56 pages 1 hour read

The Great Gatsby

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1925

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Summary and Study Guide

Overview

The Great Gatsby is a fiction novel published in 1925 by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Inspired by Fitzgerald’s experiences during the Jazz Age of the 1920s, The Great Gatsby captures the prosperity and the hedonism of the era through a cast of characters who reside in the fictional Long Island towns of West Egg and East Egg. Despite a cold reaction from critics and audiences upon its release, many modern scholars include The Great Gatsby in the canon of great American novels, deeming it a classic. In 1998, the Modern Library selected The Great Gatsby as the second best English language novel of the 20th century.

Plot Summary

The narrator, Nick Carraway, moves to Long Island after returning from World War I. Although he is from Minnesota, he feels restless after the war and believes that the east coast is more interesting and exciting than the Midwest.

After he relocates to the fictional town of “West Egg” and begins his job as a bond salesman, Nick becomes reacquainted with a distant cousin, Daisy, and her husband, Tom Buchanan. Both Tom and Daisy are from very wealthy families, and Tom is a successful businessman.

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