26/2/18 - Monday Book Review - The Great Gatsby

Today, 26/2/18 is the fourth instalment a series of Monday Book Reviews, expressing my personal opinions on works of fiction. Today, I will be looking upon a piece called The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was a text that I originally read during my A-Level Qualifications. I returned to it after re-watching the film and having my distaste toward specific characters reignited, and decided to take advantage of rereading to address and validate an opinion expressed by my former teacher; that this book was one of the best novels ever written. 

I found that there were many aspects to The Great Gatsby which make it a classic piece of literature and a great read - the conflict in Nick Carraway's interests demonstrates how despite intending not to pass judgement on the people who have not had the same opportunities as he has had is ironic as that is what Nick says he is setting out to do on the first page of the book. Throughout, he notes that the characters that surround him are awful and corrupt people being influenced by the grandeur of money. 

I found that one of the most compelling aspects of The Great Gatsby had to be the air of mystery that surrounded Gatsby himself; the idea that people that were classified as New Money could just appear out of nowhere at all and create a name for themselves, just as Gatsby had done, yet his method of managing it had aroused suspicion and he therefore had an impressive reputation surrounding him. Not that the people from West Egg cared enough to steer clear of his parties. 

I found that the way that Fitzgerald wrote the book was incredibly clever, for his work seemed to demonstrate how Nick found himself being corrupted through associating with those he met in New York and the more he dabbled in Gatsby's affair, the more clouded his resolve became. It wasn't until Myrtle Wilson was killed that he seemed to have a somewhat clear perspective on events, and even then he was passing his own judgement on how the situation was handled. 

I feel that this book is very interesting and definitely worth the read! 

Thank you for reading! See you in two weeks for another instalment of Monday Book Reviews! - And because the weeks have overlapped! You're about to get a double wammy! The next post will be a review of poetry collection! I'm so excited! 

And remember:

Per Ardua Ad Astra

-Imogen. L. Smiley