Authored by an American writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby is a novel which was published in the year 1925. The book is set around New York City and North Shore in Long Inlands during the time of summer 1922. The book is a critique of the American Dream. The timeline of the novel is just after World War One. The novel has taken the place of a standard text in university and high school courses based in American literature in different countries all over the world. The book has also been ranked on the second place in the list of 100 best novels of the 20th century by the Modern Library.
The plot shows the narrator, Nick Carraway who is a young man coming from a patrician Midwestern family and graduating in 1915 from Yale. After The Great War is over, Nick returns back to the Midwest and then goes on to settle in New York City in order to learn the bond business. Nick was brought up in a wealthy family but despite that he lives a very modest life. The story talks about the incidents that take place when Nick arrives in New York. The other characters in the book are Jordan who is a female golfer taking interest in Nick, Daisy, Nick’s second cousin, Daisy’s husband, Tom and the mysterious figure known as Jay Gatsby. Gatsby lives in the neighborhood of Nick and arranges huge parties and calls numerous guests. Nick receives an invitation for one such party on the weekend and he attends it. He finds that the guests are not much aware about the identity of Gatsby and he goes on looking for the host. A man recognizes Nick from the US Army background and starts conversing with him. On the way he reveals himself as Jay Gatsby and a friendship starts forming between the two. Jordan informs Nick about the feelings of love that Gatsby has for Daisy and he wants a meeting to be arranged with her. Nick agrees to it and invites both of them at home. The meeting is quite awkward but still a bond of love develops between the two. Further, Daisy’s husband comes to know about the affair and the events that follow leads to the death of Myrtle, the wife of garage owner George Wilson, because of a road accident from Gatsby’s car. Wilson comes to know about it being the car of Gatsby and frustrated he goes to his mansion and shoots him before committing suicide himself. Nick feels sorry for whatever happened and disgusted with everything, he returns back to the Midwest.
Neatly written and brilliantly plotted, The Great Gatsby is indeed a masterpiece of creation from F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is definitely one novel which deserves a seat in the list of top 10 novels everyone should read.
