Product Description

Kathleen Parkinson places this brilliant and bitter satire on the moral failure of the Jazz Age firmly in the context of Scott Fitzgerald's life and times. She explores the intricate patterns of the novel, its chronology, locations, imagery and use of colour, and how these contribute to a seamless interplay of social comedy and symbolic landscape. She devotes a perceptive chapter to Fitzgerald's controversial portrayal of women and goes on to discuss how the central characters, Gatsby and Nick Carraway, embody and confront the dualism inherent in the American dream.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17124 in Books
• Published on: 1988-10-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Customer Reviews

Good companion for those studying The Great Gatsby
This critical study of The Great Gatsby not only gives an excellent feel of the time the novel itself was written (see the chapters on The Jazz Age, and The Post-War Voice), but explores in depth themes and issues emerging from the text. Imagery such as death and ghosts, the colours gold and white, and the sea, are all discussed, as is the relationship between the four main scenes where the action takes place. As you would expect, the main characters themselves, and what they represent, are looked at in detail, and Gatsby himself is given a thorough analysis, with dedicated sections on, for example, his mysterious past and the destructive nature of his dream and his aspirations. In addition, this study also offers separate sections on the women characters and their role in the novel. Towards the end of this book, the author broadens her subject matter and places 'The Great Gatsby' in its true context as possibly the greatest American novel ever written. She discusses the myth of the American Dream and the symbolism of the American Mid West and the East Coast.

This critical study offers a fairly thorough and broad analysis of The Great Gatsby, and is certainly useful as a starting point for those studying the novel. It also contains a further reading list at the back.

Penguin Critical studies
I've always found this series to be fantastically helpful in the past, and treasure some of my Penguin Critical Studies for other A level texts I've taught. However, although some thoughtful analysis is contained in this Gatsby' one, it is heavily reliant on page references to the 1984/20th Century classics edition of 'The Great Gatsby', and if you don't happen to have this edition, you will be spending a lot of time trying to track down page references.

Great
great book, organised really well into sections that make essays easy to write. Great sections particularly in time and nattarive voice. Highly reccomended for anyone doing gatsby for A level English lit.