automobiles have a reputation for being of the highest quality, beginning with The Silver Ghost of 1906.

http://www.rolls-royce.com/history/default.jsp

"Rosary, The,"
was a popular Catholic religious song of the 1920's. It is probably an intentional irony that it is whistled by Wolfsheim, whose Jewish ethnicity has been emphasized throughout the book. Words and Music by Robert Cameron Rogers and Ethelbert Nevin.

midi

The hours I spent with Thee, Dear Heart!
Or, as a string of pearls to Thee,
I count them over, every one apart,
My rosary, my rosary . . .

Each hour a pearl, each pearl a prayer,
To still a heart in absence wrung,
I tell each bead unto the end,
And there a cross is hung . . .

O' memories that bless and burn,
O' barren gain and bitter loss,
I kiss each bead and strive at last to learn,
To kiss the cross, Sweet Heart,
To kiss the cross . . .

I kiss each bead and strive at last to learn,
To kiss the cross, Sweet Heart,
To kiss the cross . . . ( to kiss the cross )

rotogravure pictures
are magazine illustrations produced on rotary photogravure presses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rotogravure

http://www.learnaboutmovieposters.com/NewSite/INDEX/ARTICLES/rotogravure.asp

St. Olaf
located in Northfield MN, is a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. It was founded in 1874.

http://www.stolaf.edu/external-index.html

Saturday Evening Post
a weekly magazine, was purchased by the Curtis Publishing Company in 1897, "with circulation reaching one million copies a week in 1909; two million in 1913; three million in 1937..." http://www.curtiscirc.com/history.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saturday_Evening_Post

Seelbach Hotel
was opened in Louisville, KY in 1905.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/STYLE/design/08/18/seelbach.hotel/

http://www.oldlouisville.com/postcards/Louisville/Seelbach.htm

Sheik of Araby
was a popular song written in 1921. Words by Harry B. Smith and Francis Wheeler. Music by Ted Snyder

midi

Well I'm the sheik of Araby
Your love belongs to me
Well at night where you're asleep
Into your tent I'll creep
The stars that shine above
Will light our way to love
Ah you rule this world with me
the sheik of Araby

Well I'm the sheik of Araby
Your love belongs to me
Wow oh at night where you're asleep
Into your tent I'll creep
Aha

The sun that shines above
Will light our way to love
You rule this world with me
I'm the sheik of Araby
Well I'm the sheik of Araby
Well I'm the sheik of Araby, yeah
[The sheik of Araby...]

"Simon Called Peter"
is a novel published in 1921. See Bruccoli's notes (209) for details.

1920s Bestsellers
http://www.caderbooks.com/best20.html

Southampton
is a town, one of "the Hamptons," in Suffolk County, Long Island.

http://www.town.southampton.ny.us/about.ihtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southampton_%28town%29%2C_New_York

"Stoddard Lectures, The"
were travel books published from 1897. See Bruccoli's notes (209) for more detail.

http://www.wiu.edu/users/mfwc/wiu/g3stoddard.html

Swastika Holding Company, The,
should not be taken as an ironic use of the famous symbol of Nazi party. As Bruccoli indicates in his notes to the novel, the swastika was "simply a popular- and universal - decorative device" (214).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/swastika

Swede towns, lost,
refers to the predominance of Swedish immigrants among the earliest settlers of Minnesota.

http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/history/mnstatehistory/swedish_migration.html

http://www.americanwest.com/swedemigr/pages/emigra.htm

Teutonic migration, delayed
is Nick's witty description of The Great War. Teutons were members of an ancient Germanic tribe. The German army was generally credited with taking the first offensive action of the war by marching through Belgium toward France in August 1914.

Teutonic Mythology by Rydberg 1887
http://www.boudicca.de/teut.htm

"Three o'Clock in the Morning"
was a popular song of 1921. Lyrics by Dorothy Terriss. Music by Julian Robledo

midi

It's three o'clock in the morning,
We've danced the whole night thru,
And daylight soon will be dawning,
Just one more waltz with you.
That melody so entrancing,
Seems to be made for us two,
I could just keep right on dancing
Forever, dear, with you.

Trimalchio
is a character in The Satyricon, a first century Latin work by Petronius. Trimalchio was famous for hosting spectacularly lavish parties.

http://www.southwestern.edu/~carlg/Latin_Web/satyriconnotes.html

Trinity Quad
is the open space surrounded on all sides by the buildings of Trinity College at Oxford.

http://www.library.uq.edu.au/fryer/hume/web/401.html

Union Station
was one of the major train stations of Chicago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station_%28Chicago%29

Versailles, gardens of
are one of the most notable features of the extravagant Palace of Versailles, official residence of the kings of France from 1682 to 1790.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Versailles

Warwick
is a summer resort town southeast of Providence, RI.

http://www.warwickri.com/

White Star Line
was one of the popular ocean liner companies, begun in 1868 by Thomas H. Ismay. It eventually merged with the Cunard Line.

http://home.pacbell.net/steamer/wspage.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Star_Line

World's Series
is the annual baseball championship held between the American and National Leagues. See Bruccoli's notes (211-12) for more detail on the "fixed" 1919 series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sox_scandal

http://www.historicbaseball.com/scplayers/jacksonreports.html

Yale
is an Ivy League university, founded at New Haven, CT. in 1701.

http://www.yale.edu/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_University

Yukon
is a territory located in western Canada, north of British Columbia and east of Alaska. The discovery of gold in the Klondike, a region of western Yukon Territory, set off a major gold rush in 1897.

http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/carcross/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukon