Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A fresh repackage of the Great American Novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald's best-known work about love, the frailty of success, and darkness lurking amidst the brightness of the Jazz Age, featuring a new introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and critic, Wesley Morris. Nick Carraway is an aspiring writer; his cousin, Daisy, is married to the fabulously wealthy Tom Buchanan. Their neighbor, Jay Gatsby, throws extravagant and extraordinary parties in the exclusive and hallowed neighborhood of West Egg. The entanglements between these four characters forms the backbone of F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest work--a novel that continues to haunt our understanding of wealth, entitlement, and the American Dream.
When it was first published in 1925, The Great Gatsby was heralded as a curious book, a mystical, glamorous story of today (The New York Times). In the past century, the story of Jay Gatsby and his love for the treacherous, effervescent Daisy Buchanan has become a staple in high school and college classrooms, a beloved favorite of readers everywhere as well as the #2 entry in the Modern Library's own list of the 100 best novels ever written.
Synopsis
For generations of enthralled readers, the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby has come to embody all the glamour and decadence of the Roaring Twenties. To F. Scott Fitzgerald's bemused narrator, Nick Carraway, Gatsby appears to have emerged out of nowhere, evading questions about his murky past and throwing dazzling parties at his luxurious mansion. Nick finds something both appalling and appealing in the intensity of his new neighbor's ambition, and his fascination grows when he discovers that Gatsby is obsessed by a long-lost love, Daisy Buchanan. But Daisy and her wealthy husband are cynical and careless people, and as Gatsby's dream collides with reality, Nick is witness to the violence and tragedy that result.
The Great Gatsby's remarkable staying power is owed to the lyrical freshness of its storytelling and to the way it illuminates the hollow core of the glittering American dream.
With a new introduction by John Grisham.