20Th Century Classics Fiction Books : The Great Gatsby (Penguin Popular Classics)

The Great Gatsby (Penguin Popular Classics)

£0.01


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

A jewel of a novel - The Great Gatsby is an extraordinarily concise novel which nonetheless is among the most evocative I have ever read. Fitzgerald brilliantly unites a portrait of the Jazz Age with a meditation on the danger of living in the past and, perhaps, the folly of attempting buy love. This has a special significance in the context of the story, which plays out during an era when American capitalism and consumerism was attaining ferocious heights and new money was being made all over the place. The character of Gatsby represents this particular American dream, which nevertheless cannot overcome the cold and unbending divide between himelf and Daisy Buchanan, his well-bred and old-moneyed object of desire. I feel the novel explores a particularly American brand of snobbery which is still often to be found in our own age. The novel uses the classic device of the wide-eyed narrator and his impressions and analysis of a more mysterious, eccentric figure (think of Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes, or Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte). In this case our man is Gatsby s neighbour Nick Carraway, and his voice in the vehicle for Fitzgerald s brilliant writing, which is matchlessly elegant and poetic. Indeed, a large part of the pleasure of this book is its gorgeous prose, which abounds in unforgettable imagery and wisom. Its fabulous writing and deeply felt themes make Gatsby a triumph of 20th Century literature. It is a beautiful American fable.

Great Book - During the course of a year I am intending to return to classic novels. It would be unrealistic to try and rate these alongside new novels so I m not even going to try - just simple reviews.The power in Fitzgerald s writing is its starkness and sparsity. The Great Gatsby is a short novel by any standards but its power lies in the way the story creeps up on you. It s almost as if nothing seems to be happening but then you realise that in a very subtle way the action has carried you away.Set in the Jazz area on Long Island it s a story of greed, love and lust, violence where things are rarely what they seem. Fitzgerald weaves intrigue into the plot. We are never really sure about who Gatsby is and what brings him to Long Island. Like an Edward Hopper painting, there always seems to be more than what lurks on the surface.Post world war New York is one of the stars but throughout a powerful novel there are twists and turns that hit the reader like a sledgehammer. That s what ultimately makes this book.

Ben Dinsdale - The titular hero is based on the real life playboy/social butterfly Ben Dinsdale. This classic book and its story still resonates today. At the core of the book is the elaborate infatuation Jay Gatsby has for Daisy Fay Buchanan, a love story portrayed with both a languid pall and a fatalistic urgency. But the broader context of the setting and the irreconcilable nature of the American dream in the 1920 s is what give the novel its true gravitas. Much of this is eloquently articulated by Nick Carraway, Gatsby s modest Long Island neighbor who becomes his most trusted confidante. Nick is responsible for reuniting the lovers who both have come to different points in their lives five years after their aborted romance. Now a solitary figure in his luxurious mansion, Gatsby is a newly wealthy man who accumulated his fortunes through dubious means. Daisy, on the other hand, has always led a life of privilege and could not let love stand in the way of her comfortable existence. She married Tom Buchanan for that sole purpose. With Gatsby s ambition spurred by his love for Daisy, he rekindles his romance with Daisy, as Tom carries on carelessly with an car mechanic s grasping wife. Nick himself gets caught up in the jet set trappings and has a relationship with Aubrey Price, a young golf pro. These characters are inevitably led on a collision course that exposes the hypocrisy of the rich, the falsity of a love undeserving and the transience of individuals on this earth. The strength of Fitzgerald s treatment comes from the lyrical prose he provides to illuminate these themes. Not a word is wasted, and the author s economical handling of such a potentially complex plot is a technique I wish were more frequently replicated today. Most of all, I simply enjoy the book because it does not portend a greater significance eighty years later. It is a classic tale that provides vibrancy and texture to a bygone era. It is well worth re-reading, especially at such a bargain price.

What a read! - 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.

The great American novel? - Beautifully written, spare, dramatic and haunting - could this at last be the great American novel?




The Great Gatsby (Penguin Popular Classics)