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The Great Gatsby Review Essay

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Originally published in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby soon became his most well-known book. After struggling for years to remain sober enough to write and trying not to stay broke, Fitzgerald was finally able to publish a worthwhile novel. Many aspects of the book including plot, characters, and setting are unique to Fitzgerald’s time spent on Great Neck, Long Island with his wife Zelda Fitzgerald. Many positive reviews were written shortly after the novel was published. Several reviewers were unimpressed with Fitzgerald’s plot, but overall found praise in his writing style. Reviewers of The Great Gatsby positively responded to Fitzgerald’s writing style and unique characters, but they fond the plot line… Reviewers appreciate …show more content…

Fitzgerald struggled to find his place as a writer, but The Great Gatsby revealed his true talent. Benét describes Fitzgerald’s narration as “vivid” and “graphic” (354). Benét does admit that the work has a few minor mistakes, but that they may be overlooked because the majority of the novel is “written with incision and precision and mastery of material”(354). H.L. Mencken, a reviewer for Baltimore Evening Sun, believes what makes The Great Gatsby worthwhile is not the characters, but the …show more content…

H.L. Mencken describes the novel as “no more than a glorified anecdote” (348). Mencken says the plot is “obviously unimportant” an does not deserve as much credit as Fitzgerald’s previous works (349). The story is “simply a story” and Fitzgerald is more “interested in maintaining its suspense than in getting under the skins of its people” (Mencken 349). In Mencken’s opinion, the story of Gatsby and Daisy itself is neither unique or special, but Fitzgerald’s working turns the story into something beautiful that is a result of the years of hard work he put into the writing. Mencken describes the results of Fitzgerald’s laborious efforts in the

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