The Great Gatsby

Now that shooting has begun and Gemma Ward has been confirmed to join the already all star cast of Baz Luhrmann’s 2012 adaptation of the true classic that is The Great Gatsby, the hype and excitement has really started excel. Often described as the Great American Novel, The Great Gatsby, is a literary classic exploring the prosperity enjoyed by American society during the roaring ‘20s. The original novel, written in 1925 by F. Scott Fitzgerald, explores the concepts of truth, love, betrayal, lust, emptiness and superficial extravagance, reflecting the idea that just as Gatsby’s dream of Daisy was corrupted by lies and power, the American dream of happiness and individualism has disintegrated into the mere pursuit of wealth. We are taken on a hopeless tale of love, portrayed through decadence, corruption, bejewelled headpieces, long strands of pearls and three piece suits, until we are forced by Nick to reflect that the era of dreaming- both Gatsby’s dream and the American dream- is over.

A great literally classic and a wondrous excuse to explore the extravagant ideals, themes and fashions of the iconic 1920s, The Great Gatsby continues to command the attention and expectations that it deserves, even 86 years after its original debut.

"Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 5


"There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams--not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 5


"It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 6


"He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 6


"Daisy and Jordan lay upon an enormous couch, like silver idols weighing down their own white dresses against the singing breeze of the fans."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 7


"It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well. Wilson was so sick that he looked guilty."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 7


"There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 7


"I love New York on summer afternoons when everyone's away. There's something very sensuous about it - overripe, as if all sorts of funny fruits were going to fall into your hands."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 7


"With every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 7