In his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald explores the paradisiacal illusions of the post–World War One generation, only to shatter them. At the heart of this piercing and defining novel of the Jazz Age is the eponymous romantic, holding tight to the past while pursuing the elusive future of his dreams.

Living in a glittering mansion on Long Island, Jay Gatsby is famous for his hedonistic parties that draw strangers like moths to his starlight, even as sensational rumors surround him and his fortune. With the arrival of his new neighbor, Nick Carraway, a modest bond salesman from the Midwest, Gatsby finds a confidant for his burdensome secrets and an arbiter who can help him obtain what he most desires—the luminous socialite across the bay.

She is Daisy, the lost and treasured love of his youth, a self-absorbed beauty unsettled in a marriage with the unfaithful Tom Buchanan. Winning her back is the finest and surest of Gatsby’s illusions—a chance to rewrite the past and reclaim the great passion Gatsby is tragically doomed to pursue.

One of the most renowned works of American literature, a tale of ambition, desolation, and blinded love, Fitzgerald’s seminal classic will continue to resonate with generations of readers to come.