Great Gatsby, The, is a famous novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel, published in 1925, is a vivid portrait of the Jazz Age, a name given to the 1920’s in the United States. Fitzgerald was one of the first writers to use the term in his collection of stories Tales of the Jazz Age (1922).
The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway, who is a cousin and neighbor of the mysterious and wealthy Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is famous for the lavish parties he throws in his luxurious mansion on the north shore of Long Island in New York. However, Gatsby was born James Gatz into a poor Midwestern family. He moved east and gained wealth through illegally selling liquor and other criminal activities.
Gatsby is in love with Daisy Buchanan, the beautiful wife of the rich but coarse Tom Buchanan. Gatsby tells Carraway that he and Daisy had a brief romance while Gatsby was serving in the Army during World War I (1914-1918). Daisy and Gatsby eventually become lovers again. Driving Gatsby’s car, Daisy accidentally runs over and kills her husband’s mistress, Myrtle Wilson, and leaves the scene of the accident without stopping. Gatsby protects Daisy by refusing to identify her as the driver of his car. The jealous Tom Buchanan tells Myrtle’s husband that Gatsby was the driver, and the husband shoots Gatsby and then himself. After Gatsby’s death, his previous friends and associates abandon him and only his father and one former friend attend his funeral.
Many reviewers disliked The Great Gatsby when it was first published, but critics and scholars have since recognized it as a classic of American literature. They have praised the novel as an exposure of wealthy American society during the Jazz Age. The Great Gatsby examines the false glamour, moral emptiness, futility, and boredom that Fitzgerald saw in the period.
