INTRODUCTION

These Notes are in no way intended to serve as a substitute for the actual reading of The Great Gatsby. Though they will be useful as a review, they are designed mainly to give the reader an increased understanding and enjoyment of the novel. The intelligent use of the Notes, combined with a careful study of the text itself, should provide a richer comprehension of the elements that have made The Great Gatsby a finished work of art.

One feature that distinguishes the classics of our literature is the conscious artistry that fuses a work into a unified whole; every detail contributes to the unity of the final product, and nothing superfluous is permitted to remain. The Great Gatsby possesses this unity to a high degree, and this is a major reason for its survival as an important American novel rather than as a mere historical document depicting life in the twenties.

Because of the importance of careful construction in attaining artistic unity, one of the main objectives of the critical commentary is to point out the significance of seemingly unimportant details. The colors of things, the location of the action, and even the weather are important in a way that they are not in reality, since they all contribute on more than one level to the unity of the novel. However, no amount of explication can exhaust all the significance of every detail, and ultimately it will be the reader's task to piece together the many aspects of the novel and actively recreate in his mind a final version of his own. In a very real sense this is a creative act, and as such it is extremely rewarding. The Notes are designed to help stimulate the reader's mind toward developing this capacity, by discussing some of the aspects and significances of a limited number of the novel's details.

lmportant as content is, however, it is form that shapes the novel's unity, until ultimately the form and the content become inseparably united in an artistic whole. Of all Fitzgerald's novels, The Great Gatsby shows the greatest consciousness of form in its construction, and this is the main reason it is considered the best of