The Glorious Gatsby: A Classic That Deserves Its Title

The Great Gatsby

Book review by Margaret

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Rating: 8.5/10

Date read: 19 June

The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925 and explores themes of love, class, past versus future, the American dream and dysfunctional relationships within the setting of the Jazz Age in New York. The novel is narrated by Nick Carraway, a bond salesman living in the fictional neighbourhood of West Egg on Long Island. His next-door neighbour is the infamous and enigmatic Gatsby: owner of riches, thrower of parties and inviter of speculation. Gatsby, Nick, Nick’s cousin Daisy Buchanan, her husband Tom, their friend Jordan Baker, the woman with whom Tom Buchanan is having an affair, Myrtle Wilson and her husband George all form the cast of characters in this rich, sultry and absorbing narrative.

This novel was much shorter than I expected, and I read all of it in a day. It was an enthralling story; not fast-paced or action-packed, but vivid and bold, overflowing with vibrant descriptions and intense imagery. Each character is filled with their own story and each setting seems to have its own history. Every shallow conversation, every protracted moment, every fleeting glance is felt as keenly by the reader as it is by the narrator. Although this is not a feel-good story, not a story of redemption or happily-ever-after, the sense of poignancy left upon the reader is entirely worth the read.

New Great Gatsby TV Series in the Works

Comments

Disappointment: The Unanswered Question in Larkin and Duffy

Discuss the presentation of disappointment in the poems of Larkin and Duffy. By Margaret Both Larkin and Duffy use the theme of disappointment in some of their poems. In this essay, I will be looking at the way these two poets present this theme in four of their poems: ‘The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team’ and ‘Room’ by Carol Ann Duffy, and ‘Home is so Sad’ and ‘Mr. Bleaney’ by Philip Larkin. The first pair of poems I will be looking at is Duffy’s ‘The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team’ and Larkin’s ‘Home is so Sad’. As well as centring on the theme of disappointment, these two poems focus specifically on how our remembrance of our past can disappoint us. Often, we remember things to be better and more exciting than they actually were, causing the type of bitter nostalgia that plays a key role in both poems. Duffy’s poem begins on a high: ‘I ...

The Winding Path to Gilead

Gilead Book review by Margaret Marilynne Robinson Rating: 6.5/10 Date read: 12 June to 18 June Gilead is a 2004 fictional epistolary novel by Marilynne Robinson, whose main character, a Congregationalist pastor called John Ames, is writing letters to his son. John is in his late seventies and married to a woman more than thirty years his junior, with an unnamed son of about six years old. John knows that, due to his heart condition, he will not live for much longer, so he has decided to leave a monologic record of various experiences, thoughts, meditations, observations and impressions for his son to read when he is older, presumably after John’s death. However, John’s son plays a relatively minor role in the book itself; rather, Jack Boughton, the son of John’s best friend, plays the most active role in the story, serving as one of the primary focuses of John’s thoughts. I found this novel to be highly engaging on an ideological level, though the story itself was meandering a...

A Wife Now Living

Search This Blog