The Great Gatsby

Nick Carraway, is a young Yale graduate who works as a bond broker in Manhattan. He rents a house at West Egg on Long Island across the water from his cousin, Daisy. His neighbour there is the enigmatic Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire from the Midwest who lives the high life from the profits of his minor criminal activities. Gatsby’s infamous parties are attended by many guests who do not know their host. Nick becomes cynically fascinated and transfixed by Gatsby, and their friendship nurtures many confidences. Carraway learns that Gatsby and Daisy had been in love, but that Daisy had not waited for him to return from the war and had married another. Nick arranges a meeting between the two, and Daisy finds herself impressed by the change in Gatsby’s fortunes. Daisy’s husband Tom, himself already involved in an affair with the garage-owner’s wife Myrtle, becomes jealous of Gatsby’s attentions to his wife. Then Myrtle is killed in an accident, and Tom tells Myrtle’s husband that Gatsby is responsible. Through it all, Nick watches as Gatsby is betrayed by his own dreams, which have been nurtured by a meretricious society.