Fitzgerald war der literarische Wortführer des "Jazz Age". Er hat das glitzernde New York der Zwischenkriegsjahre, das sich für die Rhythmen von Duke Ellington und Louis Armstrong begeisterte, eingefangen, ohne die Frage auszublenden, ob dieser Glanz trügerisch sei. Seine Helden, kaum verhüllte Selbstporträts, strotzen nur so vor Selbstbewusstsein und leiden zugleich an ihrem Ausbeuten der eigenen Seele. Ungekürzte und unbearbeitete Textausgabe in der Originalsprache, mit Übersetzungen schwieriger Wörter am Fuß jeder Seite, Nachwort und Literaturhinweisen. Mit Seitenzählung der gedruckten Ausgabe: Buch und E-Book können parallel benutzt werden.

Reclams "Fremdsprachen-Lektüreschlüssel" folgen dem bewährten Aufbau- und Darstellungsprinzip der Lektüreschlüssel zur deutschen Literatur. Sie beziehen sich auf den fremdsprachigen Originaltext (wenn möglich in Reclams Roter Reihe), sind aber auf Deutsch verfasst und unterstützen ebenso die Lektüre der deutschen Übersetzung. Eine "Checkliste" enthält Aufgaben zur Verständniskontrolle in der Fremdsprache. Unter dem Darstellungstext stehen Übersetzungshilfen und Schlüsselbegriffe in der Fremdsprache, um die Bearbeitung dieser Aufgaben und ein fremdsprachiges Referieren über das Werk zu erleichtern. Lektüreschlüssel erschließen einzelne literarische Werke. Um eine Interpretation als Zentrum gruppieren sich 10 wichtige Verständniszugänge: * Erstinformation zum Werk * Inhaltsangabe * Personen (Konstellationen) * Werk-Aufbau (Strukturskizze) * Wortkommentar * Interpretation * Autor und Zeit * Rezeption * "Checkliste" zur Verständniskontrolle * Lektüretipps mit Filmempfehlungen * Raum für Notizen F. Scott Fitzgeralds Meisterwerk "The Great Gatsby" (dt. "Der große Gatsby") von 1925 ist eine der großen Liebesgeschichten der Weltliteratur. Jay Gatsby, durch dubiose Geschäfte zum Millionär geworden, gibt in seiner Villa auf Long Island glanzvolle Partys für die New Yorker Gesellschaft. Er selber aber träumt davon, die Vergangenheit wiederzubeleben und seine große Liebe zurückzugewinnen. Doch die Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit endet tragisch.

A young man newly rich tries to recapture the past and win back his former love, despite the fact that she has married

"A stunning piece of work. If Fitzgerald could have wished for one reader of The Great Gatsby, it would have been Ronald Berman. Berman's criticism creates an ideal companion piece to the novel--as brilliantly illuminating about America as it is about fiction, and composed with as much thought and style." -- Roger Rosenblatt "An impressive study that brilliantly highlights the oneness of Fitzgerald's art with the overall context of modernism." -- Milton R. Stern, author of The Golden Moment: The Novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald "Citing films, dates, places, schedules, Broadway newsstands, and the spoils of manufacture, the author, never lapsing into critical jargon, locates the characters in 'the moving present.' Gatsby, the first of the great novels to emerge from B movies, uses the language of commodities, advertisements, photography, cinematography, and Horatio Alger to present models of identity for characters absorbed in and by what is communicated. . . . Berman concludes that Gatsby 'reassembled' rather than 'invented' himself." -- A. Hirsh, Choice

The only companion to The Great Gatsby to provide a rich collection of primary documents that illuminates its historical, social and cultural context.

Provides students of American Literature with introductory critical guides to the great works of American fiction.

Presents a series of critical essays discussing the structure, themes, and subject matter of Fitzgerald's story of the love between wealthy Jay Gatsby and the beautiful Daisy Buchanan.

Background information accompanies the story of a young man, newly rich, who tries to recapture the past and win back his former love, despite the fact that she has married

The Great Gatsby has long been celebrated as the archetypal American novel, and its influence on later writers from J.D. Salinger to John OHara cannot be overestimated. Fitzgerald looks deeply into himself and his milieu to create the story of James Gatz, a self-educated nobody from Kentucky who has amassed a fortune and adopted the persona of Jay Gatsby, an Oxford-educated man about town, for the sole purpose of winning back the heart of Daisy, the woman he loved in his youth. Daisy is now married to Tom Buchanan a brutal, ignorant racist who embodies the corruption that can come with unlimited wealth. As Gatsby, Daisy and Tom play out the drama in a small Long Island town, Fitzgerald makes it clear that life is meaningless when it is based on money and glamour at the expense of the solid American values of self-reliance and hard work.

Use this guide to familiarize students with this well-known novel and encourage them to connect the story with actual events and issues from the 1920s by completing fun, challenging activities and lessons. Readers will enjoy analyzing this complex literary piece and revel in the life lessons they take away from it. Analyzing story elements in multiple ways, close reading and text-based vocabulary practice, and determining meaning through text-dependent questions are just a few of the many skills students will walk away with after interacting with the rigorous and appealing cross-curricular lessons and activities in this resource. Written to support the Common Core, each activity and lesson work in conjunction with the text to teach students how to analyze and comprehend rich, complex literature.