The Great Gatsby

Outline

The Great Gatsby (1925) is narrated by Nick Carraway, a young man who moves to Long Island in the summer of 1922 and becomes drawn into the world of his mysterious neighbour, the wealthy Jay Gatsby. Gatsby hosts extravagant parties in the hope of winning back Daisy Buchanan, the woman he has loved for years. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel explores wealth, ambition, illusion, and the limits of the American Dream during the Jazz Age.

• The story is told by Nick Carraway, who moves to Long Island in the summer of 1922 and observes his neighbour.
• Jay Gatsby is a wealthy, mysterious man whose extravagant parties serve one purpose: winning back Daisy Buchanan.
• Gatsby's love for Daisy has lasted for years, and it drives nearly everything he does.
• Beneath the glamour of the Jazz Age, the novel shows corruption and emptiness behind wealth and appearances.
• Fitzgerald uses Gatsby's story to question ambition, illusion and the limits of the American Dream.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) was an American novelist and short-story writer whose work captured the glamour and restlessness of the 1920s. He is widely regarded as one of the great American writers of the twentieth century. His other novels include This Side of Paradise and Tender Is the Night.