Set in the post-Great War Long Island world of the rich, 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 narrator, Nick Carraway, sympathetically records the pathos of Gatsby’s romantic dream which flounders on the reality of corruption, the insulated selfishness of Tom and Daisy, and the cutting edge of violence.
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.
