The Great Gatsby - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional towns of West Egg and East Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession with 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[a] tale regarding the American Dream.[1][2] Fitzgerald—inspired by the parties he had attended while visiting Long Island's North Shore—began planning the novel in 1923, desiring to produce, in his words, "something new—something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned."[3] Progress was slow, with Fitzgerald completing his first draft following a move to the French Riviera in 1924.[4] His editor, Maxwell Perkins, felt the book was vague and persuaded the author to revise over the following winter. Fitzgerald was Cover of the first edition in 1925 repeatedly ambivalent about the book's title and he considered a variety of alternatives, including titles that referred to the Roman character Author F. Scott Fitzgerald Trimalchio; the title he was last documented to have desired was Under the Cover artist Francis Cugat [5] Red, White, and Blue. Country United States First published by Scribner's in April 1925, The Great Gatsby received Language English mixed reviews and sold poorly; in its first year, the book sold only 20,000 Genre Tragedy copies.[6][7] Fitzgerald died in 1940, believing himself to be a failure and his Published April 10, 1925 (US) work forgotten.[8] However, the novel experienced a revival during World February 10, 1926 War II,[9] and became a part of American high school curricula and (UK) numerous stage and film adaptations in the following decades.[10] Today, Publisher Charles Scribner's The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary classic and a Sons (US) contender for the title of the "Great American Novel."[11][12] Chatto & Windus The novel's U.S. copyright will expire on January 1, 2021, when all works (UK) [13] published in 1925 enter the public domain in the United States. Media type Print (hardcover & paperback) Pages 218 (Original US Contents Edition) Historical context Preceded by The Beautiful and Plot summary Damned (1922) 1 of 24 9/17/2019, 11:50 AM The Great Gatsby - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby Major characters Followed by Tender Is the Night (1934) Writing and production Cover art Alternative titles Contemporary reception Revival and reassessment Critical analysis Themes American Dream Gender relations Class inequality Other interpretations Symbolism Controversy Adaptations Ballet Computer games Film and television Literature Opera Radio Theater See also References Notes Citations Bibliography External links Historical context Set on the prosperous Long Island of 1922, The Great Gatsby provides a critical social history of America during the Roaring Twenties within its fictional narrative. That era—known for widespread economic prosperity, the development of jazz music, flapper culture, new technologies in communication (motion pictures, broadcast radio, recorded music) forging a genuine mass culture, and bootlegging, along with other criminal activity—is depicted in Fitzgerald's novel. Fitzgerald uses many of these societal developments of the 1920s to build Gatsby's stories, from many of the simple details such as automobiles to broader themes such as Fitzgerald's discreet allusions to the organized crime culture which was the source of Gatsby's fortune.[14] Fitzgerald depicts the garish society of the Roaring Twenties by placing the book's plotline within the historical context of the era.[15] Many of the events in Fitzgerald's early life are reflected throughout The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald was a young man from Minnesota, and, like the novel's narrator, who went to Yale, he was educated at an Ivy League school, Princeton. Fitzgerald is also similar to Jay Gatsby in that he fell in love while stationed far from home in the military and fell into a life of decadence trying to prove himself to the girl he loved. Fitzgerald became a second lieutenant and was stationed at Camp Sheridan in Montgomery, Alabama. There he met and fell in love with a wild 17-year-old beauty named Zelda 2 of 24 9/17/2019, 11:50 AM The Great Gatsby - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby Sayre. Zelda finally agreed to marry him, but her preference for wealth, fun, and leisure led her to delay their wedding until he could prove a success.[16] Like Nick in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald found this new lifestyle seductive and exciting, and, like Gatsby, he had always idolized the very rich.[16] In many ways, The Great Gatsby represents Fitzgerald's attempt to confront his conflicted feelings about the Jazz Age.[b] Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald was driven by his love for a woman who symbolized everything he [16] wanted, even as she led him toward everything he despised. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre Plot summary In the summer of 1922, Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate from the Midwest and veteran of the Great War—who serves as the novel's narrator—takes a job in New York as a bond salesman. He rents a small house on Long Island, in the fictional village of West Egg, next door to the lavish mansion of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious multi-millionaire who holds extravagant parties but does not participate in them. Nick drives around the bay to East Egg for dinner at the home of his beautiful cousin, Daisy Fay Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, a college acquaintance of Nick's. They introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, an attractive, George Wilson and his wife Myrtle cynical young golfer. She reveals to Nick that Tom has a mistress, Myrtle live in the "valley of ashes," a refuse Wilson, who lives in the "valley of ashes,"[18] an industrial dumping ground dump (shown in the above between West Egg and New York City. photograph) historically located in New York City during the 1920s. Not long after this revelation, Nick travels with Tom to a garage owned by Today, the area is Flushing Myrtle's husband George Wilson before heading to an apartment in New Meadows–Corona Park. York City that Tom uses for trysts with Myrtle, as well as other women with whom he has sex. At Tom's New York apartment, a vulgar and bizarre party ensues, ending with Tom striking Myrtle and breaking her nose after she angers him by saying Daisy's name several times. Nick eventually receives an invitation to one of Gatsby's parties. Nick encounters Jordan Baker at the party and they meet Gatsby himself, an aloof and surprisingly young man who recognizes Nick because they were in the same division in the Great War. Through Jordan, Nick later learns that Gatsby knew Daisy through a purely chance meeting in 1917 when Daisy and her friends were volunteering with young officers headed to Europe. From their brief meetings and casual encounters at the time, Gatsby became (and still is) deeply in love with Daisy. Gatsby had hoped that his wild parties would attract an unsuspecting Daisy, who lives across the bay, to appear at his doorstep and allow him to present himself as a man of wealth and position. Having developed a budding friendship with Nick, Gatsby uses him to arrange a reunion with Daisy: Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house without telling her that Gatsby will also be there. After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby takes Nick and Daisy to his large mansion in an attempt to demonstrate his wealth and sophistication. Daisy, Nick and, Gatsby spend the day enjoying all the activities Gatsby can provide and Nick realizes Daisy is also in love with Gatsby. 3 of 24 9/17/2019, 11:50 AM The Great Gatsby - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby Soon, the two begin an affair. At a luncheon at the Buchanan estate, Daisy speaks to Gatsby with such undisguised intimacy that Tom realizes their affair. Although Tom is an adulterer, he is outraged by his wife's infidelity. The group drives to the Plaza Hotel, where Tom confronts Gatsby in his suite, asserting that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could never understand. In addition, he discloses that Gatsby is a criminal whose fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol and other illegal activities. Daisy decides to stay with Tom, and Tom The twenty-story luxury Plaza Hotel contemptuously sends her back to East Egg with Gatsby, attempting to in the early 1920s prove that Gatsby cannot hurt him. On the way back, Gatsby's car strikes and kills Tom's mistress, “ So we beat on, boats against the Myrtle. Nick later learns that Daisy, not Gatsby, was driving the car current, borne back ceaselessly into at the time of the accident. George mistakenly concludes that the the past. ” [19] driver of the yellow car is his wife's secret lover. George learns from — F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Tom that the yellow car is Jay Gatsby's. George fatally shoots Gatsby in Gatsby's swimming pool before turning the gun on himself. Nick organizes a funeral for Gatsby, but only one of Gatsby's party-goers and his estranged father, Henry Gatz, attend.