Book: The Great Gatsby
Apr. 23rd, 2009 06:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
narcasse"He smiled understandingly – much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced – or seemed to face – the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favour. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey."
(p. 49)
"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 can store up in his ghostly heart."
(p. 92)
"Through this twilight universe Daisy began to move again with the season; suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men, and drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor beside her bed."
(p. 144)
"‘I’m thirty,’ I said. ‘I’m five years too old to lie to myself and call it honour.’"
(p. 168)
"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept they together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made..."
(p. 170)
- Scott Fitzgerald, F. 2000. The Great Gatsby. London: Penguin Books.
The Great Gatsby was a bit of a change from the French novels I’ve been reading and thus took a little adjustment to get used to. After the initial change in the style of language it was a fairly interesting read. The entire story had a vague feel to it as well as a touch of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil to it since the tale is told from by a narrator character that’s outside the main body of the tale. Possibly that similarity is also aided by the fact that I’ve seen adaptations of both novels where I recall Jon Cusack in both roles, though IMDB tells me that the character in the Gatsby adaptation was played by Paul Rudd.
It’s not a bad novel at all and quite a believably tragic illustration of how some of the worst pains can be caused by individuals who simply do not care, or if they do, don’t quite care enough.
(p. 49)
"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 can store up in his ghostly heart."
(p. 92)
"Through this twilight universe Daisy began to move again with the season; suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men, and drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor beside her bed."
(p. 144)
"‘I’m thirty,’ I said. ‘I’m five years too old to lie to myself and call it honour.’"
(p. 168)
"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept they together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made..."
(p. 170)
- Scott Fitzgerald, F. 2000. The Great Gatsby. London: Penguin Books.
The Great Gatsby was a bit of a change from the French novels I’ve been reading and thus took a little adjustment to get used to. After the initial change in the style of language it was a fairly interesting read. The entire story had a vague feel to it as well as a touch of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil to it since the tale is told from by a narrator character that’s outside the main body of the tale. Possibly that similarity is also aided by the fact that I’ve seen adaptations of both novels where I recall Jon Cusack in both roles, though IMDB tells me that the character in the Gatsby adaptation was played by Paul Rudd.
It’s not a bad novel at all and quite a believably tragic illustration of how some of the worst pains can be caused by individuals who simply do not care, or if they do, don’t quite care enough.
