The Great Gatsby

Now the subject of a major film by Baz Luhrmann, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan, this work is F. Scott Fitzgerald's brilliant fable of the hedonistic excess and tragic reality of 1920s America. Edited with an introduction and notes by Tony Tanner, it follows young, handsome, and fabulously rich Jay Gatsby, the bright star of the Jazz Age. As writer Nick Carraway becomes immersed in Gatsby's extravagant world, he confronts the mystery of Gatsby's origins and desires. Beneath the glamorous facade lies a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled, leading to a destructive obsession that unravels Gatsby's life. Fitzgerald captures the disillusionment of post-war America and the moral failures of a society fixated on wealth and status. More than a reflection of a specific era, the narrative chronicles Gatsby's tragic pursuit of his dream, embodying the universal conflict between illusion and reality. Fitzgerald, who married Zelda Sayre, whose struggles influenced his writing, has attained mythical status in American literary history. His masterwork is often regarded as the 'great American novel.' After his death, The New York Times noted that he 'created a "generation"' in both fact and literary sense.