Great Gatsby

This title contains in-depth critical discussions of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel. Representing a variety of critical approaches and edited by one of the leading critics on 20th Century American literature, this collection focuses on one of the most widely taught works of American literature. The critical viewpoints presented in the volume cover a wide array of topics from issues of race in the novel to individual character studies. The Editor's Introduction explores the deceptive simplicity of the plot and the complex underpinnings of what makes the novel a true masterpiece. This volume of criticism begins simply enough with essays that provide the reader with cultural, historical, comparative, and critical contexts for understanding ""Gatsby"". Several essays consider the cultural and historical contexts of Fitzgerald's work while critical comparisons link the novel to the poetry of Keats and the novels ""Daisy Miller"" and ""Passing"". The section of contextual readings is followed by a selection of critical overviews, including Robert Roulston and Helen H. Roulston's consideration of Gatsby as a type of culmination of Fitzgerald's writings and Ruth Prigozy's comprehensive introduction to the Oxford World Classic edition of ""Gatsby"". The critical overviews are followed by a series of critical readings that focus on narrative style, color symbolism, and character analysis among other topics. Spanning nearly 40 years of critical study, the selection of essays contained in this volume provide the ideal introduction for any one seeking an introduction to this American classic. Each essay is 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of ""Works Cited,"" along with endnotes.

This volume in the Critical Insights series collects a variety of old and new essays on Fitzgerald and continues the work of rehabilitating his reputation and re-examining his work.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby occupies a preeminent place in American letters. Scholars have argued that Jay Gatsby is, in fact, the embodiment of American cultural and social aspiration. Though The Great Gatsby has been studied in detail since its publication, both readers and scholars have continued to speculate about Fitzgerald's sources of inspiration.   The essays in F. Scott Fitzgerald at Work examine fresh facts that illuminate the experiences and source materials upon which Fitzgerald based this quintessentially American masterpiece. They confirm author Horst Kruse's view that Fitzgerald's flights of fancy, even at their most spectacular, are firmly grounded in biographical experience as well as in the social, literary, and philosophical circumstances of his era.   In the first essay, Kruse reconstructs the life story of the individual who allegedly inspired the character of Jay Gatsby: Max von Gerlach. Kruse recounts his journeys to various archives and libraries in the United States as well as in Germany to unearth new facts about the genesis of the Gatsby characters. In another journey, readers travel with Kruse to Long Island to explore its physical and moral geography in relation to Fitzgerald, specifically the role of certain elite Long Island families in the advancement of the "science of eugenics" movement. The final two essays take Kruse across the globe to various destinations to consider the broader place of The Great Gatsby in American and international intellectual history.   Replete with fascinating discoveries and insights, F. Scott Fitzgerald at Work both corrects previous assumptions about The Great Gatsby and deepens our appreciation and understanding of Fitzgerald's imagination.

In a single, engaging volume, The Great Gatsby presents a helpful literary guide to one of America s most prized classic novels. First published in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald s The Great Gatsby captured the spirit of the Jazz Age and examined the American obsession with love, wealth, material objects, and class. Considered one of the great novels of the 20th century, Fitzgerald s famous work remains relevant for its observations on the pursuit of the American dream. Coverage includes: An introduction by renowned critic Harold Bloom considers the significance of The Great Gatsby A brief biographical sketch offers insight into Fitzgerald's life "The Story Behind the Story" details the circumstances surrounding the inception and development of the work A summary with analysis review explains key points of the work Selections from critical essays written by leading scholars provide accessible explorations of the work Annotated bibliographies direct readers to additional materials on the subject and explain the importance of each.

Presents essays that examine class conflict and other related issues in "The Great Gatsby," discussing such topics as class snobbery and education, the universality of class divisions, and humor and class criticism.

Professor Berman (Univ. of California, San Diego) has produced an intertextual study which offers further evidence for the novel's superiority in American literature. Citing films, dates, places, schedules, Broadway newstands, and the spoils of manufacture, the author, never lapsing into critical jargon, locates the characters in "the moving present." Gatsby, the first of the great novels to emerge from B movies, uses the language of commodities, advertisements, photography, cinematography, and Horatio Alger to present models of identity for characters absorbed in and by what is communicated. No one is spared the label of outer-direction, their closest relations images of print rather than each other. Berman also evokes the racism of social critics, the Saturday Evening Post's role in this, the Anglo-Saxon's fear he is losing his "civilization." This fear, for instance, leads Tom Buchanan to see Gatsby as "what this world is coming to." The study's primary achievement demonstrates that Fitzgerald understood that characterization meant reacting to media forms, so preponderant was old money to the less privileged. Berman concludes that Gatsby "reassembled" rather than "invented" himself. This explains why Carroway's narration familiarly bemoans our distance from the past.

-- Presents the most important 20th-century criticism on major works from The Odyssey through modern literature
-- The critical essays reflect a variety of schools of criticism
-- Contains critical biographies, notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index

The introduction to this volume charts the fortunes of The Great Gatsby from its mixed reception and disappointing sales on publication in 1925, through its increasing popularity in the 1940s, to its critical and popular elevation from the standing of an important 'period piece' to that of an undisputed classic of American literature. Of the five essays that follow, one traces this revival in greater detail, and another sets the book in the context of the perennial quest for the 'great American novel'. Two other essays examine the central from the perspective of a practising contemporary novelist.

- Presents the most important 20th century criticism on major works from The Odyssey through modern literature - The critical essays reflect a variety of schools of criticism - Contains critical biographies, notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index - Introductory essay by Harold Bloom

Today, more than 70 years after its publication, The Great Gatsby seems as fresh and pertinent to American life as it did in the 1920s. The social, cultural, and historical milieu of the 1920s reflected in its pages is not so very different from our own. This interdisciplinary collection of commentary and rich collateral materials will enrich the reader's understanding of those times and their influence on Fitzgerald's novel. The authors have included a wide variety of primary documents that capture the flavor of the era and its notorious and flamboyant players. Included are newspaper stories, first person accounts, and congressional testimony from the scandals of the 1920s. Most of the documents included in this text are available in no other printed form. A chapter on the writing of the novel illuminates Fitzgerald's relationship to the literature of the 1920s. Chapters discuss the following topics: the scandals of the 1920s, The Woman Question, the rich in the 1920s, and the novel then and now. Each section of the casebook contains study questions, topics for research papers and class discussion, and lists of further reading for examining the themes and issues raised by the novel. This is the ideal student and teacher companion for understanding the novel in its historical, social and cultural context.