The Great Gatsby
CRITIQUE | THE TEXT
First editionFirst publication
1925
Literary form
Novel
Genre
Literary
Writing language
English
Author's country
United States
Length
Approx. 48,500 words
Notable lines
First lines
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you’ve had."
Passages
"He's so dumb he doesn't know he's alive."
In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.
On Sunday morning while church bells rang in the villages alongshore, the world and its mistress returned to Gatsby’s house and twinkled hilariously on his lawn.
Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.
"Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly.
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made....
Last lines
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther....
And then one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
CRITIQUE | THE TEXT
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