The Great Gatsby, Cover of the first edition, 1925.
Happy 85th Birthday to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. May the green light always shine at the end of Daisy’s dock, and may we always reserve judgment. (Quoted courtesy our Assistant Editor, Pattie Reitz)
I remember when I first read The Great Gatsby. I was in college, reading it for enjoyment, not for a class. For the first twenty pages or so I was appalled at how self-absorbed the main characters were, and was tempted to throw the book across the room.
Very soon, though, Fitzgerald’s writing style drew me in, and I was hooked. His poetic and lyrical prose, his vivid descriptions — they blew me away! He could describe a sunset in such a way that no film version of this novel can compare. In fact, most film versions of this story have been highly unsuccessful, and I believe this is because the written words are what make this story so powerfully beautiful.
As such, this great American novel is one of the few that made me say, “I want to write like that!”
Happy Birthday to one of the greatest novels of all time, which features one of my favorite quotes of all time:
And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.
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—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning——
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Haven’t read The Great Gatsby yet? Do yourself a favor and give it a whirl!
