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It does seem to capture the legend and mythology surrounding the 1920's. I really tried to like this book more because it does occassionally work. But, in the end, I didn't really care much about Nick. Unfortunately, it just didn't grab me. The only things I really liked about it were the period elements. And Gatsby, while occasionally intriguing, didn't really capture my attention either. Paul Gehrman, Author, Kaleidoscope
The book arrived in a timely manner. It was a brand new book. The last used book of the same title I ordered was missing 20 pages.
This is one of the best books I've read. My only complaint is that it was not as deep and as strange as I like, but lack of depth in the world was the author's point, so I can't expect anything else.
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered one of the best novels of the 20th century, primarily because it is. If you haven't read it, read it.
In a brief note, Mr. Nor is it remarkable that there was a rediscovery of 'Gatsby' after World War II. However, except for briefly commenting on the novel's classic status, the reason I've written this review is to assist those who, like me, may have avoided 'Gatsby' for years, and to help them decide whether to keep on doing so. Nick, disgusted with the excesses and unseemliness of both Gatsby's party crowd and Daisy's old money blue bloods, eventually decamps westward, returning symbolically to the common sense of America's heartland.It's not surprising that 'The Great Gatsby' wasn't successful in Fitzgerald's lifetime.
Or more importantly, why he even wanted to with all he already had. That doesn't mean 'Gatsby' isn't an excellent construction, full of interesting themes and motifs, and above all an insightful opinion on the American Dream - which I expected - but as an introduction to literature, I wonder what resonance 'Gatsby' carries for young readers confronted with the book today. I'm glad that's not my job. Fitzgerald warned that the pursuit of wealth wasn't enough, that it couldn't buy dreams - now the dream *is* the pursuit of wealth. After all, he chastised the people most likely to read his book for being part of the anything goes culture. Jay Gatsby, the self-made man, built out of nothing but now able to buy anything except the one thing he wants - Daisy Buchanan.
High-handed, maybe, but I've basically the same opinion since finishing the book as before. Though it's unsourced, it sounds legitimate - which is why I doubt I can say much about Fitzgerald's work that hasn't already been said. That, to me, is as good a definition of classic as any other. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby, a critical guide from Columbia University Press. Those tasked with presenting 'Gatsby' to succeeding generations must face a wall of misunderstanding - how to convince people that the wealthy Gatsby's inability to buy back his past amounts to failure.
Nick Carraway, the voice of reason, narrates the events - how Gatsby and Daisy, lovers before the war, are reunited; but despite all of Gatsby's attempts, he fails to lure her away from her philandering husband. Bruccoli's preface and the publisher's afterward were both interesting without becoming tiresome, though the endnotes seemed geared toward an inexperienced and ill-read student. In the years since, Nick looks like an altruistic fool, and, in the ultimate irony, Gatsby, who was facetiously called 'Great' by Fitzgerald, has grown into his title. "More critical writing exists on The Great Gatsby than on any other work of American fiction" - according to the back matter of F. Anyone who skipped 'Gatsby' in high school or college could do worse than picking up Fitzgerald's book. Primer or not, I find its themes, understandable to a perceptive teenager, have gelled into subtle truths now that my experiences have caught up to it. A distinctive gem.
This edition, with a preface and endnotes by Fitzgerald biographer Matthew Bruccoli, promises to be the "Authorized Text", a reprint of the Cambridge University Press 1991 edition. Thankfully, the text wasn't dotted with superscript notation indicating entries in the endnotes, which I find very distracting. I sidestepped 'The Great Gatsby' because I believed that this book, universally acknowledged as a classic, had to make its appeal for that standing to the broadest possible base of readers - an American Literature primer, so to speak - and I felt that I was past that stage. Overall, I doubt there's enough to distinguish this edition from a mass-market publication, except that it's in the trade paperback format, which I prefer if I plan to keep a book, and which is easier on the eyes the older I get. In the Twenties, Nick Carraway was a perceptive man, and Gatsby a naïve and complicit victim of the American Dream. Viewing his life now, it's difficult not to say that he conquered the Dream as he acquired a vast wealth, and his willingness to sacrifice everything for Daisy becomes a tragic flaw - instead of one last symbol in a poorly directed life. Bruccoli gives a few examples of some of the corrected textual errors, but I couldn't see much difference.
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