Introduction

In the summer of 1922 young Nick Carraway comes from the Midwest to learn the bond business in New York and rents a small house at West Egg on Long Island. Next door stands a lavish mansion like a castle, belonging to the mysterious Gatsby, who throws enormous parties every weekend that last until dawn, crowded with guests, though no one really knows him. Nick gradually learns that Gatsby was born poor, and that five years before, as a penniless officer, he fell in love with the wealthy Daisy; when he came back from the war she had married Tom Buchanan, a man of old money. Gatsby made a fortune in shady business, bought the house across the bay from Daisy's, and gazes night after night at the green light at the end of her dock, dreaming of recovering the past. But a car accident lays everything bare, and Gatsby pays for his dream with his life. 'So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.' The novel is the most moving and the saddest portrait of the 'American Dream'.