The Great Gatsby

Overview

The Great Gatsby is F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel about a young guy named Nick Carraway who moves to Long Island and ends up living next door to this incredibly wealthy, mysterious man called Jay Gatsby.​ Gatsby throws these massive, wild parties every weekend, but nobody really knows much about him. Nick reconnects with his cousin Daisy, who's married to a guy named Tom Buchanan—they're old money, living across the bay in the fancy part of town.​ As the summer goes on, Nick gets pulled into Gatsby's world and learns that everything Gatsby does somehow revolves around Daisy. There's clearly history there, and Gatsby wants Nick's help.​ The book's really about the American Dream and what happens when you chase something from your past that maybe you can't get back. It's set in the 1920s, so there's all this glamour and excess, but underneath it all, things are pretty hollow.​ Fitzgerald tells the whole story through Nick's eyes, which makes you feel like you're right there with him, trying to figure out who Gatsby really is and what he's after.​