A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, The Great Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--"Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout.

The classic novel that continues to haunt our understanding of ambition, love, entitlement, and the American Dream—with an exclusive discussion guide and an introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Wesley Morris The basis for the Broadway musical starring Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada #2 on the Modern Library’s List of the 100 Best Novels of the Twentieth Century Nick Carraway is an aspiring writer; his cousin, Daisy, is married to the fabulously wealthy Tom Buchanan. Their neighbor, Jay Gatsby, throws extravagant and extraordinary parties in the exclusive and hallowed neighborhood of West Egg. The entanglements between these four characters form the backbone of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s greatest work. When it was first published in 1925, The Great Gatsby was heralded “a mystical, glamorous story of today” (The New York Times). Since then, the story of Jay Gatsby and his love for the treacherous, effervescent Daisy Buchanan has become a staple in high school and college classrooms as well as a beloved favorite of readers everywhere.

The authentic edition from Fitzgerald’s original publisher. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s. The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of twentieth-century literature.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' is a seminal work that encapsulates the opulence and disillusionment of the 1920s American Dream. Through its lush prose and innovative narrative style, Fitzgerald intertwines the stories of Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway within the backdrop of a society grappling with newfound wealth, moral decay, and existential longing. The novel employs rich symbolism and vivid imagery, particularly through the iconic green light, to explore themes of aspiration, love, and the elusiveness of the American Dream, rendering it a cornerstone of modernist literature. Fitzgerald, a chronicler of his generation, drew upon his own experiences of wealth, ambition, and heartache in creating this masterpiece. His intimate understanding of both the glamour and the emptiness of the Jazz Age has influenced generations of writers and artists. The narrative reflects not only his personal struggles but also a critical observation of the societal transformations occurring during his lifetime, which ultimately culminated in this exploration of disillusionment. Readers seeking a profound yet accessible examination of 20th-century America cannot overlook 'The Great Gatsby.' With its intricate character studies and poignant reflections on desire and regret, this novel invites contemplation of our own pursuits of happiness and the shadows they cast. Ultimately, it remains a timeless exploration of hope, loss, and the complexities of the human experience.

A must-have new edition of one of the great American novels—and one of America's most popular—featuring a new introduction by Min Jin Lee, the New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko, and a striking new cover that brings the quintessential novel of the Roaring Twenties into the 2020s The basis for the Tony Award–winning Broadway musical starring Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, with flaps and deckle-edged paper Young, handsome, and fabulously rich, Jay Gatsby seems to have everything. But at his mansion east of New York City, in West Egg, Long Island, where the party never seems to end, he's often alone in the glittering Jazz Age crowd, watching and waiting, as speculation swirls around him--that he's a bootlegger, that he was a German spy during the war, that he even killed a man. As writer Nick Carraway is drawn into this decadent orbit, he begins to see beneath the shimmering surface of the enigmatic Gatsby, for whom one thing will always be out of reach: Nick's cousin, the married Daisy Buchanan, whose house is visible from Gatsby's just across the bay. A brilliant evocation of the Roaring Twenties and a satire of a postwar America obsessed with wealth and status, The Great Gatsby is a novel whose power remains undiminished after a century. This edition, based on scholarship dating back to the novel's first publication in 1925, restores Fitzgerald's masterpiece to the original American classic he envisioned, and features an introduction addressing how gender, race, class, and sexuality complicate the pursuit of the American Dream. For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

This Side of Paradise is the debut novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was published in 1920. Taking its title from a line of Rupert Brooke's poem Tiare Tahiti, the book examines the lives and morality of post-World War I youth. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive Princeton University student who dabbles in literature. The novel explores the theme of love warped by greed and status seeking. The novel famously helped F. Scott Fitzgerald gain Zelda Sayre's hand in marriage due to its success.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" is a masterful exploration of the American Dream during the Roaring Twenties, a period marked by excess and disillusionment. Through the eyes of the enigmatic narrator, Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald employs lush, lyrical prose and vivid imagery to illuminate the opulence and moral decay of 1920s America. The intricate interplay of wealth, love, and social status is encapsulated in the tragic tale of Jay Gatsby, whose obsessive pursuit of the elusive Daisy Buchanan becomes a poignant critique of the era's materialism. This novel's rich symbolism and innovative narrative structure situate it as a pivotal work in American literature, encapsulating both the hopeful dreams and sobering realities of its time. Fitzgerald himself was a keen observer of the American upper class, drawing on his experiences in the East Coast elite circles and his tumultuous marriage to Zelda Sayre. The discontent and yearning for identity mirrored in Gatsby'Äôs journey reflect Fitzgerald'Äôs own struggles with success, love, and the societal expectations of his time. The author'Äôs exposure to wealth and its ephemeral nature deeply informs the narrative, shedding light on the contradictions of his characters'Äô lives. "The Great Gatsby" is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of early 20th-century America and the paradoxes of the American Dream. With its timeless themes and expertly crafted prose, this novel resonates with contemporary discussions of identity, aspiration, and the hollowness of wealth. Readers are invited to journey into Gatsby's world'Äîa testament to hope, tragedy, and the often unattainable nature of dreams.

This Side of Paradise is the debut novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald. The book's critical success was driven in part by the enthusiasm of reviewers. For example, H. L. Mencken wrote that This Side of Paradise was the "best American novel that I have seen of late." The book examines the lives and morality of post-World War I youth. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive Princeton University student who dabbles in literature and has the book's theme of love warped by greed and status-seeking.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 Jazz Age novel about the impossibility of recapturing the past, was initially a failure.