The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Hooked on Classics—Blame Mr. Haynes
Narrator, Nick Carraway, recalls how he met a mysterious stranger in an upscale Long Island neighborhood. Nick rents a small rundown cottage right next to a mansion, an “imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden.”[1]Owner, Jay Gatsby, is a wealthy man who likes to throw wild and glamorous, alcohol-filled parties in the days of prohibition. It’s the best bash in town. People come in droves, most not even invited. They dig into the expansive tables of catered food, dance into the night to the full orchestra, and drink until they fall over.
Oddly, Gatsby doesn’t drink nor does he mingle much with the guests. He’s an enigma and rumors swirl around him like a dust devil: he’s killed a man; he’s a bootlegger; or he’s a German spy, but who cares? The parties are extravagant, fun, and free. Whoopee!
What the guests don’t know is that there is a good reason Gatsby is throwing the parties. He hopes to attract mainly one person, Daisy. Daisy is a woman he fell in love with years before and it is his hope to ignite that spark once more. She lives right across the sound and he watches the green light flashing on her dock many evenings. But she’s now married to the rich snob, Tom Buchanan. He’s a man with old money, and a new mistress. As Gatsby’s neighbor and Daisy’s second cousin, Nick becomes the middleman who reconnects the two long-lost lovers. So, who does Daisy ultimately choose? Does she still love Jay Gatsby, or does she love him not? Does Jay get the happy ending he was searching for?
You probably already know the answer if you've seen any of the three Hollywood movies—the 1949 version starring Alan Ladd and Betty Field; the 1974 rendition starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrows; or the most recent 2013 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Cary Mulligan. While the movies are very good. it's still worth reading this short, classic novel. It's an easy slide into a decadent time. I really enjoyed it and so did my husband.
You may have noticed that a few of the books recommendations,
including today’s, are classics. (See Gone with the Wind, Rebecca, Ethan Frome, The Yearling, Anne of Green Gables, The Picture of Dorian Gray.) “Hold the
phone,” you say. “Why are you dipping
into the old stuff when there’s so much new material out there?”
It’s true, some of them are a little more difficult to read.
Some of that old descriptive writing keeps me on my toes. Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Robert Louis
Stevenson, and others took a little more time to read, but the more I read
their styles, the more I liked them, and the easier it got. Take Jane
Eyre for example. I love the line:
…all the female Brocklehursts produce their pocket-handkerchiefs to apply them to their optics, while the elderly lady swayed herself to and fro, and the younger ones whispered, ‘How shocking!’
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
(1847; reprint, Pleasantville, NY: Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., 1984),61.
I thought that was hilarious even though I’m not sure that
was Charlotte Brontë’s intention “Produce pocket-handkerchiefs and apply them
to their optics”—funny! It still makes
me laugh.
The Great Gatsby,
on the other hand, is a pretty straight-forward, short, and easy book to read. Enjoy!
Happy Reading,
Annette
[1]F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby(1925; reprint: New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953), 10.
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