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中文简介《了不起的盖茨比》（英语：The Great Gatsby，又译《大亨小传》），出版于1925年，是美国作家弗朗西斯·斯科特·基·菲茨杰拉德所写的一部以20世纪20年代的纽约市及长岛为背景的短篇小说，被视为美国文学“爵士时代”的象征。
它在初出版时并不受欢迎——菲茨杰拉德在世时的总销量只有少于二万四千本。
在大萧条以及二战时被忽略，直至20世纪50年代再版时才受到广泛注目。
其后的数十年它更成为高中、大学文学课的标准教材。
经常有人把它称为20世纪最伟大的英文小说之一[1]。
杰·盖茨比是一个年轻的百万富翁，他过去的名声并不十分好，他本人也相当可疑。
他与他交往的社会阶层并没有什么太多的联系，而且没人知道他是怎样发财的。
有人说他在禁酒期间非法酿酒发财。
还有传说说他杀过人，或者他在战争中是德国间谍。
有人甚至说他是德皇威廉二世的侄子。
无论如何，虽然他举办众多的豪华的宴会，而且有许多人到他那里去吃喝，他始终是一个孤独的人。
他所想要的仅仅是“重复过去”：与他一生的爱人黛西在一起。
但黛西现在已经和一个稳重的、受人尊敬的百万富翁汤姆·布卡南结婚了，两人还有一个女儿。
对盖茨比来说，这并不妨碍他争取黛西的爱，而黛西觉得她被她的婚姻束缚，对她的婚姻不满，喜欢盖茨比的主意。
小说的主人公尼克·卡拉威（第一人称）是一个华尔街的股票商，他是盖茨比的邻居。
后来卡拉威体会到不论外表上多么尊严，这些巨富们实际上是非常淡漠的人，汤姆和黛西也不例外。
汤姆有一个情人默尔特，她是长岛和纽约市的高楼大厦之间的不毛之地上的一个加油站主的妻子。
一天，盖茨比与汤姆因为黛西产生争执后，黛西因为神经紧张，为了平息情绪，驾着盖茨比的车返回，盖茨比同坐。
在交通事故中黛西意外地将默尔特碾死了，默尔特是汤姆的情妇。
为了保护黛西，盖茨比说是他驾的车。
痛恨盖茨比的汤姆，说服默尔特的丈夫，是盖茨比勾引了默尔特并且故意将她杀死。
经典英文著作以下是一些经典的英文著作，供您参考：1.《傲慢与偏见》（Pride and Prejudice）：简·奥斯汀的这部经典小说讲述了一段关于爱情和社会阶层的19世纪英国故事。
2.《了不起的盖茨比》（The Great Gatsby）：弗朗西斯·斯科特·基·菲茨杰拉德的这部小说是一部描绘20世纪20年代美国社会的经典之作。
3.《老人与海》（The Old Man and the Sea）：欧内斯特·海明威的这部短篇小说是一部关于勇气和毅力的经典之作。
4.《哈利·波特》（Harry Potter）系列：J.K.罗琳的这部奇幻小说系列在全球范围内广受欢迎，讲述了一位年轻巫师的成长故事。
5.《简爱》（Jane Eyre）：夏洛蒂·勃朗特的这部经典小说是一部描绘19世纪英国女性自我觉醒和追求自由的故事。
6.《雾都孤儿》（Oliver Twist）：查尔斯·狄更斯的这部经典小说是一部描绘19世纪英国社会黑暗面的作品。
7.《呼啸山庄》（Wuthering Heights）：艾米莉·勃朗特的这部经典小说是一部描绘爱情、复仇和自然之美的作品。
8.《鲁滨逊漂流记》（Robinson Crusoe）：丹尼尔·笛福的这部经典小说是一部描绘人类与自然斗争的故事。
9.《战争与和平》（War and Peace）：列夫·托尔斯泰的这部经典小说是一部描绘19世纪俄国社会的史诗巨著。
10.《傲慢与偏见》（Animal Farm）：乔治·奥威尔的这部经典小说是一部描绘权力斗争和政治讽刺的作品。
以上是一些经典的英文著作，它们涵盖了不同的文学流派和主题，对于提高英语阅读和写作能力有很大帮助。
Francis Scott Fitzgerald : 司各特.菲茨杰拉德.He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on september24, 1896. (生于明尼苏达州的圣保罗)He was a most representative figure of the 1920s, who was mirror of the exciting age in almost every way. Thus he is often acclaimed literary spokesman of the Jazz Age. (他是20世纪20年代最有代表性的作家，她在各个方面都反映了那个时代。
因此他被认为早期爵士时代的文学代言人)Works 作品：This Side Of Paradise [人间天堂] 1920The Beautiful and Damned [美丽而遭骂的人]1922The Great Gatsby [了不起的盖茨比]1925Tender is the night [夜色温柔]1934The last tycoon [最后的巨头]1940其他作品Flappers and Philosophers 【吹捧者与哲学家】Tales of the Jazz Age 【爵士时代的故事】All the sad young men 【所有悲惨的小伙子】Taps at reveille 【里维儿的鼓点】Babylon Revisited 【重返巴比伦】－the best short stories首先，他的第一部作品，This Side Of Paradise [人间天堂] 1920 这篇小说不但给他赢来了荣誉和财富，而且还让他娶回了泽尔达塞尔【Zelda Sayre 】.泽尔达对他个人生活产生可重大影响，她成为他小说中一系列美丽而富有的妇女的形象。
他的第二部作品，The Beautiful and Damned [美丽而遭骂的人]1922这部作品使他声望大增。
我年纪还轻，阅历不深的时候，我父亲教导过我一句话，我至今还念念不忘。
“每逢你想要批评任何人的时候，”他对我说，“你就记住，这个世界上所有的人，并不是个个都有过你拥有的那些优越条件。
”《了不起的盖茨比》I was within and without.我既是旁观者清亦是当局者迷。
《了不起的盖茨比》我们继续奋力向前，逆水行舟，被不断地向后推，直至回到往昔岁月。
《伟大的盖茨比》这世上有成千上万种爱，但从没有一种爱可以重来。
《那些忧伤的年轻人》So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.我们奋力前行，小舟逆水而上，不断地被浪潮推回到过去。
《了不起的盖茨比》当一个人痛苦的时候才会变得才华横溢，当我的生活步入正轨时，我开始跟你一样，像你忘记我那样忘记你，然后忘掉那些痛苦，开始变得平庸可耻。
我不愿这样，也不愿意这样，我无法触及你，你就像盖茨比的梦，璀璨无比，却又触不可及。
前方的路上诱惑太多，我没有盖茨比那么了不起，我可能走上其他的路，无法一直追逐你的脚步。
《了不起的盖茨比》可是我一面心里想，我们这排灯火辉煌的窗户高高在这都市之上，从底下暮色苍茫的街道望上来，不知道蕴藏着何等人生的秘密，而我脑海中也见到这么一位过客，偶尔路过此地，抬头望望，不知所以。
我自己似乎又在里边又在外边，对这幕人生悲喜剧无穷的演变，又是陶醉又是恶心。
《了不起的盖茨比》隐藏自己的判断体现了一种博大的胸襟。
《了不起的盖茨比》我们继续奋力向前，逆水行舟，被不断地向后推，直至回到往昔岁月。
——《了不起的盖茨比》（用这句作为在句子迷的开始）《了不起的盖茨比》"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."“每逢你想要批评任何人的时候”，他对我说，“你就记住，这个世界上所有的人，并不是个个都有过你拥有的那些优越条件。
弗朗西斯·斯科特·基·菲茨杰拉德（英语：Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald，1896年9月24日－1940年12月21日），简称斯科特·菲茨杰拉德，是一位美国长篇小说、短篇小说作家，也是20世纪最伟大的美国作家之一。
弗朗西斯·斯科特·基·菲茨杰拉德最著名的小说为《了不起的盖茨比》，此书堪称美国社会缩影的经典代表，描述1920年代美国人在歌舞升平中空虚、享乐、矛盾的精神与思想。
费滋杰罗一生为两样东西所困：一是才华，一是金钱，他都曾一度拥有，最后又全部失去。
他死的时候，评论家都批评他生活腐化、自暴自弃，所以短寿，浪费了自己的才华。
费滋杰罗一生总共写了4部长篇小说，150篇短篇小说。
主要作品：人间天堂the side of paradise 夜色温柔ender is the night 了不起的盖茨比剧本：《美女和被诅咒的人》、《伟大的盖茨比》、《生死同心》、《女人》、《乱世佳人》、《居里夫人》、《夜色温柔》《我最后一次见到巴黎》、《绮梦初艳》等长篇小说：《人间天堂》（1920）、《美丽与毁灭》（1922）、《了不起的盖茨比》（1925）、《夜色温柔》（1934）、《最后一个大亨》（1941）等短篇小说：《本杰明·巴顿奇事》（《返老还童》）《冰宫》《冬天的梦》《赦免》《明智之事》、《伯妮斯理发》《水果软糖》《梦幻的残片》《重返巴比伦》《富家子弟》《宝贝派对》《最后一个南方女郎》《魅力》《骆驼的背脊》《哦，红发女巫》《残火》等短篇小说集：《飞女郎与哲学家》（1920）、《爵士时代的故事》（1922）《那些忧伤的年轻人》（1926）、《早晨的起床号》（1935）等[1]时代与创作：美国历史上一个特殊的年代。
“这是一个奇迹的时代，一个艺术的时代，一个挥金如土的时代，也是一个充满嘲讽的时代。
”菲茨杰拉德称这个时代为“爵士乐时代”，他自己也因此被称为爵士乐时代的“编年史家”和“桂冠诗人”。
1. 弗朗西斯·斯科特基·菲茨杰拉德生于1896年9月24日，他的名字源自他的祖先，美国国歌“星条旗”作者弗朗西斯·斯科特基。
菲茨杰拉德在明尼苏达州的圣保罗长大成人。
他虽然聪明，但在学校却成绩不佳，于1911年被送到了新泽西州的一所寄宿学校就读。
尽管他是个平庸的学生，但还是设法于1913年进入了普林斯顿大学。
他的整个大学时光都被学业上的困难和冷漠所困扰，他也一直未毕业，在1917年入伍，当时第一次世界大战已接近尾声。
菲茨杰拉德成为一名少尉，驻防在亚拉巴马州蒙哥马利的谢里登兵营。
在那里他结识并爱上了一位叫泽尔妲·赛耶的17岁任性的美女。
泽尔妲终于同意嫁给他，但是她那对财富、享乐与安逸的极强的欲望使他们的婚礼一直推迟到他能够证明自己是个成功者时才举行。
随着小说《这一半天堂》于1920年出版，菲茨杰拉德成了文学界的轰动人物，赚到了足以说服泽尔妲嫁给他的金钱和名誉。
菲茨杰拉德早年的许多事件都在他最著名的小说，1925年出版的《了不起的盖茨比》中有所体现。
正想菲茨杰拉德一样，尼克·卡拉韦也是个富有思想的年轻人。
尼克是明尼苏达州人，就读于一所常春藤联合会大学（照他自己的话说是耶鲁大学），战后移居纽约。
和菲茨杰拉德一样，杰伊·盖茨比也是个崇拜财富和奢华的敏感的年轻人，也是在驻防在南方的一个兵营时爱上了一位漂亮的年轻女子。
成为名人之后，菲茨杰拉德堕入了一种放荡不羁、不计后果、花天酒地、充满颓废的生活方式，与此同时，他竭力写作赚钱以此来取悦泽尔妲。
盖茨比同样也在尚年轻之时便聚敛了大量财富。
他一心聚财，醉心于举行宴会，深信这些能够使他赢得黛西的爱。
不过，随着“繁荣的20年代”的灿烂淡入大萧条的黑暗，泽尔妲换上了精神崩溃症，菲茨杰拉德则酗酒难以自拔，这妨碍了他的写作。
他于1934年出版了《夜色温柔》，并向《星期六晚间邮报》出售短篇小说，以便维持他奢侈的生活。
1937年，他来到好莱坞撰写脚本，1940年死于心脏病，年仅44岁，当时他正在创作小说《末位巨头之爱》。
菲茨杰拉德是美国最著名的20世纪20年代编年史家。
那个时代由他命名为“爵士乐时代”。
《了不起的盖茨比》写于1925年，是那个时期最伟大的文学性文献之一。
在那个时期，美国的经济蓬勃发展，给美国带来了空前的繁荣。
禁酒令，既由宪法第十八项修正案（1919）所规定的禁止酒的销售与消费的法令，使非法酿、贩酒者中的一些人变成了百万富翁，一股狂欢作乐的地下文化也随之崛起。
私下举行的宴会四处蔓延并得以巧妙地避开了警察的注意，“非法酒店”，即售酒的秘密会所兴旺了起来。
第一次世界大战的混乱与暴力是美国陷入震惊状态，于是参战的一代人转向了放荡不羁、浮华奢侈的生活方式，以求从中得到补偿。
一成不变的保守主义和上一个年代陈腐的价值观使他们反感，而金钱、浮华和奢侈却蔚然成风。
正像《了不起的盖茨比》中的尼克一样，菲茨杰拉德发觉这种新的生活方式具有诱惑力，使人感到兴奋，同时也像盖茨比一样，他总是崇拜那些特别富有的人。
现在他发现自己处于一个毫无节制的物质主义为社会主旋律的时代，特别是东部大城市。
尽管如此，正如尼克，菲茨杰拉德也透过爵士乐时代的光华看到了隐藏在下面的道德空虚与虚伪，所以他的部分自我渴望得到缺失道德核心。
《了不起的盖茨比》在许多方面都表明，菲茨杰拉德试图直面自己对于爵士乐时代的矛盾情感。
就像盖茨比，菲茨杰拉德一直被对那个象征他所有愿望的的女人的爱所左右，即使这个女人要他做的一切都是他所唾弃的。
《双语名著导读·了不起的盖茨比》2. “要不是有雾，我们就能看见海湾对面的你家。
”盖茨比说，“你家那边码头的尽头总有一盏通宵不灭的绿灯。
”戴西嫣然伸过手臂去挽他的手臂，但他似乎迷失在自己刚才所说的话里，可能他突然想到那盏灯的巨大意义现在永远消失了。
与那把他跟戴西分开的遥远的距离相比较，那盏灯曾经似乎离她很近，几乎碰得着她，就好像一颗星星离月亮那么近一样。
现在它又是码头上的一盏绿灯了。
他心目中的宝贝已经减少了一件。
外面的风呼呼的刮，海湾上传来一阵隐隐的雷声。
此刻，西卵所有的灯都亮了。
电动火车满载归客，在雨中从纽约疾驰而来。
这是人性发生深刻变化的时刻，一种令人兴奋的气息在空气中凝聚。
我告辞的时候，看到那种困惑的表情又回到了盖茨比脸上，仿佛他有点怀疑他目前幸福的品质。
快五年了！那天下午，戴西的表现一定有令他失望的时候；这并不是她本人的过错，而是由于他的幻梦有巨大的活力。
他的幻梦超越了她，超越了一切。
他一一种创造性的热情投入了这个幻梦，不停的添枝加叶，用飘过的每一根绚丽的羽毛加以装饰。
再多再大的激情或是活力，其能量也比不上一个凄凉的心灵所集聚的情思。
我注视着他的时候，看得出来他在悄悄调整自己，以适应眼前的现实。
他的手抓住她的手。
她在他耳边轻声低语，引得他感情冲动地转向她。
我想，最令人不能自已的是她那高低起伏、狂热激昂的声音，因为那是无论怎样梦想都不能企及的——那是一首永恒的歌曲。
他们已经把我忘了：戴西仅仅抬起头来瞥了一眼，伸出了手；盖茨比此时完全不认识我了。
我又看了他俩一眼；他们也回看我，由于沉浸在强烈的感情之中，仿佛离我非常遥远。
于是，我走出屋子，走下大理石台阶，走进雨中，让他们两人在一起。
《了不起的盖茨比》3. 从一开始, 菲茨杰拉德就察觉到了写一部以“梦想”为主题的小说的可能性。
在与《了不起的盖茨比》同年代创作的文学作品中，菲茨杰拉德都谈到了人们努力追求无法实现的美国梦这一主题。
尽管美国梦终将破灭，可是再没有什么比经历一场刻骨铭心的爱情更重要的了。
然而，盖茨比对戴西的爱除了幻灭，这种以实现美国梦为慰藉的爱还给他带来了什么？《〈了不起的盖茨比〉新论》4. 马克•吐温和威廉•迪恩•豪威尔斯在成长的过程中都认为美国会成为世界的希望，然而却是在痛苦中老去。
和他们一样，菲茨杰拉德和海明威年轻的时候对他们生活的这个新世界也满怀激情，然而最后却意识到这一切与成功毫不相关，那只是一场巨大的灾难。
菲茨杰拉德生活在“怒吼的二十年代”中间，并且自己也是其中的一员——飙车﹑饮烈酒，乐此不疲。
他已经清楚地了解到，美国就是“永远不曾升起的月亮”。
尽管菲茨杰拉德快乐地度过了战后经济繁荣的几年时间，但他还是预测到了美国最后的厄运和惨痛结局。
《美国文学简史》5. 孤独﹑酗酒﹑意识到自己写作天赋的消逝，最终菲茨杰拉德垮掉了。
甚至是在他们度过的最美好的日子里，作为一位艺术家，他始终感到在自己和泽尔达身处“名利场”里，却没有丝毫归属感。
菲茨杰拉德清醒地意识到自己与此格格不入。
作为一个曾经致力于自己理想的人，菲茨杰拉德过早的意识到周围环境所具有的欺骗性，在精神上他与自己生活中一切都很疏远。
菲茨杰拉德一直就是一个酒瘾很大的人，当他悲剧性的生活变得一团糟时，他企图在酒精里寻求安慰。
然而最后正是酗酒断送了菲茨杰拉德。
对于一个把艺术看得比任何事情都重要的人来说，没有比敏锐的意识到为了赚钱才给受欢迎的杂志写一些垃圾文章来浪费自己的才华的事更让菲茨杰拉德痛苦的了。
菲茨杰拉德的一生都为不能集中精力写作和从整体上提高自己的艺术天赋而饱受折磨。
《美国文学简史》6. 他也许应该鄙视自己，因为他确实用欺骗的手段占有了她，我不是说他谎称自己家财万贯。
但是他有意给戴西一种安全感，让她相信他的出身门第不亚于她，相信他完全有能力照顾她。
实际上，他并没有这种能力——他身后没有背景优越的家庭撑腰，而且只要毫无人情味的政府一声令下，他随时都可能被派到世界的任何角落。
但是，他并没有看低自己。
而事情的发展也并不像原来想象的那样。
他起初很可能打算及时行乐，然后一走了之，但是，他发现自己已献身于一种神圣的理想。
他知道戴西不同寻常，但他并没有认识到一位“大家闺秀”究竟有多么不同寻常。
她消失在她那豪华的住宅里，消失在那丰富美满的生活里，给盖茨比留下一片虚无。
他却觉得自己已经和她结婚了，整个事情就是这样。
《了不起的盖茨比》1. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24,1896, and named after his ancestor Francis Scott Key, the author of The Star-Spangled Banner. Fitzgerald waws raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Though an intelligent child, he did poorly in school and was sent to a New Jersy boarding school in 1911. Despite being a mediocre student there, he managed to enroll at Princeton in 1913. Academic troubles and apathy plagued him throughout his time at college, and he never graduated, instead enlisting in the army in 1917, as World War I neared its end.Fitzgerald became a second lieutenant, and was stationed at Camp Sheridan, in Montgomery, Alabama. There he met and fell in love with a wild seventeen-year-old beauty named Zelda Sayre. Zelda finally agreed to marry him, but her overpowering desire for wealth, fun, and leisure led her delay their wedding until he could prove a success. With the publication of This Side of Paradise in 1920, Ftizgerald became a literary sensation, earning enough money and fame to convince Zelda to marry him.Many of these even ts forom Fitzgerald’s early life appear in his most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, published in 1925. Like Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway is a thoughtful young man from Minnesota, educated at an Ivy League school (in Nick’s case, Yale), who moves to New York after the war. Also similar to Fitzgerald is Jay Gatsby, a sensitive young man who idolizes wealth and luxury and who falls in love with a beautiful young woman while stationed at a military camp in the South.Having become a celebrity, Fitzgerald fell into a wild, reckless lifestyle of parties and decadence, while desperately trying to please Zelda by writing to earn money. Similarly, Gatsby amasses a great deal of wealth at a relatively young age, and devotes himself to acquiring possessions and devotes himself to acquiring possessions and throwing parties that he believes will enable him to win Daisy’s love, As the giddiness of the Roaring Twenties dissolved into the bleakness of the Great Depression, however, Zelda suffered a nervous breakdown and Fitzgerald battled alcoholism, which hampered his writing. He published Tender Is the Night in 1934, and sold short stories to The Saturday Evening Post to write screenplays, and in 1940, while working on his novel The Love of the Last Tycoon, died of a heart attack at the age of forty-four.Fitzgerald was most famous chronicler of 1920s America, an era that he dubbed “the Jazz Age.” Written in 1925, The Great Gatsby is one of the greatest literary documents of this period, in which the American economy soared, bringing unprecedented levels of properity to the nation. Prohibition, the ban on the sale andconsumption of alcohol mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution(1919), mde millionaires out of bootleggers, and an underground culture of revelry sprang up. Sprawling private parties managed to elude police notice, and “speakeasies”----secret clubs that sold liquor---- thrived. The chaos and vilence of World War I left America in a state of shock, and the generation that fought the war turned to wild and extrvagant living to compenste. The staid conservatism and timeworn values of the previous decade wer turned on their ear, as money, optlence, and exuberance became the order of the day.Like Nick in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald found this new lifestyle seductive and exciting, and, like Gatsby, he had always idolized the very rich. Now he found himself in an era in which unrestrained materialism set the tone of society, particularly in the large cities of the East. Even so, like Nick, Ftitzgerald saw through the glitter of the Jazz Age to the moral emptiness and hypocrisy beneath, and part of him longed for this absent moral center. In many ways, The Great Gatsby represents Fitzgerald’s attempt to confront his conflicting feelings about the Jazz Age. Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald was driven by his love for a woman who symbolized everything he wanted, even as she led him toward everything he despised.Lehan, Richard D. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Craft of Fiction.[C] Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,1966.2. "If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay," said Gatsby. "You always have a green light that burns at the end of your dock."Daisy put her arm through his abruptly but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to him, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted things had diminished by one.Outside the wind was loud and there was a faint flow of thunder along the Sound. All the light were going on in West Egg now; the electric trains, men-carrying, were plunging home through the rain from New York. It was the hour of a profound human change, and excitement was generating on the air.When I said goodbye, I saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby's face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of hispresent happiness. Almost five years! There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams --- not through her own fault; but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.As I watched him he adjusted himself a little, visibly. His hand took hold of hers, and as she said something low in his ear he turned toward her with a rush of emotion.I think that voice held him most, with its fluctuating, feverish warmth, because it couldn't be over-dreamed--that voice was a deathless song.They had forgotten me, but Daisy glanced up and held out her hand; Gatsby didn't know me now at all. I looked once more at them and they looked back at me, remotely, possessed by intense life. Then I went out of the room and down the marble steps into the rain, leaving them there together.Barney, Daniel. The Great Gatsby [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2006, pp.130.3. From the start, Fitzgerald sensed the possibility of writing a novel whose theme embraced the notion of dreams in a general way. In letters written around the period of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald refers to the novel's being about those illusions that matter so much that you chase after them, because even though they are illusions, nothing matters as much as they do. What counts is nothing less than the profoundest experience of love. Yet what is Gatsby's love for Daisy but illusion, one fed by the dream of fulfillment America offered?Bruccoli, Matthew J. New Essays on The Great Gatsby [C]. England: Cambridge University Press, 1985, pp. 55.4. Just as Mark Twain and William Dean Howells grew up thinking that America would become the hope of the world and became very bitter old men in the end, so F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway as young people were very enthusiastic and excited about this new world they were living in but lived to realize eventually that, instead of success, it was all disaster. For Fitzgerald, who lived in the midst of the "roaring twenties" and was part of it all---driving fast cars, drinking hard whisky, and taking an immense delight in it, America was, he was perceptive enough tounderstand, "a moon that never rose." As much as he enjoyed the "roaring" of the postwar boom years, he foresaw its doom and failure.常耀信. A Survey of American Literature [M]. Tianjin: Nankai University Press, 2003, pp. 218.5. Three things eventually combined to break him down: loneliness, alcohol, and the awareness that he was dissipating his talent. Even in their best days together, Scott Fitzgerald, as an artist, was sober enough to feel alien to the "vanity fair" of which both he and Zelda were an integral part, and as a man at once infatuated with an ideal and emaciated by an unduly early awareness of its deceptive character, he had always stood mentally aloof from the spectacle which kept passing before him. Fitzgerald was always a heavy drinker. As his life became a tragic mess, he tried to find solace in his cups. It as alcohol as much as anything that killed him in the end. To a man who valued artistic integrity over and above anything else, nothing hurt more than the acute consciousness that, by writing trash for popular magazines in order to make money, he was frittering away his talent. Fitzgerald was tormented virtually all his life by the fact that he could not concentrate on the novel and the improvement of his art in general.常耀信. A Survey of American Literature [M]. Tianjin: Nankai University Press, 2003, pp. 221.6. He might have despised himself, for he had certainly taken her under false pretenses. I don't mean that he had traded on his phantom millions, but he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same stratum as herself--that he was fully able to take care of her. As a matter of fact, he had no such facilities--he had no comfortable family standing behind him, and he was liable at the whim of an impersonal government to be blown anywhere about the world.But he didn't despise himself and it didn't turn out as he had imagined. He had intended, probably, to take what he could and go--but now he found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail. He knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didn't realize just how extraordinary a "nice" girl could be. She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby--nothing. He felt married to her, that was all.Barney, Daniel. The Great Gatsby [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2006, pp.238.。
