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F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the major American writers of the twentieth century, is a figure whose life and works embody powerful myths about the American Dream of success. The Great Gatsby, considered by many to be Fitzgerald's finest work and the book for which he is best known, is a portrait of the Jazz Age (1920s) in all its decadence and excess. Exploring the themes of class, wealth, and social status through the story of the self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby and the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, Fitzgerald takes a cynical look at the pursuit of wealth among a group of people for whom pleasure is the chief goal. Depicting some of Fitzgerald's (and his country's) most abiding obsessions -- money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings -- The Great Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned a permanent place in American mythology. |