Considered to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale.
Fitzgerald's masterpiece follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West and East Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922.
If Gatsby represents one part of Fitzgerald's personality, the flashy celebrity who pursued and glorified wealth in order to impress the woman he loved, then Nick Carraway represents another part: the quiet, reflective Midwesterner adrift in the lurid East.
His fortune, we are told, is the result of a bootlegging business. He bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores and sold grain alcohol over the counter.
One of Gatsby's underworld connections, Wolfsheim wears cuff-links made from human molars.
Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house without telling her that Gatsby will also be there.
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