Great Works of English Literature: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Welche Bücher haben die englischsprachige Literatur geprägt? Die Rubrik „Great Works of English Literature“ stellt einige der bekanntesten Werke vor. In der aktuellen Ausgabe der Read On entführt uns F. Scott Fitzgerald in die USA der 1920er-Jahre, eine rauschhafte Zeit, die er in seinem Meisterwerk Der große Gatsby eindrücklich verewigt hat. Mehr über Fitzgeralds großen Roman über seinen tragischen Helden lesen Sie hier.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

A novel about fast money, tragic love, and 1920s America.

By John Bilstein

1                 The Jazz Age was a glitzy carnival of partying and freedom as Americans tried to forget their economic problems after World War I. It was also the age of Francis Scott Fitzgerald, one of America’s greatest writers. This is his most famous novel, and it still puts us in the mood for dancing 100 years after first appearing in print in April of 1925.

2                 The 1920s were tough for most Americans. However, they were also a time of fast money and overnight success for sly operators like the tragic hero of this story. His name is Jay Gatsby, a rich Mr Nobody known only for the wild parties taking place at his Long Island mansion – a phantom living on a cloud of money and delusion. Rumours say he is a bootlegger.

3                 However, when the narrator Nick Carraway first meets his millionaire neighbour at one of his parties, Gatsby appears quite friendly and rather shy.

4                 At night, Nick sees him looking out across the bay at a strange green light shining there, a sad and lonely figure in spite of all his money. What are his secrets? What great treasure – or angst – is he keeping hidden from the public eye?

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Den vollständigen Artikel lesen Sie in der aktuellen Ausgabe der Read On.

Vocabulary

0–1             The Great Gatsby dt. Titel: Der große Gatsby — Jazz Age Jazz-Zeitalter; die Goldenen Zwanziger — glitzy schillernd — carnival Rausch; ausgelassene Zeit — freedom Freiheit — economic wirtschaftlich — to put s.o. in the mood for s.th. jdm. Lust auf etw. machen

2                 tough hart — overnight success Blitzerfolg — sly operator Schlitzohr; Ganove(-in) — Mr Nobody Niemand — mansion Villa — delusion Verblendung — rumours say … Gerüchten zufolge … — bootlegger Schwarzhändler(in)

3–4            narrator Erzähler(in) — treasure Schatz — angst Ängste — the public eye die Öffentlichkeit

Foto: Wikimedia Commons (Originalcover von 1925)