The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional towns of West Egg and East Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. It is the era when Jazz music and sex were overtaking everything in America-- it was called the Jazz Age and Prohibition-era of America. Apart from Jazz music, that period was known for economic prosperity, flapper culture, libertine mores, rebellious youth, and ubiquitous speakeasies which are utterly conveyed in Fitgerald's fictional narrative. The story explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess-- creating a portrait of the 'Roaring Twenties' that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream.
The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby who lives in a luxurious mansion on the affluent Long Island shore. His lavish and glitterati parties had become the talk of the town. Amid the throng of guests, starlets, and champagne waiters, yet their host appeared oddly aloof. These parties were to impress only one person - his extremely idealistic passion, his ex-lover, the beautiful former debutante -- Daisy Buchanan, with whom he had a brief affair before the war and her marriage to Tom. Gatsby had an unrealistic obsession with her and he was trying hard to reunite with her. Tom keeps a mistress who gets killed accidentally. The incident had been portrayed wrongly by Tom which brings unwanted results.
The Great Gatsby is generally considered to be the finest novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Many literary critics consider 'The Great Gatsby' to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus. Written in easy prose without complex literary experiment, at the height of the author's maturity, it is now an undisputed classic of American literature and is one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. The novel brilliantly brings out the shallowness of humanity, the eerie silence as the syncopated rhythm of the Jazz fades. It brilliantly captures both the disillusion of post-war America and the moral failure of a society obsessed with wealth and status.
Adaptation
The Great Gatsby had been adapted in many forms of media.
Ballet performances premiered on different platforms and theatres. The latest was performed in 2013 at Leed Grand Theatre in the UK.
Computer Games such as Classic adventures: The Great Gatsby (2010), The Great Gatsby for NSE (2011), The Great Gatsby: The Video Game (2013) are few popular games.
Films have been played a big part in making The Great Gatsby so popular. It has been adapted to films several times with the same title 'The Great Gatsby' in the year of 1926, 1949,1974, and 2013.
In literature, the novel The Double Bind (2007) has a character, who is elderly and homeless, introduced as Daisy's son.
And, the novel Great is a modern-day young adult fiction retelling of The Great Gatsby with a female Gatsby named Jacinta Trimalchio.
Opera New York Metropolitan opera commissioned John Habbison to compose an operatic treatment of the novel to commemorate the 25th anniversary of James Levine's debut. The work called The Great Gatsby premiered on December 20, 1999.
Radio
- On January 1, 1950, an hour-long adaptation was broadcast on CBS's Family Hour of Stars starring Kirk Douglas as Gatsby.
- In October 2008, the BBC World Service commissioned an abridged 10-part reading of the story, read from the view of Nick Carraway by Trevor White.
- In May 2012, BBC Radio 4 broadcast The Great Gatsby, a Classic Serial dramatization by Robert Forrest.
The Great Gatsby has been adapted several times as films and as episodes for various dramatic series such as :
- The Great Gatsby (1955)--an NBC episode for Robert Montgomery Presents
- The Great Gatsby (1958)--a CBS episode for Playhouse 90
- The Great Gatsby (2000)--an A&E movie
- The 1926 stage adaptation of Owen Davis, subsequently developed, became the 1926 film version.
- In July 2006, Simon Levy's stage adaptation, the only one authorized and granted exclusive rights by Fitzgerald Estate, premiered at The Guthrie Theater to commemorate the opening of its new theatre. It was subsequently produced by Seattle Repertory Theatre. In 2012, a revised version was produced at Arizona Theatre Company and Grand Theatre in London, Ontario, Canada.
- In 2010, Gatz, an Off-Broadway production by Elevator Repair Service, debuted and was highly praised by critic Ben Brantley of The New York Times.
About the Author
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1896. He attended Princeton University, joined the United States Army during World War I, and published his first novel This Side of Paradise in 1920. That same year he married Zelda Sayre and for the next decade, the couple lived in New York, Paris, and on the Riviera. Fitzgerald's masterpieces include The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. He died at the age of forty-four while working on The Last Tycoon. Fitzgerald's fiction has secured his reputation as one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century.
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| F. Scott Fitzgerald |
Rating: 4.2/5
Author: Scott Fitzgerald
Publisher: Scribner
Publishing Date: September 30, 2004
Edition Language: English Language
Genre: Romance, Classic Fiction
ISBN-10: 9780743273565
ISBN-13: 978-0743273565
Pages: 208 (Paperback)
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