The Great Gatsby: Scott F. Fitzgerald (Penguin Essentials, 6) - Softcover

Fitzgerald, F Scott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 024195147X ISBN 13: 9780241951477

Publisher: Penguin, 2011

Synopsis

The Great Gatsby is a dazzling social satire, F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece and a milestone in twentieth-century literature, now beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range.'There was music from my neighbour's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.'Everybody who is anybody is seen at the glittering parties held in millionaire Jay Gatsby's mansion in West Egg, east of New York., The riotous throng congregates in his sumptuous garden, coolly debating Gatsby's origins and mysterious past. None of the frivolous socialites understands him and among various rumours is the conviction that 'he killed a man'. A detached onlooker, Gatsby is oblivious to the speculation he creates, but always seems to be watching and waiting, though no one knows what for.As the tragic story unfolds, Gatsby's destructive dreams and passions are revealed, leading to disturbing consequences., A brilliant evocation of 1920s high society, The Great Gatsby peels away the layers of this glamorous world to display the coldness and cruelty at its heart.'Not only a page-turner and a heartbreaker, it's one of the most quintessentially American novels ever written' Time'He (F Scott Fitzgerald) was better than he knew, for in fact and in the literary sense he invented a "generation"' New York Times'The most perfectly crafted work of fiction to have come out of America' Professor Tony Tanner'The American masterwork, the finest work of fiction by any of this country's writers' Washington Post

About this title

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:

Not only a page-turner and a heartbreaker, it's one of the most quintessentially American novels ever written (Time)

The American masterwork, the finest work of fiction by any of this country's writers (Washington Post)

The most perfectly crafted work of fiction to have come out of America (Professor Tony Tanner)

He (F Scott Fitzgerald) was better than he knew, for in fact and in the literary sense he invented a "generation" (New York Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 024195147X
• ISBN 13: 9780241951477
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208