Review

“The Great Gatsby” by F Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most popular books ever written and is frequently included on lists of literary classics. There is a good reason for its popularity, as Fitzgerald's use of language is beautiful and his characters are complex and fascinating. His use of imagery and symbolism throughout the novel is very skilful, and the result is a pleasure to read on many levels.
The most recent movie adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” was made in 2013 by director Baz Luhrmann. The film is exciting and dynamic and gives a real sense of some of the liberation of the 1920s. However, when it diverges from the plot it loses much of the subtlety of the original novel and is sadly the worse off for it. Nevertheless, some of the acting performances in it are fantastic and make it worth watching.

Book

“The Great Gatsby” by F Scott Fitzgerald is considered one of the great classics of literature written in the English language. In some senses, it is a love story, a narrative about passion and the pursuit of love. However, the novel is also cynical, pointing to the emptiness of the lives of the rich and the way in which most dreams end in disappointment.

Fitzgerald is good at characterization, building up his characters so that they appear dynamic and realistic, even when they are highly complex. For example, Daisy at first appears to be innocent, honest and pure, but as the novel goes on she is revealed as shallow and selfish, happy to sacrifice the happiness and even lives of other people. Similarly, the reader's impression of Gatsby changes throughout the novel, as F...