Feel the texture of Fitzgerald's language as master reader Alexander Scourby, with cool precision, unfolds the mystery of Jay Gatsby. A true classic of American literature, The Great Gatsby celebrates a "heightened sensibility to the promises of life," an American capacity for hope that remains unsullied even by the falsity of what it pursues. Fitzgerald's clean, elegant style evokes to perfection the glitter and charm of the Jazz Age, as well as the falseness of its values. Gatsby embodies the naive American notion that it is possible to invent oneself and persuade the world to accept that definition. Gatsby's youthful neighbor, Nick Carraway, fascinated by both the display of enormous wealth and the essential integrity that he perceives in Gatsby's vision, becomes his confidante and accomplice in his plan to recapture the heart of Daisy Buchanan.
The late Alexander Scourby's voice is so resonant with images of the past that now when we hear his artful interpretations (at least, we older folks), we feel we are traveling familiar roads. After all, he helped define the audiobook age. As with all great narrators, Scourby has an actor's sensibilities. His rendition of Fitzgerald's most popular novel, recorded many years back, thus has been lauded, and rightly so. Scourby understands Nick Carraway's sympathetic telling of the inescapability of the past and the improbability of finding love and honor, even for the privileged classes, a truth that has assured Americans for decades that the wealthy suffer, too. Still, a latent sadness pervades this narration: Somehow Scourby makes us feel that we all have lost Daisy, and that Gatsby deserved better. This CD version is very handy with chapters broken down into enough track numbers to make bookmarking and relistening easy and with excellent production values. P.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine
The New York Times...
"Memorable… certainly one of the finest readings ever recorded."
About the Author
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) defined the Jazz Age and helped create the glittering myth of the Roaring Twenties, an age he called "the greatest, gaudiest spree in history." Fitzgerald's short story characters are rich, careless sophisticates searching
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