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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald


Wahrheit

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[center][img]http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/amlit/trimalchio/gg1a.jpg[/img][/center]

As mentioned, arguably one of the best books ever written.

[quote=Wikipedia][b][i]The Great Gatsby[/i][/b] is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published on April 10, 1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City during the summer of 1922.

The novel takes place following the First World War. American society enjoyed prosperity during the "roaring" 1920s as the economy soared. At the same time, Prohibition, the ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol as mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment, made millionaires out of bootleggers. After its republishing in 1945 and 1953, it quickly found a wide readership and is today widely regarded as a paragon of the Great American Novel, and a literary classic. The Great Gatsby has become a standard text in high school and university courses on American literature in countries around the world, and is ranked second in the Modern Library's lists of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century.[/quote]

If you haven't read this in school yet, you will. Likely before you get your HS diploma, definitely before your Bachelor's. It's worth a read on its own regardless. It provides an interesting commentary on the social politics of many different classes and the traumas associated with love.

Perhaps its most interesting and intriguing perspective, however, is its view on interpersonal relationships and the use and value of one's life. When I read it I found myself very much associated with Gatsby... who knows what you'll find.

Favorite characters? Favorite parts? Please spoiler anything intensely related to plot, as I'm not sure given the audience of YCM how many users have read this yet! Kudos to you if you have. :)

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The book and the movie are both incredibly dull. How on earth do you people like it. The only book I have given up reading is Goodnight Mr. Tom but that is brilliant compared to The Great Gatsby. I, personally would rather read every single Tennyson poem twice than read this for leisure.

That is entirely my opinion and I respect anyone who disagrees with me.
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  • 3 weeks later...
It is very confusing. One of the most confusing sections was [spoiler=SPOILER, not that there is much to spoil, I just like doing these] [quote]The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic-their retinas are over one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose.[/quote][/spoiler] At what point did you realise he was talking about a billboard?
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  • 3 weeks later...
[quote name='The Holly and the Ivy' timestamp='1298405416' post='5026913']
The book and the movie are both incredibly dull. How on earth do you people like it. The only book I have given up reading is Goodnight Mr. Tom but that is brilliant compared to The Great Gatsby. I, personally would rather read every single Tennyson poem twice than read this for leisure.

That is entirely my opinion and I respect anyone who disagrees with me.
[/quote]
I do. At least, I did, until...

[quote name='The Holly and the Ivy' timestamp='1300135407' post='5073965']
It is very confusing. One of the most confusing sections was [spoiler=SPOILER, not that there is much to spoil, I just like doing these] [/spoiler] At what point did you realise he was talking about a billboard?
[/quote]
English isn't for you.

I didn't particularly like it. I do acknowledge Fitzgerald's skill with the language, but the plot itself was pretty dry and the final third felt very tangled. Then the end, the last page, was an ugly piece of self-indulgent philosophizing that contradicted the whole rest of the book.
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