The Great Gatsby - 9781604138207

Self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby epitomizes the decadence of the 1920s Jazz Age in this tale of mobility and decline told with detached curiosity by his neighbor and confidant Nick Carraway. As Harold Bloom suggests, in his introduction to this new edition of full-length critical essays on the work, the novel transcends its own time period in the ways it addresses classic American themes of identity and success.

The Great Gatsby has only a few rivals as the great American novel of the twentieth century;...Even after many decades, the relevance of the novel increases, because it is the definitive romance of the American Dream, a concept or vision that haunts our society.

In the course of narration, Nick presents himself not only as Gatsby's best believer, but also as one of Gatsby's biggest skeptics. While Nick's faith in Gatsby thus encourages the reader's own receptivity,...Nick's reservations prevent the reader from going overboard, from accepting Gatsby's magic too natively, believing too completely in his smile.

Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations, aseries of more than 100 volumes, presents the best current criticism on the most widely read and studied poems, novels, and dramas of the Western world, from Oedipus Rex and The Iliad to such modern and contemporary works as William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Don DeLillo's White Noise. Each volume opens with an introductory essay and editor's note by Harold Bloom and includes a bibliography, a chronology of the writer's life and works, and notes on the contributors. Taken together, Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations provides a comprehensive critical guide to the most vital and influential works of the Western literary tradition.