F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby, by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, is one of the great novels of twentieth-century literature. Set in the Long Island of 1922, it provides a critical social history of America during the “Roaring Twenties”, an era that Fitzgerald himself dubbed the “Jazz Age”, known for unprecedented economic prosperity, the evolution of jazz music, flapper culture, and bootlegging and other criminal activity. A historic period when “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession”, as classified by The New York Times.

The Great Gatsby

Giulia Pascoli 

Only Gatsby- the man who gives his name to this book -was exempt from my reaction. Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an affected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines the register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.  It was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.

Sheridan Sweeney 

Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s finest novel, The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the ‘roaring twenties’ and a devastating exposé of the ‘Jazz Age’. Through the narration of Nick Carraway, the reader is taken into the superficially glittering world of the mansions which lined the Long Island shore of the American seaboard in the 1920s, to encounter Nick’s cousin Daisy, Jay Gatsby and the dark mystery which surrounds him.

The Great Gatsby is an undisputed classic of American literature from the period following the First World War and is one of the great novels of the twentieth century.

i <3 this sentence. sums up the experience of finishing the novel

kemi

Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away.

Invited to an extravagantly lavish party in a Long Island mansion, Nick Carraway, a young bachelor who has just settled in the neighbouring cottage, is intrigued by the mysterious host, Jay Gatsby, a flamboyant but reserved self-made man with murky business interests and a shadowy past. As the two men strike up an unlikely friendship, details of Gatsby’s impossible love for a married woman emerge, until events spiral into tragedy.

Regarded as Fitzgerald’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of American literature, The Great Gatsby is a vivid chronicle of the excesses and decadence of the “Jazz Age”, as well as a timeless cautionary critique of the American dream.
Source: https://almabooks.com/product/the-great-gatsby/

Neesha Balapitiya 

‘All right,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it's a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool-that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.

Stephanie 

But his heart was in a constant, turbulent riot.

I can confirm that this works out perfectly. 

It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people. You can hold your tongue and, moreover, you can time any little irregularity of your own so that everybody else is so blind that they don’t see or care.

I wasn’t actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity.

Still thinking about this and how I would answer it. 

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.

At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others […] wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.

He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.

Can we take a moment to appreciate Fitzgerald‘s writing style please? 😮‍💨🤌🏼

I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.

“Well, I’ve had a very bad time, Nick, and I’m pretty cynical about everything.”

Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

Caitlin

"They're a rotten crowd," I shouted across the lawn. "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.

 He nodded sagely. "And what's more I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time."

"And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy."

He smiled understandingly — much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced — or seemed to face — the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.

‘All right,' I said, ‘I’m glad its a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.’

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."

Chloe

In this short novel Scot Fitzgerald distilled the essences of glamour and illusion so powerfully that his vision has haunted and tantalized generations of readers. In 1925 T.S. Eliot said: 'It has interested me and excited me more than any new novel I have seen, either English or American, for a number of years.'
(back cover)

Nat Boeken 

Fitzgerald, Francis Scott

The Great Gatsby is a novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island. The story primarily concerns the young and 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 Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding theAmerican Dream. Fitzgerald—inspired by the parties he had attended while visiting Long Island's north shore—began planning the novel in 1920, desiring to produce, in his words, "something new—something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." Progress was slow, with Fitzgerald completing his first draft following a move to the French Riviera after six months. His editor, Maxwell Perkins, felt the book was too vague and convinced the author to revise over the next winter. Fitzgerald was repeatedly ambivalent about the book's title and he considered a variety of alternatives, including titles that referenced the Roman character Trimalchio; the title he was last documented to have desired was Under the Red, White, and Blue.

nita

Clara Rosenfeld

'It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life' Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach ... Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby - young, handsome, fabulously rich - always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel. The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers' editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.

covey

** spoiler alert **
           This book was better than i thought it would be. I enjoyed the difference in their social classes and how those relationships in the higher class were plastic/fake. Gatsby was very symbolic for how people can put themselves out to be something different. He wasn't who everyone put him out to be. The characters were very unlikeable for me. I also enjoyed the fight for the girl which struck in murder and the end of two men and a innocent woman. Book in all was good but straight up dumb. 
It was a very good classical novel but I won't be re-reading it..

felicity yoon

Are the symbols, motifs, and language superb?
Yes, yes 

Characters?
Not so much, I wonder will there be someone like Jay Gatsby in real life. Also Nick, the narrator, he doesn't seem to have anything in particular. 

But I must assure that Fitzgerald killed it: the greatest American novel of all time? In portrayal of Americans achieving dreams after war and how it's seem unrealistic for the ordinary man to succeed reflect in Jay Gatsby character. 

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made..'

I think I might prefer John Steinbeck in regard with the same motif. His novels depict realistic American character.

grace

big words hurt my brain but the vibes were amazing

lexi macham 

El gran Gatsby

Azaura A

Aleksandra

It was interesting in an interesting way.

Olivia Mitchell

It his was a re-read for me. There are aspects I love but some of it is just not for me!

betty

3 ⭐️ 
Read it for school so nothing much to say it was well written and I can see why people like it but it’s just not for me

Update: now we’ve actually studied this book I appreciate it a lot more it’s a win for the queers

Suzie Wootton

I read this for school so I don't really have any opinion. I'm not a classics person it's not something I like but I can see why people might enjoy this.
I changed my mine, i acctually quite liked this and the more i think the more i like. It was very clever and i think quite satisfying for some odd reason.

Ūla Šalengaitė

1920's. Turtuoliai. Meilės dramos. Netyčinis nužudymas.

Ajajaj, nuo ko ir bepradėt. Klasika. Tikrai.

Veikėjai. Čia tokia knyga, kur tie, kurie neturi patikti, patinka labiau už tuos, kurie patikti turi. Nekenčiu Getsbio. Neturiu tam tikros priežasties. Tiesiog kvailas vyriškis, kurį pergudravo už jį kvailesnė mergina. Ironiškai, labiausiai kaip veikėjas išsivystęs didysis niekšas - Tomas. Auksinis vyriškis. Kad balon prasmegtų.

Storyline nebloga, bent jau kaip to laiko rašytojui. 

Nekenčiu klasikos. Ši knyga keistai sužavėjo. Tiesa.

Rekomendacija : 90%
Ar skaityčiau ir vėl? : Kaip nedidelė klasikos mėgėja...taip. Skaityčiau.

Elena Ackermann Ferrari

From start to finish, I had not been able to develop interest in The Great Gatsby. It was well written, yes, but most characters, basically all except for Nick, bored me and I managed to finish this book without having felt even a slight bit invested in Gatsby, his relationships and the general plot. 

We are introduced to him first mysteriously before we then find out how rather ordinary he actually is. I did not hate that decision and actually was a bit excited to be further introduced to him, but upon reading more, I had to find out that I lacked any interest and was not invested at all in him and his backstory as well as his later relationship with Daisy. 

The writing and the bit of information we got about Nick saved this book from being assigned 2 stars, if it were possible to me, I would have given it 3.5 stars even, but still, I did not have a particularly great time reading it.

It's a classic for a reason. The writing was a little difficult to follow, but it was a good story nonetheless. There were too many characters introduced in my opinion, but maybe that's part of the story.

Megan Woods

For me, when comparing The Great Gatsby to F. Scott's actual life, there are many parallels. I've read this book many times over the years, and when I originally read the book, my opinion of the book's meaning was very shallow, and that of a "star-crossed" lovers sort of thing. However, into my adult years, I've grown to accept this as more of an unofficial satire of F. Scott's very own autobiography. The narrative depicts similarities in his own life, as well as his own perception of and disgust with himself. I believe this book has significance and very deep meaning not only as an American classic, but also for modern society as a whole.

Amina Madadi 

"They were careless people, Tom and daisy -they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelesness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made..."

This is the kind of books that takes you in its depths, you live it, react to it.. While reading, you get so absorbed by the story that you experience different feelings, anger, sadness, disappointment, you're wondering and sometimes even dreaming... One of my best readings for sure..

So my dearest delusional Mr.Gatsby, "Can we repeat the past?"

Aaliyah Jenkins

An astounding piece of American literature that I am glad to have devoured. What started out as a school assignment quickly turned into a new discovery. This book contains some of the most memorable prose I have ever read. It's literary value is immensely rich,and I am enamored by its careful language. How remarkable that a book written nearly a century ago is still as relevant and fresh as this morning's newspaper. Five stars!

Courtney Gendreau

I don't think I would have read the novel if it weren't for the fact my AP Lit teacher made me. Over all it was'nt a bad book.

fitzgerald was actually a rather good writer, or whatever...

diana

daisy was a feminist. daisy was not a feminist. jordan n nick were more interesting than the daisy tom gatsby love triangle and they broke up over nothing. still beautifully written tho

linda

This is good stuff. (Actually that is an understatement.) This book really made me pause and think. The plot is not noteworthy, but Fitzgerald’s character development is superb. Every character seemed human and vulnerable. The prose is fluid, articulate, and powerful. This book truly immortalized the cynicism, corruption, and hope of the Jazz Age in the mind of the reader.

O Grande Gatsby

Nelson Zagalo

Difícil de analisar, porque ao ter-se tornado um clássico extremamente citado, carrega consigo toda uma história que vai muito para além do livro em si. Porque "O Grande Gatsby" já não é um livro, há muito que faz parte do imaginário da cultura ocidental, e como tal classificar o livro significa, em parte, classificar a nossa própria cultura, tornando tudo muito mais difuso.

O livro é de 1925, atravessou gerações e gerações, conseguindo manter a sua atualidade, contudo o facto de se ter tornado numa obra de gerações, trespassou como influência para várias obras que o sucederam, não apenas em texto, mas em praticamente todos os outros meios. Ler Gatsby, apenas agora, soube-me a pouco, porque é uma história que conheço bem, não apenas a personagem, mas também a sua mensagem de fundo. Ler Gatsby em adulto é como uma confirmação de ideias já consumadas. Ainda assim o livro está imensamente bem escrito, pela simples razão de que não se dá à superfície, é preciso ler e desconstruir o que nos está a ser dito, para chegar ao que se quer verdadeiramente dizer, e por isso mesmo é um óptimo livro para ser trabalhado nas escolas, rico de ideias e significados, capaz de obrigar os mais jovens a questionar os seus anseios e desejos, mas também aquilo que é, ou deve ser, uma história. 

Numa análise mais profunda ao texto, a forma como Fitzgerald narra a história surpreende tendo em conta a data da obra. O texto é trabalhado como um todo, e não apenas como um mero sucedâneo de eventos com o intuito de descortinar um enredo. Ou seja, Fitzgerald constrói o espaço e o tempo através do modo como vai narrando as vidas daqueles personagens, como vai pululando as folhas do livro de historietas e diálogos, assim construindo em nós uma percepção daquele mundo, construindo em nós um espaço mental imaginário. Salta no tempo, deixa eventos a meio, dá conta de eventos chave de forma perfeitamente banal, sem preparar o leitor e por isso sem aproveitar a emocionalidade dos mesmos. Mas toda esta aparente desfocagem narrativa, como se estivesse a tentar evitar contar uma história, como se estivesse a tentar evitar que o leitor se agarre aos personagens e às suas vidas, é no fundo a forma como ele resolveu dar corpo ao universo que está ali a retratar. Mais do que a dramatização de uma ideia, é a arquitetização de uma ideia, é um texto estrategicamente elaborado para produzir um efeito, e a partir dele uma ideia.

Gatsby é um livro que precisa de ser mastigado, para se perceber porque é relevante. Só depois de ter iniciado a escrita destas linhas comecei a perceber melhor o verdadeiro alcance da obra. O mais relevante em Gatsby é no fundo o modo como o discurso, o modo como o texto se organiza, dá corpo à mensagem da história.

Nada Aboutabl

Daisy's character is really upsetting me -_-

What can I say. I've never seen the movie, but have been wanting to read The Great Gatsby for some time, as it seems like a big deal. It's a pretty entertaining classic with amazingly beautiful writing. I liked the overall plot, but I found the pacing to be kind of .... strange. It felt like there was a chapter or two missing towards the end and I would have liked more depth in general. It left me kind of unsatisfied and I'm still trying to figure out what the book was trying to tell me. 

You can throw the biggest parties and still not mean anything to anyone? 

Not wait for better opportunities and ask that person out?

What can I say. I've never seen the movie, but have been wanting to read The Great Gatsby for some time, as it seems like a big deal. It's a pretty entertaining classic with amazingly beautiful writing. I liked the overall plot, but I found the pacing to be kind of .... strange. It felt like there was a chapter or two missing towards the end and I would have liked more depth in general. It left me kind of unsatisfied and I'm still trying to figure out what the book was trying to tell me. 

You can throw the biggest parties and still not mean anything to anyone? 
Not wait for better opportunities and ask that person out?
Choose your neighbours carefully?

Harley Rae

Before reading this book, I was a little skeptical. A few people told me that it was hard to follow, and not worth my time. But because it was one of my school books, I had no choice but to read it. 

Let me tell you, I am so glad I read this book! I literally read the entire thing in a couple days, because I couldn't put it down. The way Fitzgerald writes is like poetry. His very elaborate descriptions help me to imagine every scene. 

Mini character spoiler: I always appreciate it when a writer makes you fall in love with a character, and then completely change your opinion of them by the end of the book. Fitzgerald did exactly that! One minute Daisy was my favorite, but towards the end, well, I hated her guts. 

Jay Gatsby was a very interesting character. His background was kind of sketchy. His life was a mystery that you don't figure out till the end of the book. And even then, I still don't quite understand all the complicated things he was involved in. All I know is that it was somewhat illegal. I think. 

Overall, this book is heartbreaking. It made me want to cry (although I didn't, I stayed strong). I would recommend this book to anyone who's interested in classics and extremely sad love stories.

ALSO... The Great Gatsby movie (2013) is visually stunning! The TV movie (2000) is almost identical to the book. Literally word for word.

The Great Gatsby

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