LibGuides: The Great Gatsby: Home

Database Resources

American History (ABC-CLIO) This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents, reference and full-text journal articles covering themes, events, individuals and periods in U.S. history
Daily Life Through History (ABC-CLIO) This link opens in a new window
Details about past eras that make historical accounts relevant and meaningful from their modern-day perspectives.
Gale in Context High School (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Gale in Context High School offers current and authoritative information to meet the needs of today's learners with a mobile-responsive design that is easy to navigate.
Users can access news content including full-text newspapers and periodicals like The Economist, The New York Times, National Geographic, Newsweek, Popular Science, Smithsonian, and more
ProQuest Learning: Literature (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Collection of author biographies, contemporary criticism, reviews, and multimedia resources. Great for poetry readings.

Salem eBooks

The Great Gatsby by Morris Dickstein (Editor); Salem Press Editors
ISBN: 9781587656088
Publication Date: 2009-10-01
This volume of criticism begins with essays that provide the reader with cultural, historical, comparative, and critical contexts for understanding Gatsby. Several essays consider the cultural and historical contexts of Fitzgerald's work while critical comparisons link the novel to the poetry of Keats and the novels Daisy Miller and Passing.
F. Scott Fitzgerald by Don Noble (Editor); Salem Press Editors
ISBN: 9781587656934
Publication Date: 2010-10-08
This volume in the Critical Insights series collects a variety of old and new essays on Fitzgerald and continues the work of rehabilitating his reputation and reexamining his work. Noble's introduction serves as a meditation on Fitzgerald's enduring relevance, pointing out how the major themes persisting across his work-wealth, success, love, youth, and tragedy-are also enduring themes within the American consciousness, and Elizabeth Gumport, writing for The Paris Review, offers a reflection on Fitzgerald's magical prose and his characters' magical thinking.
The Twenties in America by Carl Rollyson (Editor); Salem Press Editors
ISBN: 9781587658556
Publication Date: 2012-04-01
Flappers, prohibition, jazz, and the Lost Generation, The Twenties in America examines the iconic personalities and moments of this uproarious decade. It features long overviews and short entries discussing people, books, films, plays, and other important topics representative of that era. Every entry focuses on the topic or person during the 1920s in order to explore what made the decade unique.
The Thirties in America by Thomas Lewis (Editor); Salem Press Editors
ISBN: 9781587657252
Publication Date: 2011-03-07
These volumes offer an innovative approach to North America during the 1930s that can be used by advanced students and scholars alike. It features long overviews and short entries discussing people, books, films, plays, and other important topics representative of that era. Every entry focuses on the topic or person during the 1930s in order to explore what made the decade unique.

Overview

F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece The Great Gatsby (1925) is the quintessential tale of the American dream: the heights a man may reach, the past he can discard, the joy he may (or may not) find, and the tragedy that living the dream may bring him. The novel is set in what Fitzgerald called the "Jazz Age," a period bridging the 1920s and 1930s, and emphasizes the life of pleasure and decadence after the tragedy and horror of World War I. Gatsby's American dream is essentially the "rags-to-riches" story about overcoming poverty and creating a life of pure luxury and indulgence; Fitzgerald's American dream is a dangerous, romantic myth.

Goldsmith, M. (2003). White skin, white mask: Passing, posing, and performing in The Great Gatsby. Modern Fiction Studies, 49(3) , 443-468. Retrieved from Gale Virtual Reference Library (see eBooks).

National Endowment for the Arts: Audio Introduction to the Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby Audio Guide
Podcast from the NEA on The Great Gatsby featuring Commentary and Readings by Gatsby scholar Matthew J. Bruccoli, Maureen Corrigan, Dana Gioia, Andrew Sean Greer, Gish Jen, Robert Redford, and Sam Waterston.

NPR Fresh Air: Interview with Maureen Corrigan on The Great Gatsby
How 'Gatsby' Went From A Moldering Flop To A Great American Novel. Audio from National Public Radio discussing the significant impact The Great Gatsby made on American culture.

Research Tools

NoodleTools (Noodletools) This link opens in a new window
Use Noodletools to create your works cited list. Share your list electronically with your teacher. Although this link will get you to Noodletools, it is also available to you on Clever.

MCPS Approval Status: Approved
PAID subscription (full access).

Free Websites on the Great Gatsby

American Icons: The Great Gatsby
Episodes of false identity, living large, and murder in the suburbs add up to the great American novel. From Public Radio International and WNYC Radio's Studio 360, this podcast series explores F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and finds out how this compact novel became the great American story of our age.
Fitzgerald's Radiant World by Thomas Flanagan
A New York Review of Books critical review essay of three books of Fitzgerald criticism. Essay by Thomas Flanagan.
NEA Big Read: The Great Gatsby
The story of Jay Gatsby's desperate quest to win back his first love reverberates with themes at once characteristically American and universally human, among them the importance of honesty, the temptations of wealth, and the struggle to escape the past. Though The Great Gatsby runs to fewer than two hundred pages, there is no bigger read in American literature.
The Serious Superficiality of The Great Gatsby By Joshua Rothman
The real achievement of “Gatsby,” in other words, is that it shows us a state of mind. It’s a state of spiritual hunger and dissatisfaction, of restlessness and curiosity, of excitement and anticipation.
University of South Carolina Libraries: Fitzgerald Centenary
From the University of South Carolina, this site provides information about F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby. Information includes critical essays and articles, facts about Fitzgerald, film and video clips, and more.