Told by Nick Carraway, a friend and neighbor of Gatsby, The Great Gatsby is the story of a mysterious young millionaire Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is profoundly in love with Daisy Buchanan, a girl he met and lost a few years ago. Daisy is now married. To help Gatsby succeed in his romantic endeavors, Nicky Carraway invites Daisy Buchanan to tea where she meets Gatsby again. Soon, Daisy and Gatsby begin an affair and their reunion leads to the catastrophic events that culminate into a tragic ending.

The Great Gatsby is not simply a masterful tale of love and betrayal; it is a literary chronicle of American social history in the Jazz Age. As is often the case with literary masterpieces, The Great Gatsby, when first published, was less understood and was poorly received. It was only later that it embarked on a journey of never-ending literary exploits, a fate met only by a chosen few.

About the Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the great American authors of the twentieth century, was born in 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was at Princeton University when he left it in 1917 to join the army. During his time in the army he wrote The Romantic Egoist which was rejected when he submitted it for publication. The publisher remarked that it might be submitted again after revision. Fitzgerald revised The Romantic Egoist in 1919 when he was discharged from the army and it was published as This Side of Paradise in March 1920. While still in the army, Fitzgerald met Zelda Sayre in 1918 who became Zelda Fitzgerald in April 1920. In October 1921, they had a daughter, their only child. In 1924, Fitzgeralds traveled to France where he wrote The Great Gatsby. They returned to the United States in 1925. In addition to the above two novels, Fitzgerald wrote two more novels, one incomplete novel, many volumes of short stories, a drama and a collection of nonfiction writings. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 1940.