The Great Gatsby

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’

It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.

They knew that presently dinner would be over and a little later the evening too would be over and casually put away. It was sharply different from the West where an evening was hurried from phase to phase toward its close in a continually disappointed anticipation or else in sheer nervous dread of the moment itself.

‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.’

peremptorily

/pəˈrɛm(p)t(ə)ri/ I. adjective 1. insisting on immediate attention or obedience, especially in a brusquely imperious way •‘Just do it!’ came the peremptory reply. 2. [Law] not open to appeal or challenge; final • a peremptory order of the court.

Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.

he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness.

supercilious

/suːpəˈsɪlɪəs/ I. adjective behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others • a supercilious lady's maid.

Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.

There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.

prodigality,

/ˈprɒdɪɡ(ə)l/ I. adjective 1. spending money or using resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant • prodigal habits die hard. 2. having or giving something on a lavish scale • the dessert was prodigal with whipped cream.

We all turned and looked around for Gatsby. It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world.

‘I’m Gatsby,’ he said suddenly. ‘What!’ I exclaimed. ‘Oh, I beg your pardon.’ ‘I thought you knew, old sport. I’m afraid I’m not a very good host.’

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 external world for an instant, and then concentrated on YOU with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. 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.

wan

/wɒn/ I. adjective 1. (of a person's complexion or appearance) pale and giving the impression of illness or exhaustion • she was looking wan and bleary-eyed. 2. (of light) pale; weak • the wan dawn light. 3. (of a smile) lacking enthusiasm or energy. • he gave a wan smile.

‘And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.’

echolalia

/ˌɛkəʊˈleɪlɪə/ I. noun — [ mass noun] 1. [Psychiatry] meaningless repetition of another person's spoken words as a symptom of psychiatric disorder.

subterfuges

/ˈsʌbtəfjuːdʒ/ I. noun — [ mass noun] 1. deceit used in order to achieve one's goal • he had to use subterfuge and bluff on many occasions • [ count noun] I hated all the subterfuges, I hated lying to you.

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.

The modesty of the demand shook me. He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths so that he could ‘come over’ some afternoon to a stranger’s garden.

‘There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.’

‘If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,’ said Gatsby. ‘You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.’

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 will store up in his ghostly heart.

laudable

/ˈlɔːdəb(ə)l/ I. adjective (of an action, idea, or aim) deserving praise and commendation • laudable though the aim might be, the results have been criticized. II. derivatives 1. laudability /lɔːdəˈbɪlɪti / noun 2. laudably /ˈlɔːdəbli / adverb

meretricious

/ˌmɛrɪˈtrɪʃəs/ I. adjective 1. apparently attractive but having no real value • meretricious souvenirs for the tourist trade. 2. ‹archaic› relating to or characteristic of a prostitute.

For a while these reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing.

Daisy began to sing with the music in a husky, rhythmic whisper, bringing out a meaning in each word that it had never had before and would never have again. When the melody rose, her voice broke up sweetly, following it, in a way contralto voices have, and each change tipped out a little of her warm human magic upon the air.

‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’

He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God.

Trimalchio

Trimalchio is a character in the 1st-century AD Roman work of fiction Satyricon by Petronius. He features as the ostentatious, nouveau-riche host in the section titled the "Cēna Trīmalchiōnis" (The Banquet of Trimalchio, often translated as "Dinner with Trimalchio"). Trimalchio is an arrogant former slave who has become quite wealthy as a wine merchant.

caravansary

/ˌkarəˈvansərʌɪ, ˌkarəˈvansəri / ‹US› caravansary I. noun 1. ‹historical› an inn with a central courtyard for travellers in the desert regions of Asia or North Africa. 2. a group of people travelling together; a caravan.

‘She’s got an indiscreet voice,’ I remarked. ‘It’s full of——‘ I hesitated. ‘Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly. That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it…. High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl….

boisterously.

/ˈbɔɪst(ə)rəs/ I. adjective 1. noisy, energetic, and cheerful • a group of boisterous lads. 2. (of weather or water) wild or stormy • the boisterous wind was lulled.

There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind,

irreverent,

/ɪˈrɛv(ə)r(ə)nt/ I. adjective showing a lack of respect for people or things that are generally taken seriously • she is irreverent about the whole business of politics.

magnanimous

truculent

/ˈtrʌkjʊl(ə)nt/ I. adjective eager or quick to argue or fight; aggressively defiant • the truculent attitude of farmers to cheaper imports. II. derivatives 1. truculence /ˈtrʌkjʊl(ə)ns / noun 2. truculently /ˈtrʌkjʊl(ə)ntli / adverb

vigil.

/ˈvɪdʒɪl/ I. noun 1. a period of keeping awake during the time usually spent asleep, especially to keep watch or pray • my birdwatching vigils lasted for hours • as he lay in a coma the family kept vigil.

‘They’re a rotten crowd,’ I shouted across the lawn. ‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.’

racy

/ˈreɪsi/ I. adjective 1. lively, entertaining, and typically sexually titillating • the novel was considered rather racy at the time. 2. showing vigour or spirit. 3. (of a wine, flavour, etc.) having a characteristic quality in a high degree.

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 them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made….

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.