The Great Gatsby: Book Review

The 1920’s were a time of change and the prohibition. We mostly here about the gangsters that made a name for themselves but F. Scott Fitzgerald decides to capture the high-nobility life in The Great Gatsby and thus created one of the most extravagant classic novel of all time. Find out why this iconic novel is still a popular read today!

The Great Gatsby Summary

Nick Carraway is a Yale alumni and a World War I veteran and is looking to land a job as a bond salesman in New York City. He ends up renting a bungalow in Long Island which is next to Jay Gatsby’s affluent house. Gatsby is a multi-millionaire known for throwing lavash parties but never participates in them. 

After a couple of weeks, Nick is invited to a party at Gatsby’s mansion. At the party, Nick feels out of place as he doesn’t know anyone there. After finding his friend Jordan at the party, they chat for a but until Gatsby approaches them. He introduces himself and tells Nick they both serves in the same infantry division but Nick does not recall. 

Gatsby and Nick start to hang out more often after their first encounter. From Jordan, Nick learns that Gatsby and Daisy, Nick’s distant cousin, were a thing in the past. With his newfound wealth, Gatsby hopes to woe Daisy who has married since their last encounter. 

. Gatsby’s money has reunited him with his past lover but that is all. Daisy is married to Tom and is reluctant to leave him. With his newfound wealth and influence, Gatsby will do whatever it takes to win back Daisy’s love no matter the cost. 

History of The Great Gatsby

Set in 1925 and told from Nick Carraway’s point of view, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an American classic novel that captures the 1920s. The novel tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a millionaire with a mysterious past who wants to reunite with his former lover Daisy Buchanan.

Like many great novels, this one was inspired by true events based on a romance Fitzgerald has with a socialite as well as parties he attended in Long Island in 1922. The novel was considered a commercial failure, selling less than 20,000 copies and Gatsby considered himself a failure with nothing to be remembered for.

But that changed when his novel surged in popularity when the Council on Books in Wartime gave soldiers free copies. This led to his novel being re-examined by critics and scholars and his novel was this introduced to American high school curriculum and the mainstream media in America.

I am not a fan of authors not seeing the impact of their novels in their lifetime. The way books are deemed good or bad is horrible and many great novels fall through the cracks. The Great Gastby is a great novel and should have been critically acclaimed while Fitzgerald was alive because he died thinking he was a failure. 

Who Was Jay Gatsby Based on?

As Fitzgerald has said, the novel was based on his past experiences. But the character Jay Gatsby was a character that many speculate was based on a Minnesotan named Cushman Rice. In a letter uncovered by American lawyer Dan Hardy, Gatsby wrote to a fan on how he created Gatbsy.

“Perhaps, on the image of some forgotten farm type of Minnesota that I have known and forgotten, and associated at the same moment with some sense of romance”. And that had led many to believe that it was Rice who Gatsby was based on as nobody else matched the profile.

Conclusion

Like most people, I came across the novel in school and became fascinated with the novel. How many authors can make you want to live in the 1920’s? He captured a lot of the magic of the times and is associated with that era. I enjoyed the novel a lot and recommend people to read it for fun and not for an assignment this time around.

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