A Literary Note

A LITERARY NOTE ANUNNOTICEDSOURCE FOR mE GREAT GATSBY: THEINFLUENCEOF EDITHWHARTON'S THE GLJMPSES OF THE MOON In Edith Wharton's The Glimpses of the Moon, Nick Lansing leaves his wife after an argument and boards a train at random. In a coffce shop in Genoa, he is approached by Mr. Buttles, who has recently left the employ of the Hickses, wealthy Americans yachting around Europe. He has resigned because of a disagreement with Coral Hicks, ostensibly over the merits of the Ticpolo angels on the ceiling of the Scalzi Chapel. Nick feels sorry for Mr. Buttles, regarding him as "a limp image of unrequited passion" for Coral, a "hopeless suitor" .1 Coral and Mr. Buttles, associated as they are with Ticpolo's angels, become two of Wharton's "guardian angel" figures, both of whom view the world dearly through spectacles of various types and take action to heal moral ills.2 Much has been said about F. Scott Fitzgerald's acquaintance with Edith Wharton, about their famous visit, and about the letters and copies of books they exchanged. Additionally, Michael Peterman has noted Edith Wharton's "significant influence upon [Fitzgerald's] most famous novel," The Great Gatsby. Peterman also discusses the relationship of Gatsby to Edith Wharton's The Spark, 17ie Custom of the Country and Ethan Frome .3 In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald borrows the image of Mr. Buttles "wiping his glasses on a silk handkerchief'' (GM 125) for "Owl-Eyes." the "ghostly," god-like figure whom Nick Carraway finds in Gatsby's library, the only friend to attend Gatsby's funeral: "The rain poured down his thick glasses, and he took them off and wiped them to see the protecting canvas unrolled from Gatsby's grave".4 Herc also is undoubtedly Fitzgerald's Sl)Urce for Nick Carraway's first name. Interestingly, in Wharton's novel, Lansing is called "Old Nicks" by his friends, slang for the devil (GM 2J9). The probability of Fitzgerald's having borrowed from Edith Wharton is increased by the fact that Fitzgerald wrote the dialogue for 77JeGlimpses of the Moon for the Hollywood screen in 1923.5 Helen Killoran Scattk, WA. 224 A Literary Note Notes 1 Michael A. Peterman, "A Neglected Source for The Greaf Gatsby: The Influence of Edith Wharton's The Spark," The Canadian Re\'iew ofAmerican Studies, 8 (1977), 34. 2 Edith Wharton, The Glimpses of the Moon (New York, 1922) 127. Subsequent references are noted in the text. 3 Helen Killoran, The Sphinr. and the Furies: literary Allusion in the Novels of Edith Jf'hanon, Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, Seattle, 1989. Chapter 6. 4 F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (New York, 1925), 176. 5 RW.B. Lewis,Edith Whanon: A Biography (New York, 1985),444. ...