This is a book that endures, generation after generation, because every time a reader returns to The Great Gatsby, we discover new revelations, new insights, new burning bits of language.
—Jesmyn Ward
Two-time National Book Award winner, Library of Congress Prize for Fiction, and MacArthur Fellow
Set in the Jazz Age a hundred years ago, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby explores themes of class and wealth, industrialization and change. Set in a period of extravagance following a world war and global pandemic, The Great Gatsby is also a piercing narrative on the hopes and disillusionment of the American Dream.
A commercial disappointment during Fitzgerald’s lifetime, the novel surged in popularity during World War II after the Council on Books in Wartime sent free copies to soldiers overseas as one of its Armed Services Edition paperbacks. Founded by booksellers, publishers, librarians, and authors, the Council proclaimed that “books are weapons in the war of ideas,” and their work transformed publishing and helped soldiers through difficult situations far from home.
The Great Gatsby has since been adapted to film, stage, and radio. When the book entered the public domain in 2021, new interpretations blossomed across graphic novels, prequels and sequels, with many retellings tackling issues of race and sexuality through fantasy and fiction.
We invite you to read or revisit this quintessentially American novel with us during our 2024 Winter Read.
The story of The Great Gatsby is held at The Community Library—in print in English and Spanish, digitally in eBook and eAudiobook, in film on DVD and streaming on Kanopy, and in music on CD. Find it here.
The Great Gatsby is also available with our partner libraries in Hailey, Bellevue, and Stanley.
