The Great Gasby

中文简介《了不起的盖茨比》（英语：The Great Gatsby，又译《大亨小传》），出版于1925年，是美国作家弗朗西斯·斯科特·基·菲茨杰拉德所写的一部以20世纪20年代的纽约市及长岛为背景的短篇小说，被视为美国文学“爵士时代”的象征。

它在初出版时并不受欢迎——菲茨杰拉德在世时的总销量只有少于二万四千本。

在大萧条以及二战时被忽略，直至20世纪50年代再版时才受到广泛注目。

其后的数十年它更成为高中、大学文学课的标准教材。

经常有人把它称为20世纪最伟大的英文小说之一[1]。

杰·盖茨比是一个年轻的百万富翁，他过去的名声并不十分好，他本人也相当可疑。

他与他交往的社会阶层并没有什么太多的联系，而且没人知道他是怎样发财的。

有人说他在禁酒期间非法酿酒发财。

还有传说说他杀过人，或者他在战争中是德国间谍。

有人甚至说他是德皇威廉二世的侄子。

无论如何，虽然他举办众多的豪华的宴会，而且有许多人到他那里去吃喝，他始终是一个孤独的人。

他所想要的仅仅是“重复过去”：与他一生的爱人黛西在一起。

但黛西现在已经和一个稳重的、受人尊敬的百万富翁汤姆·布卡南结婚了，两人还有一个女儿。

对盖茨比来说，这并不妨碍他争取黛西的爱，而黛西觉得她被她的婚姻束缚，对她的婚姻不满，喜欢盖茨比的主意。

小说的主人公尼克·卡拉威（第一人称）是一个华尔街的股票商，他是盖茨比的邻居。

后来卡拉威体会到不论外表上多么尊严，这些巨富们实际上是非常淡漠的人，汤姆和黛西也不例外。

汤姆有一个情人默尔特，她是长岛和纽约市的高楼大厦之间的不毛之地上的一个加油站主的妻子。

一天，盖茨比与汤姆因为黛西产生争执后，黛西因为神经紧张，为了平息情绪，驾着盖茨比的车返回，盖茨比同坐。

在交通事故中黛西意外地将默尔特碾死了，默尔特是汤姆的情妇。

为了保护黛西，盖茨比说是他驾的车。

痛恨盖茨比的汤姆，说服默尔特的丈夫，是盖茨比勾引了默尔特并且故意将她杀死。

结果盖茨比被默尔特的丈夫枪杀。

盖茨比的葬礼几乎无人参加，就连黛西也没有参加。

卡拉威最后找到了乔丹，一个本计划参加葬礼的人，才知晓盖茨比的所谓身份只是一个幻影。

随后卡拉威离开去了中西部，留下的只是盖茨比的一厢情愿般的梦境与哀伤。

美国梦的兴起和没落。

许多读这部小说的评论家[谁？]提出过这个问题：盖茨比代表美国梦吗？他诞生在一个与高层社会没有联系的家庭，但却成了一个百万富翁，由此他代表这美国的成功。

汤姆和黛西是美国上层社会的代表，但他们不安地从一个地方到另一个地方，没有道德，没有义务，没有自己的梦幻。

默尔特和她的丈夫是汤姆和黛西的牺牲品，面对这些富人的财富、权力和影响他们毫无办法。

所谓的“美国梦”是一种信念，也是一种欲望，一种梦幻，认为在这块充满机会和财富的土地上，人们只要遵循一组明确的行为准则去生活，就有理由实现物质的成功。

这组行为准则在十八世纪就体现在富兰克林、杰弗逊、爱迪生、卡内基等人的言行中。

在盖茨比父亲珍藏的那本被他儿子翻烂的《牛仔卡西迪》书的封底前页上，盖茨比年轻时写下的作息时间表和自勉的箴言实际上就是富兰克林、卡内基等人的教诲和梦想。

菲氏在文学上怀有“美国梦”，他认为他自己与众不同，与他的父母也不同，甚至不认同自己是父母的儿子，他来自于柏拉图式的自我观念。

他是上帝之子，他要为上帝的事业效劳，追求一种“博大的、世俗的、虚饰的美”。

显然他把自己想象成为基督一样的人物。

十七岁时他决定改名，由原来的詹姆斯·盖兹改为杰伊·盖茨比就有这份涵义在内，据说杰伊·盖茨比是英语“Jesus，God‟s boy”（耶稣，上帝之子）发音的变体。

但是具有讽刺意味的是，从他改名那一刻起，他开始追求所谓的美和善，也就开始了他的人生悲剧。

他把黛西·布坎南视为他追求的那种美的化身。

当他见到她时，他知道他已经把他不可言喻的理想与她的生命气息结合在一起了。

他知道他的心要与上帝的心一样，必须专一，绝不可驰心旁骛。

当他第一次亲吻她时，“她就像一朵鲜花一样为他绽放，于是这个理想的化身就完成了”。

在黛西身上，盖茨比的梦想变得有血有肉。

他企求与黛西联袂来实现自己的梦想。

但是，黛西根本无力担任这个角色。

她不过是一个以享乐为人生最高目标的资产阶级小姐，没有思想，没有情操，浅薄虚假，百无聊赖，无所事事。

她绝不可能为实现盖茨比的梦想去牺牲自己的既得利益。

盖茨比本人也是咎由自取，也许他并不是什么“上帝之子”，他具有的只是某种“了不起”的品质，即为自己误导的梦想顽强拼搏的意志。

他和黛西的丈夫汤姆·布坎南都拥有财富，两人的不同之处是他至少用他的财富去追求一种“美”，并竭尽全力去得到它；然而，他没有赢得它。

最后，乔治·威尔逊，也就是汤姆情妇的丈夫在汤姆的唆使下杀死了盖茨比然后再自杀。

盖茨比的梦想彻底破灭了。

财富对道德的腐蚀。

评价菲茨杰拉德去世后，他的四部长篇小说和一百六十篇短篇小说已埋没在一般美国读者的记忆中。

麦兹纳（Arthur Mizener）写的传记《天堂的那边》（The Far Side of Paradise），描述这位天才作家甘苦的一生和悲剧的下场，对于他的作品大加赞赏[2]。

中文版译者乔志高说“费滋杰罗几乎成为美国文坛的icon（偶像），他的作品被称为canon（经典），《了不起的盖茨比》中的人物、情节、和语言，不时被人引用，好像这部书是个美国的allegory（寓言）”。

费学专家布考利教授（Matthew Bruccoli）的统计，到1980年这本书的销路达八百万册[3]。

菲茨杰拉德曾经这样跟朋友谈论《了不起的盖茨比》“这部小说的重心放在…幻象的消灭‟之上——正是这种幻象才使得这个世界那么鲜艳。

你根本无须理会事情的真跟假，只要它们沾上了那份魔术般的光彩就行了。

”名诗人兼文评家T. S. 艾略特称之为“美国小说自亨利·詹姆斯以来迈出的第一步”。

此书更在美国“现代文库”的20世纪百大英文小说中，名列第二。

菲茨杰拉德：在写这本书的十个月中，作者做出了前所未有的努力，以保持自己艺术良心的纯洁。

读过小说的人都会看到，尽管小说还大有改进的余地，但是，就真实或者近乎真实而言，作者是问心无愧的，因为他已经尽力使他的想像力诚实可信。

英文简介TThe Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream.[1]Fitzgerald, inspired by the parties he had attended while visiting Long Island's north shore, began planning the novel in 1923 desiring to produce, in his words,"something new—something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned."[2] Progress was slow with Fitzgerald completing his first draft following a move to the French Riviera in 1924. His editor, Maxwell Perkins, felt the book was too vague and convinced the author to revise over the next winter. Fitzgerald was ambivalent about thebook's title, at various times wishing to re-title the novel Trimalchio in West Egg.First published by Scribner's in April 1925, The Great Gatsby received mixed reviews and sold poorly; in its first year, the book sold only 20,000 copies. Fitzgerald died in 1940, believing himself to be a failure and his work forgotten. His work, spearheaded by The Great Gatsby, experienced a revival during World War II, and the novel became a part of American high school curricula in the following decades. The book has remained popular since, leading to numerous stage and film adaptations. The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary classic and a contender for the title "Great American Novel". The book is consistently ranked among the greatest works of American literature.The main events of the novel take place in the summer of 1922. Nick Carraway,a Yale graduate and World War I veteran from the Midwest— who serves as the novel's narrator — takes a job in New York as a bond salesman. He rents a small house on Long Island, in the (fictional) village of West Egg, next door to the lavish mansion of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire who holds extravagant parties. Nick drives around the bay to East Egg for dinner at the home of his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, a college acquaintance of Nick's. They introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, an attractive, cynical young golfer with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship. She reveals to Nick that Tom hasa mistress, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the "valley of ashes": an industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City. Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle to an apartment they keep for their affair. At the apartment, a vulgar and bizarre party ends with Tom breaking Myrtle's nose after she taunts Tom about Daisy. As the summer progresses, Nick eventually receives an invitation to one of Gatsby's parties. Nick encounters Jordan Baker at the party, and they meet Gatsby himself, an aloof and surprisingly young man who recognizes Nick from their same division in the war. Through Jordan, Nick later learns that Gatsby knew Daisy from a romantic encounter in 1917 and is deeply in love with her. He spends many nights staring at the green light at the end of her dock, across the bay from his mansion, hoping to one day rekindle their lost romance. Gatsby's extravagant lifestyle and wild parties are an attempt to impress Daisy in the hopes that she will one day appear again at Gatsby's doorstep. Gatsby now wants Nick to arrange a reunion between himself and Daisy. Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house, without telling her that Gatsby will also be there. After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their connection. They begin an affair and, after a short time, Tom grows increasingly suspicious of his wife's relationship with Gatsby. At a luncheon at the Buchanans' house, Gatsby stares at Daisy with such undisguised passion that Tom realizes Gatsby is in love with her. Though Tom is himself involved in an extramarital affair, he is outraged by his wife's infidelity. He forces the group to drive into New York City and confronts Gatsby in a suite at the Plaza Hotel, asserting that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could never understand. In addition to that, he announces to his wife that Gatsby is a criminal whose fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol and other illegal activities. Daisy realizes that her allegiance is to Tom, and Tom contemptuously sends her back to East Egg with Gatsby, attempting to prove that Gatsby cannot hurt him.When Nick, Jordan, and Tom drive through the valley of ashes on their way home, they discover that Gatsby's car has struck and killed Tom's mistress, Myrtle. Nick later learns fromGatsby that Daisy, not Gatsby himself, was driving the car at the time of the accident but Gatsby intends to take the blame anyway. Myrtle's husband, George, falsely concludes that the driver of the yellow car is the secret lover he recently began suspecting she has, and sets out on foot to locate its owner. After finding out the yellow car is Gatsby's, he arrives at Gatsby's mansion where he fatally shoots both Gatsby and then himself. Nick stages an unsettlingly small funeral for Gatsby, ends his relationship with Jordan, and moves back to the Midwest disillusioned with the Eastern lifestyle.Major characters[edit source | edit beta]∙Nick Carraway — a Yale graduate originating from the Midwest, a World War I veteran, and, at the start of the plot, a newly arrived resident of West Egg, who is aged 29 (later 30).He also serves as the first-person narrator of the novel. He is Gatsby's next-door neighbor and a bond salesman. He is easy-going, occasionally sarcastic, and somewhat optimistic, although this latter quality fades as the novel progresses.∙Jay Gatsby (originally James "Jimmy" Gatz) — a young, mysterious millionaire with shady business connections (later revealed to be a bootlegger), originally from NorthDakota. He is obsessed with Daisy Buchanan, whom he had met when he was a young officer stationed in the South during World War I. The character is based on the bootlegger and former World War I officer Max Gerlach, according to Some Sort of EpicGrandeur, Matthew J. Bruccoli's biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gatsby is said to have briefly studied at Trinity College, Oxford in England after the end of World War I.[6]∙Daisy Buchanan (née Fay) — an attractive and effervescent, if shallow and self-absorbed, young woman, identified as a flapper.[7] She is Nick's second cousin, once removed; and the wife of Tom Buchanan. Daisy is believed to have been inspired byFitzgerald's own youthful romances with Ginevra King. Daisy once had a romanticrelationship with Gatsby, before she married Tom. Her choice between Gatsby and Tom is one of the central conflicts in the novel.∙Thomas "Tom" Buchanan — a millionaire who lives on East Egg, and Daisy's husband.Tom is an imposing man of muscular build with a "husky tenor" voice and arrogantdemeanor, a former football star at Yale. Buchanan has parallels with William Mitchell, the Chicagoan who married Ginevra King. Buchanan and Mitchell were both Chicagoans with an interest in polo. Like Ginevra's father, whom Fitzgerald resented, Buchananattended Yale and is a white supremacist.[8]∙Jordan Baker — Daisy Buchanan's long-time friend with "autumn-leaf yellow" hair, a firm athletic body, and an aloof attitude. She is Nick Carraway's girlfriend for most of the novel and an amateur golfer with a slightly shady reputation and a penchant foruntruthfulness. Fitzgerald told Maxwell Perkins that Jordan was based on the golfer Edith Cummings, a friend of Ginevra King.[8] Her name is a play on the two then-popularautomobile brands, the Jordan Motor Car Company and the Baker Motor Vehicle, alluding to Jordan's "fast" reputation and the freedom now presented to Americans, especiallywomen, in the 1920s.[9][10][11]∙George B. Wilson — a mechanic and owner of a garage. He is disliked by both Tom Buchanan and his own wife, Myrtle Wilson, who describes him as "so dumb he doesn'tknow he's alive." When he learns of the death of his wife, he shoots and kills Gatsby,wrongly believing he had been driving the car that killed Myrtle, and then kills himself.∙Myrtle Wilson — George's wife, and Tom Buchanan's mistress. Myrtle, who possessesa fierce vitality, is desperate to find refuge from her complacent marriage, butunfortunately this leads to her tragic ending. She is accidentally killed after being hit by a car driven by Daisy, though Gatsby takes the blame for it.∙Meyer Wolfshiem[note 1]— a Jewish friend and mentor of Gatsby's, described as a gambler who fixed the World Series. Wolfshiem appears only twice in the novel, thesecond time refusing to attend Gatsby's funeral. He is a clear allusion to Arnold Rothstein,a New York crime kingpin who was notoriously blamed for the Black Sox Scandal whichtainted the 1919 World Series.[14]Sarah Churchwell sees The Great Gatsby as a "cautionary tale of the decadent downside of the American dream". The story deals with human aspiration to start over again, social politics and its brutality and also betrayal, of one's own ideals and of people. Using elements of irony and tragic ending, it also delves into themes of excesses of the rich, and recklessness of youth.[52][53]Others, like journalist Nick Gillespie, see The Great Gatsby as a story "about the breakdown of class differences in the face of a modern economy based not on status and inherited position but on innovation and an ability to meet ever-changing consumer needs."[54] This interpretation asserts that The Great Gatsby captures the American experience because it is a story about change and those who resist it; whether the change comes in the form of a new wave of immigrants (Southern Europeans in the early 20th Century, Latin Americans today), the nouveau riche, or successful minorities, Americans from the 1920s to modern day have plenty of experience with changing economic and social circumstances. As Gillespie states, "While the specific terms of the equation are always changing, it's easy to see echoes of Gatsby's basic conflict between established sources of economic and cultural power and upstarts in virtually all aspects of American society."[54] Because this concept is particularly American and can be seen throughout American history, readers are able to relate to The GreatGatsby (which has lent the novel an enduring popularity).[54]。