Title: The Great Gatsby
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Pages:180
Published: Apr 10th 1925
Publisher: Scribner
I saw this book at Waterloo train station with my mum one day in London and she knew exactly which book it was. I had no idea. She new of the new film by Baz Luhrman as well (the book had the film cover) and I urged her on to buy it. Why wouldn't I. She did and I started reading it on the train home. I loved it.
I must admit that I haven't really given classics a chance or much time, but I didn't even know this was a classic. Leonardo diCaprio was on the cover and that was good enough for me. I managed to finish the book before the premier and I went to see it, as expected, with my mum - I cried.
The year after we started studying the book (my copy now has a hundred notes in it in every possible colour), but imagine how much a teacher can influence your opinion of a book. I didn't stop loving the book, but I hated what she had to say about it. I did not agree, and I think I was so negative of everything she had to say because 1) she questioned all my opinions, 2) I loved this book, I read it for pleasure and she made me analyse the minor details that I'm sure F. Scott Fitzgerald didn't bloody care about right then and 3) she was a horrible teacher overall (the only English teacher that I have ever disliked). I hated studying it. It ruined the pleasure of reading the book. A lot of people I know had to study it for their A-levels and hated it. Poor souls.
I'm happy I convinced my mum to buy it that one time at the train station (even though it had the film cover, I usually prefer the original cover), and that I managed to read it before it was too late!! Before my teacher started coming up with ideas and theories I didn't agree with. I'm happy I had enough time to go into WHSmith with my mum that one time sat Waterloo train station. I wonder what I would've thought of the book otherwise.
Plot Summary:
The Great Gatsby follows Fitzgerald-like, would-be writer Nick Carraway as he leaves the midwest and comes to New York in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz, bootleg kings, and sky-rocketing stock. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby, and across the bay from his cousin Daisy, and her philandering blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan. It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, love and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.
Favourite Quote:
He threw all those parties hoping she'd wander in one night...
My Rating:
10/10
My favourite classic of all time.
Don't miss the 2013 film by Baz Luhrmann!!
Other Books by F. Scott Fitzgerald:
Tender is the Night
This Side of Paradise
The Beautiful and Damned
The Short Stories
Babylon Revisited and Other Stories
The Diamond and Big as the Ritz and Other Stories
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Six Other Stories
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