Gatsby, Jay a millionaire who just throws his money around a tycoon of sorts bites off more than he can chew. Fitzgerald is trying to show us maybe how shallow these rich characters are how they play against each other and how their friendships are paper thin badgered by suspicions, envy and jealousy. Gatsby leads a lavish and hedonistic lifestyle. The protagonist strikes some similarities to what i have heard of Fitzgerald's lifestyle. The author writes with a nice writing prose. Adapted to screen four times and another movie on the way with Di'caprio, what's the attraction with this story? Do we envy their lives, do we maybe look at them and say well I would do things different do it better and have a different partner, spend that money in other ways? Well thats the beauty of stories sometimes we get some food for thought.
Last few sentences of the novel.. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning---- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
Some trivia about the author His wife, Zelda Fitzgerald, died eight years after he did, in a fire at the mental hospital where she was institutionalized.
Died of a heart attack in Hollywood while writing "The Last Tycoon", a novel that was published unfinished.
First novel was 'This Side of Paradise', written shortly after attending Princeton The Gatsby Style, named for his 1925 novel "The Great Gatsby", was honored on one of fifteen 32¢ US commemorative postage stamps in the Celebrate the Century series, issued 28 May 1998, celebrating the 1920s.
He tried writing movie scripts but was frustrated by the image-based medium, which he had difficulty comprehending as it was so different from the language-based forms of the novel and short-story that he excelled in.
Was a mentor and close friend of the young Ernest Hemingway, who grew more distant with him as Hemingway's fame grew and Fitzgerald's declined and he became increasingly more dependent on alcohol. Hemingway disapproved of Fitzgerald's lowering his great talent to write high-priced stories for slick commercial magazines like The Saturday Evening Post and his sojourns to Hollywood to make money writing screenplays. Unlike his great contemporaries Fitzgerald, William Faulkner and John Steinbeck, Hemingway never wrote for the movies, but he had no objection to selling his novels and short stories to the studios.
Coined the term the Jazz Age in reference to the Roaring Twenties.
Is portrayed by Malcolm Gets in "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle"
He was nominated in the 2007 inaugural New Jersey Hall of Fame for his services to literature. Is buried at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Rockville, Maryland
The Author
Fitzgerald and the family.
Some info i found about the many movies.
The Great Gatsby has been filmed six times and is being filmed for a seventh: 1. The Great Gatsby, in 1926 by Herbert Brenon – a silent movie of a stage adaptation, starring Warner Baxter, Lois Wilson, and William Powell. It is a famous example of a lost film. Reviews suggest that it may have been the most faithful adaptation of the novel, but a trailer of the film at National Archives is all that is known to exist.
2. The Great Gatsby, in 1949 by Elliott Nugent – starring Alan Ladd, Betty Field, and Shelley Winters; for copyright reasons, this film is not readily available.
3. The Great Gatsby, in 1974, by Jack Clayton – the most famous screen version, starring Sam Waterston as narrator Nick Carraway, with Mia Farrow as Daisy Buchanan and Robert Redford as Gatsby, with a script by Francis Ford Coppola.
4. The Great Gatsby, in 2000 by Robert Markowitz – a made-for-TV movie starring Toby Stephens, Paul Rudd and Mira Sorvino.
5. G, in 2002 by Christopher Scott Cherot - a modernized, loosely based adaptation starring Richard T. Jones, Blair Underwood, and Chenoa Maxwell.
6. The Great Gatsby, in 2007 by Lee Kang-hoon – a Korean adaptation starring Kang Kyeong-joon, Park Ye-jin and MC Mong.
7. The Great Gatsby, to be directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Isla Fisher, Elizabeth Debicki, and Joel Edgerton. Luhrmann purchased the rights in 2008.Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire were the first to be cast, as Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway respectively. In November 2010, Luhrmann selected Mulligan to portray Daisy Buchanan.In April 2011, Isla Fisher was offered the role of Myrtle Wilson. In May, the Australian newcomer Elizabeth Debicki landed the role of Jordan Baker, while Joel Edgerton was cast as Tom Buchanan, a role which Luhrmann initially intended for Ben Affleck. Pre-production began in Sydney, Australia in March 2011 and the film is scheduled to film in 3D from August for 17 weeks, followed by an additional thirty weeks of post-production, with a view to a 2012 release.
Spurs by Tod Robbins A circus story from 1930s a tale of a small man, part of the freak show side the circus, with a big heart for a beautiful horsebac...moreSpurs by Tod Robbins A circus story from 1930s a tale of a small man, part of the freak show side the circus, with a big heart for a beautiful horseback rider. A match not possibly made in heaven as the bride to be has other plans for her new husband. Her heart is cold for him but warm for wealth, she plots and advises of her plans to a different person she wishes to be married to in the future also a performer in their circus. The small man turns out to be harder to crack than she thought and she finds the tables have turned. You can only think that she is to blame in the end due to her own evil plan.
Very good story filled with wonderful characters and setting with a noir theme. I loved how he twisted the story with the bizarre.
This story was the basis for a classic noir film Freaks in 1932.
Pastorale by James M. Cain
Traditional noir story in the style of which the author James Cain is known for. Most of his stories involve a man and woman in love and deceit. In this story, his first published story, he has a woman who wants out of a marriage and plots with her lover a deadly end to her husbands life. They get help from an ex-con her lover knows, which was not a good idea. The secret must not get out on who is the killer. Misfits, affairs and murder written by one of the master writers of noir literature James M. Cain.
Gun crazy by Mackinlay Kantor
Story of Young boys and fascination with guns at young ages of six upwards. One boy grows up to be a gun crazy gunslinger and bank robber Nelson Tare. He also becomes a stunt shooter and teams up with a female counterpart and together in love they rob from banks and arson the run a wanted duo. One lesson they learn is that their love of the gun went too far and left them with a grim ending. Nice noir story that tells how a group of friends are on one occasion children and then another adults changed, some law abiding citizens and one other a ruthless wanted man. A good read of the collection. This was the basis for a movie of the same name and the screenplay was written by this author also.
Nothing To Worry About by Day Keene
Noir killing off the wife story. A assistant attorney sees his heavy drinking wife as an obstacle for him making to the top as a senator. This short story walks you through the killing of her in pitch darkness of a room. Theres only one thing there is something to worry about. A good one to read.
"The art of killing, the three Ms, means, method, motive had changed little in the known history of man. To take a life, one still had to shoot, knife, drown, strike, strangle, or poison the party of the unwanted part. And, as with the most basic refinements to the art of living, the first known method of murder used- that of striking the party to be removed with whatever object came first to hand-was still the most difficult of detection, providing of course that the party who did the striking could maintain a reasonable plea of being elsewhere at the time."
The Homecoming by Dorothy B. Hughes
This author was the first female to fall squarely in the hard-boiled school. This is a short tight psychological and visceral story. Jealousy, love and murder. One man Benny finds a friend Jim, since college days, a threat he is noticed and Benny is not. He went off to war and received medals where our murderer did his service on the home ground. While the Jim the top man was away in war he and Nan got on well and he loved her. Jim returns and enters the welcoming arms of Nan. Benny hates Jim for taking his woman and everything about him, murder is running in his veins. The story takes you through Benny's removal of Jim but accidents do happen in the cause of things.
Nice little treat it opens with a great sentence. "It was a dark night, a small-wind night, the night on which evil things could happen, might happen."
Also in the story.. "He no longer feared the sound and shadow behind him. There was no terror as bad as the hurt in his head and his heart. As he moved on without direction he saw through the mist the pinprick of green in the night. He knew then where he was going, where he must go. The tears ran down his cheeks into his mouth. They tasted like blood."
The Lady Says Die! By Mike Spillane Two rival businessmen friends. One guy who wants everything the other has his eyes on ends up died, suicide. The living one becomes suspected but he's far from plunging the man to his death. He only guilty of playing with the dead mans ego.
Another good little noir story from an author who is more known for penning novels than short stories.
The Gesture by Gil Brewer
A husband and wife live in a remote location. They have a guest staying over and the husband becomes extremely jealous of this younger man to the extent that he plans to kill him. He stumbles upon letter written by the guest that addresses their married life that reflection from a third party changes his whole intentions.
Surprising twist to this noir short.
The Last Spin by Evan Hunter
A shocking little noir short of two young gang members round a table settling a score with a smith and wesson .38 police special. The modus operandi is Russian Roulette. A good story i was hoping they quit the spinning and made friends. Who will it bulket fall on? Tigo or Danny?
"Danny slapped the cylinder with his left hand. The cylinder whirled, whirled, and then stopped. Slowly, Danny put the gun to his head. He wanted to close his eyes, but he didnt dare. Tigo, the enemy, was watching him. He returned Tigo's stare, and then over the roar of his blood he heard the empty click. Hastily, he put the gun down on the table."
Forever After by Jim Thompson
Another wife in an affair and killing off the husband story. This one about double indemnity. Jim Thompson characters and writing, similar story to that of James m cain's works. Poor woman he does add his own turn of events to the tale. Great little Thompson noir treat.
The Dripping by David Morrell
Before he published First Blood and Creepers he published this. This was his first published story, a story of suspense and horror. A man returns home to find dire circumstances, blood and more blood. Something tells you he is treading familiar ground deja vu. A real good short story, a pleasant surprise of macabre of the most twisted kind.
"Perhaps he is still in the house, waiting for me. To the hollow sickness in my stomach now comes fear, hot, pulsing, and i am frantic before i realize what i am doing- grabbing the spare cane my mother always keeps by her bed, flicking on the light in her room, throwing open the closet door and striking in with the cane. Viciously, sounds coming from my throat, the can flailing among the faded dresses. No one. Under the bed. No one. Behind the door. No one." (less)
Loading...
