The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Last updated: 3 October 2026

The pitch

It is the summer of 1922. Nick Carraway, a bond salesman from the Midwest, rents a small house in West Egg on Long Island. Next door lives Jay Gatsby, who throws enormous parties that half of New York turns up to. Nobody knows where his money comes from. Across the bay in East Egg lives Nick's cousin Daisy, who is married to the wealthy and violent Tom Buchanan, and Gatsby has been in love with her for five years.

Why The Great Gatsby still matters

Charles Scribner's Sons published the novel on 10 April 1925. It was Fitzgerald's third novel, and it was a commercial disappointment. By October that year it had sold fewer than 20,000 copies. When Fitzgerald died in 1940, he believed his work had been forgotten.

The Second World War changed that. A group of American publishers printed cheap paperbacks for troops, and 155,000 copies of Gatsby went to soldiers overseas. After the war it moved onto school reading lists in the US, and it has stayed there. Its US copyright expired on 1 January 2021, so you will now see a lot of cheap reprints of varying quality.

What it is about

On the surface, the book is about a man trying to get back the woman he lost. Underneath, it is about class. Gatsby made his fortune recently and illegally, and the Buchanans have old money. However hard he tries, their world does not accept him.

Fitzgerald also tells the story through Nick, who admires Gatsby and judges everyone else. So the reader has to decide how much to trust him. That is a large part of why people reread it.

Who should read it

• First-time readers of classics: it is short, the plot moves fast and the language is easy to follow.
• Anyone who has only seen the films: the 1974 version with Robert Redford and the 2013 Baz Luhrmann film with Leonardo DiCaprio are both well known, and the novel itself is short enough to read in a weekend.
• Students: the notes in this edition explain the 1920s references and slang.

The edition we recommend

The Penguin Modern Classics paperback has notes by Tony Tanner and an introduction by William Blažek. Penguin lists it at £8.99 with 192 pages, in a standard 19.7 x 12.8cm paperback size. The novel is now out of copyright in the US, and some cheap reprints are incomplete, so buy from a known publisher like this one. Details are on the Penguin page for The Great Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby on Amazon UK The Great Gatsby on Bookshop.org

Quick facts

• Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald, born 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, died 1940 in Hollywood
• First published: 10 April 1925, by Charles Scribner's Sons
• Setting: Long Island and New York City, summer 1922
• Narrator: Nick Carraway
• This edition: Penguin Modern Classics paperback, 192 pages, ISBN 9780141182636
• Price: £6.74 on Amazon UK and £8.54 on Bookshop.org on 3 October 2026, list price £8.99

Browse our full collection

The Great Gatsby is on our Greatest Books of All Time list on Bookshop.org. We also have pages on two more classics: Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Joyce's Ulysses.

FAQs

Is The Great Gatsby hard to read?

No. It is under 200 pages and the plot moves quickly. Most people finish it in two or three evenings.

When was The Great Gatsby published?

Charles Scribner's Sons published it on 10 April 1925.

Why did The Great Gatsby become famous?

It sold poorly at first. During the Second World War, 155,000 copies went to American soldiers as cheap paperbacks, and after the war it became a standard school text.

Which edition of The Great Gatsby should I buy?

The Penguin Modern Classics paperback is a good choice, because it has notes and an introduction and costs under £9. Avoid unbranded reprints, as some are incomplete.

How much is The Great Gatsby in the UK?

Amazon UK had the Penguin Modern Classics paperback at £6.74 on 3 October 2026, and Bookshop.org had it at £8.54.

Has The Great Gatsby been made into a film?

Yes. The best known films are the 1974 film with Robert Redford and the 2013 Baz Luhrmann film with Leonardo DiCaprio.

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