Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach ... Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby - young, handsome, fabulously rich - always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.
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Amazon Review
In 1922, F Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple, intricately patterned". That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned and, above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace be comes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.
It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel's more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties and waits for her to appear. When s he does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbour Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem. Perry Freeman, Amazon.com
Review
"The Great Gatsby remains not just one of the greatest works of American literature, but a timeless evocation of the allure, corruption and carelessness of wealth...a gilded society intoxicated by wealth, dancing its way into the Great Depression." (The Times)
"Gatsby is a connoisseur's guide to the glamour and glitter of the Jazz Age, but it's also a nearly prophetic glimpse into the world to come. Writing at the height of the boom, in the midst of the Roaring Twenties, Fitzgerald detected the ephemerality, fakery and corruption always lurking at the heart of the great American success story... A haunting meditation on aspiration, disillusionment, romantic love - and a blistering exposé of the materialism, duplicity, and sexual politics driving what Fitzgerald calls America's true "business": "the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty"" (Sarah Churchwell, The Times)
"It is a marvellously suggestive novel...a parable of modern America, and by extension of modern life" (An Wilson, Daily Telegraph)
"The first and greatest modern novel, it has beautiful women, lavish parties, romance, betrayal and murder woven together in an intricately structured plot. A prescient comment on the dying days of a gilded age that is brilliant entertainment with a very eloquent insight" (Mirror)
"His masterpiece, an elegy for the American Dream, the greatest lost cause of them all" (Los Angeles Times) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"Gatsby is a connoisseur's guide to the glamour and glitter of the Jazz Age, but it's also a nearly prophetic glimpse into the world to come. Writing at the height of the boom, in the midst of the Roaring Twenties, Fitzgerald detected the ephemerality, fakery and corruption always lurking at the heart of the great American success story... A haunting meditation on aspiration, disillusionment, romantic love - and a blistering exposé of the materialism, duplicity, and sexual politics driving what Fitzgerald calls America's true "business": "the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty"" (Sarah Churchwell, The Times)
"It is a marvellously suggestive novel...a parable of modern America, and by extension of modern life" (An Wilson, Daily Telegraph)
"The first and greatest modern novel, it has beautiful women, lavish parties, romance, betrayal and murder woven together in an intricately structured plot. A prescient comment on the dying days of a gilded age that is brilliant entertainment with a very eloquent insight" (Mirror)
"His masterpiece, an elegy for the American Dream, the greatest lost cause of them all" (Los Angeles Times) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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First Sentence
IN my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
IN my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 39 people found the following review helpful
By J C E Hitchcock
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
F. Scott Fitzgerald is credited with inventing the term "The Jazz Age" to describe the 1920s, and he is often regarded as the greatest chronicler of that age in fiction. Today the "Roaring Twenties" are often regarded as a brief, prosperous, carefree and hedonistic interval between the war-torn 1910s and the economically depressed 1930s, the age of jazz, of cocktails, of Art Deco, of flappers and of the Charleston. Like all attempts to summarise a whole decade in a single phrase, or even in a single sentence, however, this one can never be more than a half-truth. The decade was certainly a time of relative prosperity in the United States (less so in Europe), but it was also an era haunted by memories of the Great War and its attendant bloodshed and by a sense of foreboding about the future. The era's much-vaunted hedonism can be seen as the reaction of a largely urban, well-to-do minority against the Puritanism of the not-so-silent majority. This was, after all, the decade of Prohibition and of ultra-conservative forms of religion, exemplified by the notorious Scopes trial in which a schoolteacher was put on trial for teaching evolutionary theory.
Jay Gatsby, the central character of this novel, is a quintessentially Roaring Twenties figure. Originally a North Dakota farmboy named James Gatz, he served with distinction in the United States army during World War I and then went into business, becoming a self-made millionaire, wealthy enough to afford a luxurious mansion where he hosts lavish parties. Gatsby's mansion is on the North Shore of Long Island, an area with so many wealthy residents during this period that it became known as the Gold Coast.... Read more ›
Jay Gatsby, the central character of this novel, is a quintessentially Roaring Twenties figure. Originally a North Dakota farmboy named James Gatz, he served with distinction in the United States army during World War I and then went into business, becoming a self-made millionaire, wealthy enough to afford a luxurious mansion where he hosts lavish parties. Gatsby's mansion is on the North Shore of Long Island, an area with so many wealthy residents during this period that it became known as the Gold Coast.... Read more ›
48 of 54 people found the following review helpful
By N. T. Butler
Format:Paperback
I had to read The Great Gatsby for my A-level English. I was dreading it. I love classic books but this is one book i have never had the desire to read as the pre conceptions i have of the 1920's put me off.
All I can say now is thank you to AQA for making me read this. I have changed views on the book which was superb and of the 1920's.
My only critism would be the ending. I never wanted it to end.
All I can say now is thank you to AQA for making me read this. I have changed views on the book which was superb and of the 1920's.
My only critism would be the ending. I never wanted it to end.
114 of 129 people found the following review helpful
By E. Fifield
Format:Paperback
One of my resolutions for 2008 is to broaden my literary horizens. After studying English Lit to A-Level, my interest has fallen to the wayside. So on my quest to better myself through literature, I read "The Old Man and the Sea", which I just couldn't relate to. So imagine my relief when I started reading "The Great Gatsby". I'm so glad I perservered with classic books!
TGG is a great read. It's fast-paced from the outset, and gripping towards the end - I couldn't put it down. I even tried to convince family and friends to read it afterwards; but to no avail - so if I manage to get even ONE person to read it from writing this review, then good! Definitely recommended.
TGG is a great read. It's fast-paced from the outset, and gripping towards the end - I couldn't put it down. I even tried to convince family and friends to read it afterwards; but to no avail - so if I manage to get even ONE person to read it from writing this review, then good! Definitely recommended.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
The Great Gatsby is the Great American Novel, everybody knows that. It gets five stars all the way. How is it on tape?
Marcus D'Amico is a fine reader, perfect for Gatsby, and displays a range of voices to suit the various cast of characters. He reads the novel with intelligence and understanding, bringing out the nuances of the text. Moreover, his ever-so-slightly anglosised voice (see what I mean about perfect for Gatsby?) has a subtle gruffness that is just plain pleasant on the ear, like a younger, higher pitched, version of Garrison Keillor, that resonates... Whatever. He has a nice voice.
The only bad thing about this tape/cd is that it's abridged, as most spoken books are. And in Gatsby, a novel where every sentence (every word, even) is laden with meaning this is a bad thing. Still, the editor has done a very decent job and the story remains largely intact. But what would have been nice, what would have been really nice, is if D'Amico could read the whole book.
Marcus D'Amico is a fine reader, perfect for Gatsby, and displays a range of voices to suit the various cast of characters. He reads the novel with intelligence and understanding, bringing out the nuances of the text. Moreover, his ever-so-slightly anglosised voice (see what I mean about perfect for Gatsby?) has a subtle gruffness that is just plain pleasant on the ear, like a younger, higher pitched, version of Garrison Keillor, that resonates... Whatever. He has a nice voice.
The only bad thing about this tape/cd is that it's abridged, as most spoken books are. And in Gatsby, a novel where every sentence (every word, even) is laden with meaning this is a bad thing. Still, the editor has done a very decent job and the story remains largely intact. But what would have been nice, what would have been really nice, is if D'Amico could read the whole book.
57 of 65 people found the following review helpful
By "jwws2"
Format:Paperback
'Gatsby' is the American Dream; but more than that, 'Gatsby' is about dreaming. It is an incredibly concise novel of lyrical genius. It is poetry and social commentary. A work of art and a historical document. A light breeze through the jazz age and a complex layering of narrative perspectives. A hedonistic trip through gloriously decadent capitalist excess and a crushingly melancholic musing on lost love.
If you're a romantic read this because Fitzgerald's employment of prose will make you weep.
If you're an english student read this because it will tell you everything you need to know about the influence of cinema.
If you're a historian read this for the way Fitzgerald doctors his text to avoid censorship laws in 1925.
If you're a social scientist read this because it has only one equal in its study of the illusion of American idealism. Alexis de Tocqueville's 'Democracy in America' is 100 years older, 250 pages longer, and not written in melting prose.
That is not to say that this work is without fault. Crucially for anyone who is compelled to regard such things in a novel that doesn't warrant it, the logic of Carraway's narrative does not follow. Fitzgerald originally wrote what now constitues the ending to sit at the front of the novel, and in its new-found position Carraway has access to information that in reality he would not have. This, as might be apparent, is the criticism of a man who was forced to read the work at A-Level.
Strangely, this has not diminuished from his continued enjoyment. Indeed, even after numerous returns to Fitzgerald's astonishingly few pages this is the single fault I find in this work.
Daisy will make you want to love. Tom will make you want to earn millions. Gatsby will make you want to dream.... Read more ›
If you're a romantic read this because Fitzgerald's employment of prose will make you weep.
If you're an english student read this because it will tell you everything you need to know about the influence of cinema.
If you're a historian read this for the way Fitzgerald doctors his text to avoid censorship laws in 1925.
If you're a social scientist read this because it has only one equal in its study of the illusion of American idealism. Alexis de Tocqueville's 'Democracy in America' is 100 years older, 250 pages longer, and not written in melting prose.
That is not to say that this work is without fault. Crucially for anyone who is compelled to regard such things in a novel that doesn't warrant it, the logic of Carraway's narrative does not follow. Fitzgerald originally wrote what now constitues the ending to sit at the front of the novel, and in its new-found position Carraway has access to information that in reality he would not have. This, as might be apparent, is the criticism of a man who was forced to read the work at A-Level.
Strangely, this has not diminuished from his continued enjoyment. Indeed, even after numerous returns to Fitzgerald's astonishingly few pages this is the single fault I find in this work.
Daisy will make you want to love. Tom will make you want to earn millions. Gatsby will make you want to dream.... Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Timeless
Every time I read this I remember it is one of the very few books that gets better every time you read it!
Published 59 minutes ago by Bill Penny
4.0 out of 5 stars
1920s New York for the super wealthy
An interesting view of the lives of the super wealthy in 1920s New York from the perspective of someone who wasn't part of the clique.
Published 1 day ago by L J Curran
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite what you see
Bought the book as a gift and taken by the attractive hard cover as a finesse. It is a hard cover book, but the pattern is only a paper sleeve. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Ian Robertson
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good but not great
With the release of the latest film version of the book I heard more than one critic describe the book as one of the best/greatest/most wonderful books ever written. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Michael Barnes
5.0 out of 5 stars
have been waiting to read this book for some time
I will now read this at my leisure and I hope to get a lot from it.Looking forward to the film which drew my attention in the first place
Published 1 day ago by P. E. Harris
1.0 out of 5 stars
I got it free but it still cost me my time - rubbish!
I got a copy of this so-called 'classic' for free but I resent having wasted my reading time on it. It's a poor story poorly written and, in short, 'The Great Gatsby' isn't... Read more
Published 2 days ago by Geoffrey Woollard
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this years ago and still an amazing book
Studied this book at uni and still as good today as it was all that time ago x an amazing read
Published 2 days ago by Julie Powell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Scott
"A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled... Read more
Published 2 days ago by Mike Collins
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Gatsby
A great book-all the characters come to life and I ended up hating them all apart from the narrator!
However don't let that put you off.
However don't let that put you off.
Published 2 days ago by Lorna Doone
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous!
One of my all time favourite books, subtle, oppressive and dark with a glamour which becomes seedier by the page.
Published 2 days ago by Tracey Anne Miller
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