Bedside Lamp English Learning Reader I: The Great Gatsby (Pure English Version)

Author: (USA) F. Scott Fitzgerald
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: The Great Gatsby is a masterpiece by the renowned American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), who masterfully portrayed the disillusionment of the "American Dream." Published in 1925, the novel is set in the upper-middle-class white society of modern America and unfolds through the narration of Nick Carraway. Carraway, born in the Midwest, moves to New York to study stock trading, hoping to get rich. He lives in Long Island, becomes neighbors with Gatsby, and befriends him. Gatsby, originally named Gatz, is also from the Midwest, born into poverty but ambitious. He later becomes wealthy through bootlegging. He frequently hosts extravagant parties, entertaining guests to display his wealth, with the goal of attracting his former lover, Daisy, and winning her back. Five years earlier, when Gatsby was in the army, Daisy was his lover. During Gatsby's service overseas in the Second World War, she married Tom Buchanan, a wealthy and dissolute man, out of greed. However, the fulfillment of material and physical desires could not fill the spiritual emptiness and lack in Daisy's life. With Carraway's help, after reuniting with Gatsby, she seems to rekindle their old romance. But Daisy is no longer the same as before; she is no longer the innocent girl Gatsby imagined, but a foolish, selfish, vulgar, and beautiful shell. Gatsby's beautiful dream finally shatters, but he still struggles in his last attempt, clinging to a sliver of hope for Daisy, which leads to a more tragic and pitiful fate. Later, Daisy, while driving Gatsby's car, accidentally kills Tom's mistress. She then conspires with Tom to cruelly frame Gatsby, leading to the deceased's husband bursting into Gatsby's home and shooting him dead. The husband then takes his own life, making Gatsby a complete victim of the selfish and cruel Daisy. Carraway and a few friends attend Gatsby's funeral, a stark contrast to the hundreds of lavish parties he hosted in life. After attending Gatsby's funeral, Carraway decides to return to his home in the Midwest, away from the noisy, indifferent, hollow, and false eastern metropolis.