Posted on 04/10/2025 11:35:30 AM PDT by Borges
On the exact 100th anniversary of the publication date of “The Great Gatsby,” the Library of Congress is producing a full reading of the novel, livestreamed from our Thomas Jefferson building on Capitol Hill. Be an old sport and join us in-person or online to experience this classic American novel which entered the public domain in 2021.
“F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third novel, “The Great Gatsby,” is published to mixed reviews and disappointing sales—fewer than 25,000 copies by the author’s death in 1940. By the 2010s, it is routinely selling 500,000 copies a year.”
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/april-10
The Titanic set sail on this day 113 years ago.
I read the book but never really understood why it has such literary acclaim. I guess I sympathized with Jay because no one forgets their first love but he was pretty much a jerk.
I bet most of those sales are to high school students. LOL
He’s not supposed to be a wholly admirable character.
I didn’t care for it much myself. Not saying it was bad, but not my cup of tea...
Dull book that does not hold up.
Not because it was good but because high schools and colleges made people read it.
I read the Cliffs notes, does that count?
Then there Tender Is The Night. A lot of high-lifers. With all those parties Gatsby threw you would have thought his true love would have known all along he was there. I wonder if our Nick Carraway is anything like this one. Hope not. Seemed like a likable innocent hanger-on.
Fitzgerald died in his mid 40’s. Bummer. Hope he enjoyed that kind of life. Princeton-right?
Not kidding.
I read it recently. It holds up just fine. Beautiful prose.
It is good though.
Thank you. Dull as dishwater. Difficult to follow
I had a similar though probably more pronounced reaction to the Great Gatsby when I read it years ago.
Way better read as an adult than as a high schooler, or at least it was for me. New wealth vs old wealth, different mores Midwest vs East, Prohibition society, all of those things were not particularly accessible for a wet-behind-the-ears kid like me who was yet to fall off the turnip truck.
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”
Z Z z z z . . .
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