‘The Great Gatsby’ is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s best novel. Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate and World War I veteran, returns home and moves to New York. The plot starts in 1922 in Long Island, where nick rents an apartment. Millionaire Gatsby lives close by. Nick’s cousin, Daily Buchanan, lives in New York’s posh address too. The story abounds in love affairs which inextricably intertwine the lives of the main characters. This is set against the background of glitz and glamour of 1920s America, the ‘Roaring Twenties’, ‘The Jazz Age’. A beautiful book about love, relationships and treason. It wasn’t popular during the lifetime of the author, but took off a few decades after his death to become a classic. A movie based on this novel, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Baz Luhrmann, was released in May 2013. This unique edition equips the reader with author’s biography, historical context, literary critique, listing of main characters, novel synopsis and little known facts related to the novel and the author. All these were specifically written for this novel. ‘Tales of the Jazz Age’, published in 1922, was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s second short stories collection. F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in Irish, catholic family (died in 1940). He was named after his famous distant cousin, Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) who was the author of the ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, the anthem of the United States of America. However, he was referred to as ‘Scott’. In 1920, he married Zelda Sayre, the daughter of Alabama Supreme Court justice. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald led an interesting social life in the US and in France, especially on the French Riviera. That period of their life abounded in scandalous events. In addition, Scott didn’t abstain from alcohol, which in the end proved to be fatal for him. In 1937 Scott Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood. He was writing short stories and also worked for film industry. Surprisingly, most of his income was coming from these activities (short stories and film industry) and not the novels he is nowadays famous for. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940 of heart attack, which was caused by alcohol abuse. In 1975 he was buried with his wife Zelda at the Saint Mary’s Cemetery in Rockville, Maryland. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the ‘lost generation’ of American writers. His writings were influenced by moral and societal changes in 1920s American society. This period was called ‘The Jazz Age’, and Scott was its chronicler. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the following novels: - This Side of Paradise (1920) - The Beautiful and Damned (1922) - The Great Gatsby (1925) - Tender Is the Night (1934) - The Love of the Last Tycoon (published posthumously, 1941) He also wrote many short stories, as well as film scripts.