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F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1925
The Great Gatsby
The story of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel in a few minutes: what happens, who is who, what it means, and its most famous lines.
- Author
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Published
- 1925
- Setting
- Long Island and New York, summer 1922
- Genre
- Tragedy, the Jazz Age
Summary
Nick Carraway, the narrator, rents a small house on Long Island next to the mansion of the mysterious Jay Gatsby, who throws enormous parties. Across the bay live Nick’s cousin Daisy and her rich, brutal husband Tom Buchanan. Nick learns that Gatsby loved Daisy five years earlier, before he went to war, and has built his fortune, partly through crime, to win her back. Every night he looks at the green light at the end of her dock.
Nick brings them together and the affair begins again, but Daisy won’t leave Tom. Driving Gatsby’s car, Daisy hits and kills Myrtle, Tom’s mistress. Gatsby takes the blame, and Myrtle’s husband, believing Gatsby was her lover and killer, shoots him. Hardly anyone comes to his funeral. Nick, disgusted with the careless rich, goes home to the Midwest.
Main characters
| Jay Gatsby | self-made millionaire who lives for one dream |
| Nick Carraway | the narrator, Gatsby’s neighbour |
| Daisy Buchanan | the woman Gatsby loves |
| Tom Buchanan | Daisy’s wealthy, arrogant husband |
| Myrtle Wilson | Tom’s mistress |
Themes
- The American Dream and its failure
- Wealth, class and carelessness
- The impossibility of repeating the past
Read it free
The Great Gatsby is out of copyright. The whole novel can be read or downloaded free from Project Gutenberg.
Quotes
Famous quotes from The Great Gatsby
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
Questions
About the novel
What is The Great Gatsby about?
Jay Gatsby’s doomed attempt to win back Daisy Buchanan, and the emptiness behind the wealth of the 1920s.
What does the green light mean?
Gatsby’s hope and dream of Daisy, always out of reach.
Who kills Gatsby?
George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, who wrongly believes Gatsby killed her.