The Great Gatsby

Plaza Hotel New York City Circa 1910

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H-L-Mencken-1928

Edmund Wilson

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Saturday Evening Post cover 2-4-1922

The Great Gatsby is a novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that was first published in 1925. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, during the summer of 1922, the novel tells the story of the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession for the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream.

Plot Summary

The story is narrated by Nick Carraway, a Yale University graduate from the Midwest who moves to West Egg, Long Island, to work as a bond salesman in New York City. He rents a small house next to the mansion of Gatsby, a wealthy and enigmatic man who throws extravagant parties every Saturday night. Nick's cousin, Daisy Buchanan, lives across the bay in the more fashionable East Egg with her husband, Tom, a college acquaintance of Nick's. As the summer progresses, Nick becomes entangled in the lives of those around him, including his mysterious neighbor and his lost love, Daisy.

Gatsby's dream and his relentless pursuit of Daisy, whom he had met and fallen in love with five years prior when he was a military officer, drive the novel's plot. Gatsby's lavish lifestyle and wild parties are all an attempt to impress Daisy in the hope that she will leave her philandering husband for him. The novel reaches its climax with a tragic car accident that changes everything for Gatsby and the other characters.

Themes and Analysis

The Great Gatsby is often praised for its sharp critique of the American Dream and the hedonistic lifestyle of the era. Fitzgerald uses the characters and their interactions to explore themes of class, wealth, and identity. Gatsby's dream of Daisy represents the larger American Dream where everyone has the opportunity to achieve success regardless of their social status. However, the novel also illustrates the corrupting nature of wealth and the empty pursuit of pleasure, suggesting that the dream is ultimately unattainable.

The setting of the novel, divided between the more aristocratic East Egg and the nouveau riche West Egg, further emphasizes the themes of class and social stratification. Fitzgerald's depiction of the Jazz Age captures the disillusionment and moral decay beneath the surface of prosperity and opulence, making The Great Gatsby a timeless exploration of human nature and society.

Legacy

Since its publication, The Great Gatsby has been acclaimed as one of the greatest novels in the American literary canon. It is widely taught in high schools and universities across the United States and has been adapted into numerous films, the most recent being the 2013 version directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby. The novel's exploration of the American Dream, its critique of the Jazz Age, and its portrayal of the complexity of human desires and motivations continue to resonate with readers nearly a century after its publication.