The Great Gatsby is a book by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, a famous American writer. Not bringing its author lifetime glory, this work was recognized as one of the greatest in world literature after the death of Fitzgerald and to this day is required for study in many schools and literary universities around the world. A summary of The Great Gatsby's book, quotes, meaning, and reviews are later in this article.
about the author
The author of The Great Gatsby, which will be discussed later, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, was born in 1896 into a loving and wealthy family of Irish immigrants. His homeland was the American city of St. Paul in Minnesota, where he spent all his childhood and youth. Despite the fact that The Great Gatsby is not an autobiographical book, Fitzgerald wrote about his surroundings. By the time the novel was created, he knew what it was like to be rich (like him and his mother) and what it was like to strive for wealth (like his father). Like his heroes, he served in the army, and like Gatsby, having achieved success, he arranged many gorgeous parties in a mansion built for himself and his beloved wife Zelda.
Perhaps, precisely because of the excessive credibility of this work, the first reviews of the book The Great Gatsby in bohemian circles were enthusiastic, but it was not very popular among ordinary readers. And in the days following the Age of Jazz, the Great Depression and World War II, no one at all wanted to read about the life and suffering of the rich. The writer died in 1940 from a heart attack - he was only 44 years old, but by this time his whole life, beginning as a dream, had collapsed, and Fitzgerald himself compared himself to a “broken plate”. Only in the 50s did interest in both the writer and his main work again revived.
The plot of the book "The Great Gatsby"
The summary of the novel, of course, cannot convey the entire semantic filling. Fitzgerald’s many key points are not embedded in the plot structure itself, but in individual phrases and fleeting actions.
The action of the novel takes place in a retrospective memory of Nick Carraway - the main character, on behalf of whom the story is being narrated. At the beginning of the plot, he leaves New York, intending to return to his homeland in the Midwest, and begins his story. In 1922, he, a well-to-do young man from a wealthy family, rented a mansion on Long Island, in the West Egg region (the author's name for the nouveau riche district, the opposite region to it is East Egg, there lived not only rich, but also notable) . Nearby in a luxurious estate lived his second cousin Daisy with her husband Tom Buchanan and a three-year-old daughter. After the first meeting, Nick’s opinion about the cousin’s family was favorable: Tom seemed to him an arrogant bumpkin, and Daisy seemed to be a short-sighted cutie, but on the whole they gave the impression of a prosperous and friendly family.
In his illusions, the protagonist did not stay long - one of the guests of the Buchanan family, Daisy's best friend Jordan Baker, secretly told him that in New York, Tom has a mistress - the wife of an auto mechanic Myrtle Wilson. Buchanan even rents an apartment for himself near the Wilson family to meet Myrtle safely and have parties away from his wife. Nick does not believe at first, but Tom himself soon invites him to have fun in New York and brings him to his secret apartment, where the narrator meets Myrtle, her sister Katherine and the Mackey spouses. Closer to night, the party got out of control - the guests got drunk, and Myrtle, not embarrassed by her position as a lover, began to talk about Daisy. In an angry outburst, Tom breaks her nose, and Nick leaves with Mr. Mackey.
Finally, the acquaintance with the mysterious Mr. Gatsby begins, the immense wealth of which is heard by all residents of West Egg. Carraway was his close neighbor, and soon they brought him an invitation to the party. There is a separate discussion about Gatsby's parties - all the creams of society gather there, the most expensive diamonds shine, music sounds until dawn, and alcohol, despite the prohibition, is pouring in. But here's the thing - the whole of Long Island attended parties at Mr. Gatsby’s estate, but no one had ever seen him. More precisely, they saw, but did not even suspect, that this was the owner himself. And fate, extremely interested in the personality of the owner, Nick Carraway, brings himself together with him: at a party he was hailed by a modest-looking man with whom they served in the same regiment. It was he who turned out to be the same mysterious Jay Gatsby.
Nick and Jay become buddies, and Gatsby brings a new friend to New York to tell the story of his wealth and introduce his companion Meyer Wulfsim, a black businessman. At this point, the narrator sadly understands that, despite his wealth and fame, Jay Gatsby has no one to even communicate with, except Nick, Wulfsim and a large number of servants. Jordan Baker, who knows everything and everyone, again shares a secret with Carraway, this time telling that their Daisy is Mr. Gatsby's ex-lover. She rejected his feelings a few years ago, when he was poor and simple, and now, having achieved success, Jay regularly holds luxurious parties and invites everyone around in the hope that one day Daisy will come, see what he has become, and finally fall in love with him. Nick arranges a meeting with his cousin for his new friend - she seems to be fascinated by her former humble admirer, and a romantic feeling flares up between them. In fact, the girl is only admired by the dazzling wealth - three times more than her own. On the basis of the seeming reunion of lovers, Nick and Jordan also begin an affair.
But Tom soon learns about these relationships. Feeling offended by a family man, he threatens Gatsby to convey to his bootlegging activity. Jay, sincerely believing in Daisy's love, asks her to abandon her husband. The girl hesitates, but says nothing. The scene took place in New York, at the Plaza Hotel, and the victorious Tom orders that traitor Daisy will go back with Gatsby in their car, and he will join Nick and Jordan. At the same time, a quarrel arises between the Wilson spouses: George, Myrtle's husband, accuses her of treason, outside of herself she runs out of the house and rushes to Tom's car, but Daisy, who is sitting behind the wheel, does not have time to brake and knocks a woman to death. In view of the circumstances, Jay says that he was behind the wheel, and George Wilson, who was crazy from grief and jealousy, decides that it was Gatsby who was Myrtle's lover. He decides to take revenge on him. Having found out that it was Daisy driving, Nick advises his friend to leave for a while, but Gatsby did not manage to take his advice. On a tip from Tom, Wilson found him and drowned the mansion in the pool, after which he ended his life. Tom and Daisy leave, fearing justice, and no one comes to the funeral of the once-called great Jay Gatsby except his father, Nick, the servant and another unknown gentleman - the narrator met him at the deceased's first party. Reflecting on the irreversibility of the past, Nick Carraway leaves for his homeland.
Content Analysis
Undoubtedly, the full version of the book “The Great Gatsby” allows you to more finely analyze the psychology of the actions of all actors. But a brief summary is enough to understand - this is a typical genre of American tragedy, all the components of which were laid down by Theodore Dreiser - by the way, it is curious that both the book entitled "American Tragedy" and "The Great Gatsby" saw the light in one and the same year. In the twenties, when people became millionaires at every turn, buying up stocks and trading in the illegal sale of alcohol, doubts began to arise in the layers of the intelligentsia: was this fake “American dream” not fake? The tragedy of the novel and its main character is built on this idea. Jay Gatsby, a man clearly intelligent, capable and organized, who managed to fly to the top of wealth in the shortest possible time, as it turned out, pursued an extremely prosaic goal - to get the attention of a girl who rejected him because of insolvency.
Unfortunately, Gatsby loved the image of Daisy he had invented, for which he could not see the empty interior, infantilism and the frivolous thirst for luxury and wealth. The second problem raised by the author is the rotten freedom of morals of the upper echelons of the twenties. How many pages of The Great Gatsby Book are about cheating? Surely more than half. At the same time, there is no love other than self-love - Daisy wants to be with Tom and Jay, Tom wants to be with Myrtle and Daisy, Myrtle wants to meet Tom, but portrays an insult when her husband convicts her of treason. The twentieth century became the true century of egoism, and Fitzgerald, who grew up in a wealthy family, knew this like no other - he observed the hypocrisy of luxury from early childhood. Thus, only the narrator and Gatsby himself are positive characters - and if Nick’s rationality allows him to soberly look at things without losing his head from the sound of money and the sparkle of trinkets, then Jay is too much a dreamer and a romantic who fell in love with the wrong girl. Mr. Gatsby was doomed to failure at the very beginning of his journey in order to win the fruit of wealth with wealth even greater, to restore the past and revive the girl from his fantasies.
Volume of work
How many pages are there in The Great Gatsby? The standard volume of the Russian-language publication is 215 pages. But keep in mind that this number may vary depending on the font and the presence / absence of illustrations. The original Great Gatsby book featured 9 chapters, about 200 pages, and a blue paperback with an art deco-inspired Francis Cugat covering a plain hardcover.
History of creation
Scott Fitzgerald began work on the book The Great Gatsby in 1922. The first three chapters were written in a Mediterranean manhattan in Manhattan, where Francis and his wife Zelda lived for two years. The writer took many scenes in which Gatsby's parties were described from real life - such events were regular in the lives of the Fitzgerald spouses. In 1924, while already living in Paris, the author completed the work, but worked on it for some time, making corrections and clarifications - this was new to his early “momentary” literature, but otherwise he could not, feeling that he was creating something more significant than before. In 1925, the first publication took place - also in Paris. Despite the high author’s assessment and the reviews from the Fitzgerald’s entourage surrounding the book, the novel The Great Gatsby was sold in the amount of only 24,000 copies - a small figure even by the standards of the twenties.
Characters
There are quite a few characters in the novel, but there are only seven main characters influencing the plot.
- Nick Carraway is the storyteller and protagonist whose eyes the reader perceives all the other characters. This is a thirty-year-old man from a wealthy midwestern family who decided to live independently, away from the family. He is the only person of his age who perceived Gatsby as a living person, and not as a mysterious image of an extravagant rich man. In general, Nick is the only hero who soberly looks at the people around him and the events taking place.
- Jay Gatsby is the protagonist of Carraway's narrative. His mysterious and tragic history is devoted to the whole work. He is the same age as Nick and served with him in the same regiment, it is not known under what circumstances he met Daisy and in what way he became a nouveau riche in such a short time. Tom calls him a bootlegger, but this is not confirmed.
- Daisy Buchanan is a young wife and mother of about 23 years old. Second cousin of Nick, but from a family much more wealthy. It is described little in the novel, the most striking feature is the voice, "in which money rings."
- Tom Buchanan is Daisy's husband, the same age as Carraway and Gatsby, as well as his wife, a native of a wealthy family. He has a strong physique, arrogance, rude cynicism and racist views.
- Jordan Baker is a golfer, a close friend of Daisy, and later Nick's romantic girlfriend.
- Myrtle Wilson is Tom's married lover, leading a wild life. More than anyone else in the world loves his little dog.
- George Wilson is Myrtle's husband, a car mechanic deceived by a traitor. He became the involuntary culprit of the death of Myrtle, and then - the killer of Gatsby.
Russian translations
It is preferable to read the book The Great Gatsby in English. The language of the writer is musical, many beautiful descriptive elements are lost due to their untranslatable. Of course, not everyone is able to read the work in the original - but you should try and choose the best one from all the proposed translations. In total, the Great Gatsby book exists in six versions. The very first translation was made in 1965 by the Soviet translator Evgenia Kalashnikova. To this day, it is considered the best, despite many semantic inaccuracies (which is typical of most Soviet translations, the authors of which tried to "finalize" the original). In general, the general atmosphere and musicality of the narrative of the original text are preserved. The next translation was made by Nikolai Lavrov in 2000 - he just corrected all the inaccuracies of Kalashnikova and as a whole did not lose the author's style. The following translations were already done in the wake of the popularity of the new film adaptation of the book. There are practically no reviews on the book The Great Gatsby in the translations of Irina Mizinina (2013) and Sergey Task (2014), this is due to the small runs. But the 2015 translation, written by Suzanne Alucard, did not appeal to many - readers accused the translator of copying the text of the film adaptation and the tedious, unprofessional narration. The last translation of the novel at the moment was made by Sergey Ilyin at the end of 2015, and here the original musical floridity of Fitzgerald is fully reflected. Despite the fact that many found Ilyin’s translation difficult and “too eloquent,” he is closest to the original.
Quotes from The Great Gatsby
As mentioned above, the author tried to convey many ideas of the work through the words, intonations and gestures of his characters. For example, the words of Father Nick, which he chose as his life motto, are important for the plot:
If you suddenly want to condemn someone, - he said, - remember that not all people in the world possessed those advantages that you possessed.
The following is a list of the best quotes from The Great Gatsby.
Everyone is inclined to suspect at least one fundamental virtue.
I came out of the age when you can lie to yourself and call it honesty.
There were probably today moments when the lively Daisy somehow did not reach Daisy's dreams, and the point was not in her, but in the enormous vitality of the image he created. This image was better than her, best of all. He created it with the true passion of the artist, all the while adding something to it, decorating it with every bright feather that came to hand. No tangible, real charm can compare with what a person is able to accumulate in the depths of his imagination.
It is always very painful to see with new eyes what I managed to get used to one way or another.
It is important to be a friend to a person while he is alive, and not when he is already dead.
Reader Reviews
In general, the reviews of The Great Gatsby from Russian-speaking readers are positive. Basically, those who leave reviews on various sites correctly understand the message of the book - they sympathize with Gatsby, Nika, and see the true essence of the "American dream" and its blind adherents, such as Daisy and Tom. However, there are those to whom Daisy Buchanan is pretty - they see in her an incomprehensible nature, who sincerely loved two men and could not make a choice - but this is a rare case. The wave of interest in the work in Russia rose in 2013, after the sensational film adaptation of the novel with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role. Despite the plot inaccuracies of the film and the generally poor picture from an artistic point of view, some reviews of the book “The Great Gatsby” read: “Boring and boring, the film is better, it’s fun and colorful.”
Stages and adaptations
Just a year after the first publication of Fitzgerald’s book “The Great Gatsby”, in 1926, its first film adaptation and the first Broadway production took place. Dumb film is of particular interest in our time, as it is a contemporary of the events described. The appearance of the heroes, their outfits and the atmosphere of life are traditionally illustrated on the basis of this tape.
The next film adaptation was the 1949 film - it returned interest in the forgotten book, making it a cult in the 50s. The 1974 film is still considered the best of all based on The Great Gatsby. The main roles in the film were played by the stars of his time - Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, and the director was Englishman Jack Clayton. The film received two Academy Award - for the best music and costume design, as well as three BAFTA awards and one Golden Globe.
In 2000, the television version of the novel, created by the joint efforts of the United Kingdom and the United States, was released, but this screen version did not cause much interest among the audience and generally went unnoticed. A new wave of interest in the work was caused by the most modern film adaptation, which was released in 2013. The film caused particular popularity of the book in Russia, as in most English-speaking or English-studying countries, The Great Gatsby is a work that must be studied at school. In Russia, it remained little known, but the release of this film radically changed the situation. Simply put, the same thing happened with the Great Gatsby in 2013 that the world over in 1949.
The casting of the actors was carried out by outward resemblance to the actors from the 1974 picture, the main roles were played by Leonardo DiCaprio, Toby Maguaer, Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton. The film has many inaccuracies and discrepancies with the author's text - in particular, tells an approximate story of Gatsby's past and his achievement of wealth, which are not in the book. Despite the audience’s praise, the film was received coldly by critics - the rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website was only 49%. Like the 1974 film adaptation, this picture received several film awards for the high-quality creation of a "beautiful picture", namely two Oscars and two British Film Academy awards for the best costume design and for the work of the production designer.