The Great Gatsby
Criticism of The Great Gatsby
“This patient romantic hopefulness against existing conditions symbolizes Gatsby” - Edwin Clark, 1925 for the New York Times
“The queer charm, colour, wonder and drama of a young and wreckless world”- William Rose Benet, 1925
“Their idiotic pursuit of sensation, their almost incredible stupidity and triviality, their glittering swinishness—these are the things that go into his book.”- H.L Mencken 1925
“Fitzgerald gives us a meditation on some of this country’s most central ideas, themes, yearnings and preoccupations: the quest for a new life, the preoccupation with class, the hunger for riches.” – Jonathan Yardley for The Washington Post (2007).
“This is a story that, in its telling, resembles real life. We don’t see the justification that the other characters use for their actions. We only see their actions, and Carraway’s interpretation of their actions.” – Jerry Stratton (2006).
‘Nick wants to portray Gatsby as ‘great’ and to ignore or edit anything that might undermine that image.’ ‘The English Review’, Claire Stocks, 2007
‘Even in America, Fitzgerald seems to suggest, society is strictly ordered, and for the elite to retain their exclusive position at the top of the hierarchy, those below them must also remain in their proper place.’ Claire Stocks, 2007
‘Fantastic proof that chivalry, of a sort, is not dead.’ Life Magazine, 1925
‘Gatsby lives in the world of romantic energies and colors, a world shaped as a conspiracy between himself and the writer who has been creating him.’ ‘Fitzgerald’s ‘Radiant World’’- Thomas Flanagan, 2000
‘The spectral underclass, simultaneously invisible and obtrusive, marginalized and central, wreaks the novel’s horrific climax, emerging as the apocalyptic assassin of that ideologically saturated “ideal” order.’ (That one’s quite intense!) Chris Fitter, 1998
“F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life is a tragic example of both sides of the American Dream – the joys of young love,
“This patient romantic hopefulness against existing conditions symbolizes Gatsby” - Edwin Clark, 1925 for the New York Times
“The queer charm, colour, wonder and drama of a young and wreckless world”- William Rose Benet, 1925
“Their idiotic pursuit of sensation, their almost incredible stupidity and triviality, their glittering swinishness—these are the things that go into his book.”- H.L Mencken 1925
“Fitzgerald gives us a meditation on some of this country’s most central ideas, themes, yearnings and preoccupations: the quest for a new life, the preoccupation with class, the hunger for riches.” – Jonathan Yardley for The Washington Post (2007).
“This is a story that, in its telling, resembles real life. We don’t see the justification that the other characters use for their actions. We only see their actions, and Carraway’s interpretation of their actions.” – Jerry Stratton (2006).
‘Nick wants to portray Gatsby as ‘great’ and to ignore or edit anything that might undermine that image.’ ‘The English Review’, Claire Stocks, 2007
‘Even in America, Fitzgerald seems to suggest, society is strictly ordered, and for the elite to retain their exclusive position at the top of the hierarchy, those below them must also remain in their proper place.’ Claire Stocks, 2007
‘Fantastic proof that chivalry, of a sort, is not dead.’ Life Magazine, 1925
‘Gatsby lives in the world of romantic energies and colors, a world shaped as a conspiracy between himself and the writer who has been creating him.’ ‘Fitzgerald’s ‘Radiant World’’- Thomas Flanagan, 2000
‘The spectral underclass, simultaneously invisible and obtrusive, marginalized and central, wreaks the novel’s horrific climax, emerging as the apocalyptic assassin of that ideologically saturated “ideal” order.’ (That one’s quite intense!) Chris Fitter, 1998
“F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life is a tragic example of both sides of the American Dream – the joys of young love,