5 reasons why you should read The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a Jazz Age classic and a towering behemoth in the American literary canon. This book packs a heavyweight punch. It is also eminently readable. Gatsby is a love story, a mystery and a rags-to-riches account of success and its unhappy fallout. It serves as a snapshot of New York City life before the Depression.

Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby form the larger-than-life cast. This is a cautionary tale about money, corruption, desire and deception. The themes are as relevant now as they were in 1925. These five reasons explain why you should crack the spine.

1. It gives a timeless insight into human nature

Gatsby is a fantastic example of how human nature does not change. The decadence and excess of Fitzgerald’s revellers include flappers, gangsters, bankers and strivers. They do not look much different to the financiers and property boomers of the late 90s and early 2000s. If Gatsby were alive now, his parties would be televised and sponsored. He would work in the City, sell dodgy mortgages and try to whisk Daisy off to Dubai for the weekend.

2. It showcases an epic time in history

The story is partly based on real life. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald moved to Long Island in the early 1920s. They were surrounded by enormous estates and mansions. Gatsby’s vulgar new money found its real-life counterpart in the denizens of Great Neck where the Fitzgeralds settled. The inherited wealth of the Buchanans was more at home over on Cow Neck, known as East Egg in the novel. Some possible inspirations for the house still stand today, such as Oheka Castle in Huntington.

3. It is infinitely better than any film

Reading the book is always preferable to watching the film. Zelda Fitzgerald, the author’s wife, called the 1926 adaptation directed by Herbert Brenon rotten and awful. The couple walked out of the screening. It was filmed again in 1949 and 1974. The latter version used a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola was disappointed by the result and stated his script did not get made. The New York Times advised viewers of the Baz Luhrmann production to put aside any literary agenda. Put aside the movies and read the original book.

4. It is a great example of how failure can breed success

Jay Gatsby is a case study on the American Dream. He represents the self-made man, the height of success and the idea that financial independence brings security. The novel also shows how that ideal can implode. This was not Fitzgerald’s first foray into this territory. Before writing Gatsby, he spent eighteen months on a satirical screenplay called The Vegetable: or From President to Postman. The play was a disaster. It helped the gestation process for The Great Gatsby, which Fitzgerald began while redrafting the doomed play. Projects that do not work out can lead to something better.