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| The Great Gatsby (Penguin Popular Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: F Scott Fitzgerald
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: £2.00
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £1.99 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 783
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 4.3 x 0.4
ISBN: 0140620184
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780140620184
ASIN: 0140620184
Publication Date: January 25, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Good, but I don't see what all the fuss is about. December 26, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
A rather interesting novel and initially it wasn't all that apparent to me why people always linked the failure of the American dream and this story together. Superficially the story is that of love reawakening, Gatsby having initially been rejected by his childhood love for not having sufficient means acquires the means through various ill gotten ways and the lovers reunite despite the fact that she is not married to a boorish but very American man. Much is made that this novel is a startling exposition of the American dream and materialism, and it does this but to a lesser extent than most people make out. I didn't find the metaphors to be profound after reflection nor did I think the plot and language to be that great. That said it still was a fairly good book, an enjoyable read though a bit of anti-climax to what I had been expecting. The characters aren't particularly likeable and stay only briefly in memory, the story entertains but I feel that this book doesn't deserve all the acclaim it has got.
 Few books grip your imagination as easily as this one August 27, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Oh, the casual ease with which this romance is written is staggering. It is not without its little faults as a whole, but then what book is?! The sad and whistful story of a nearly man is entirley subordinate to the smoothly poetic style it is written in and yet is complemented perfectly by it, and elevated by it. This is a really melancholy tale and if you're feeling a bit emotionally down for whatever reason, I'd even put off reading it until you're fighting fit again, as it really is affecting. Some may want a more concrete story than the author is clearly willing to give, but if you can live with (deliberate) vagueness of details and you love a good mystery and a romance then you cannot go wrong with this delightful story.
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald August 11, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have to agree with some previous reviewers for the start of my own review of the great gatsby. Whether this book lives up to its reputation as a masterpiece i am unsure, it is, however, a great read and i highly reccomend it.
I feel that some of the story may be lost on me, as although the author tries, and quite often succeeds, to transport me to the east coast of the united states during the early twentieth century, i feel i sometimes cannot relate to the somewhat unfamiliar surroundings.
This however is almost definatley a lack of imagination on my part, and the author creates a vivid, vibrant and very real portrait of the period. The characters, especially Gatsby are very alive on the page, and the story, is beautiful, yet tragic, and served to me as some kind of modern parable about true friends and loneliness. Definatley a book to add to the 'must read' list!
Lyrical in a less than lyrical century June 26, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Nobody writes prose like F Scott Fitzgerald. Lyrical in a less than lyrical century, Scott Fitzgerald tends to be pigeonholed as the most prominent commentator on the Jazz Age, that brief hurrah after the guns fell silent but before the Wall Street Crash. But the sheer precision and elegance of his writing has a timeless quality which deserves greater attention, and his preoccupations in The Great Gatsby - wrecked love, the nature of America - are hardly themes exclusive to the 1920s.
For my money, The Great Gatsby is one of the most successful and rewarding novels of the twentieth century. The Penguin blurb suggesting he was `something of a seer' diminishes with its vague mysticism Scott Fitzgerald's complete grasp of his craft. For instance, The Great Gatsby is cleverly structured; its subject, who dominates the narrative, only appears for the first time 50 pages in (the novel's less than 200 pages all told) - Scott Fitzgerald knows how to hold back, build suspense and carefully pace his story. The shocking ending, when it comes, is also somehow inevitable - it's been lovingly prepared for, for Scott Fitzgerald is a good professional storyteller as much as a spellbinding writer of prose.
And it's probably the prose itself that most captivates. Scott Fitzgerald simply puts words together beautifully - in an unexpected, highly articulate way. He favours double barrelled adjectives, often choosing contradictions that make sense despite themselves: `his gorgeous pink rag of a suit'; `she spoke to her husband in a soft, coarse voice'. Occasionally he wants to fit so much in, or read so much into a situation or character, that he's just a little too intense to convince - but the occasional excess of imagination is a pretty bearable flaw in an author. The characterisation is thoughtfully worked too - even minor characters are vivid.
Last but not least, the novel has profound things to say about America - then and now. Such as what success or integrity means, how to achieve those things and how society regards each of them; the Big Brother of commerce, in the form of the eyes of Doctor TJ Eckleburg; and the different cultures in the US, most particularly those from the MidWest versus `Easterners'.
Readers may get something out of following The Great Gatsby with Breakfast at Tiffany's - another short, beautifully written New York novel with a beguiling central character.
Just One Line April 28, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I have never experienced reading a book like this before. After shamefully having to restart it as I assumed when the main protagonist travels to the "east" Fitzgerald meant China, so somewhat confused retraced my steps, realizing we had not left America. The hype surrounding this book is apparent from the online reviews with it holding a (deserved) place as many people's top book of all time. So I will try to explain why:
Rarely does a story capture the essence of humanity in such a way. All of the characters are beautifully flawed and human, and though their lives are decadent and seemingly perfect there is such a strong undercurrent of resentment and conflicting desires that a dramatic conclusion is expected. The description of Gatsby's parties and sweltering heat of city summers is not overflowing with adjectives and needless babbling - the whole story quite simply conveys a thousand emotions with a simple sentence. Fitzgerald's awesome skill means that the story can be told with immense power, and rarely does a book really shake you so much with seemingly so little effort.
No review could ever do this book justice, as it is all at once fabulous, decadent and dazzling, yet at the same time simple, powerful and understated. This contrast is startling and quite simply - it is the best book I have ever read.
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