Reviews with content warning for Classism - The Great Gatsby

Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

52 reviews

ennzito24's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I found this book to be incredibly boring. I know this is considered a classic but I just could not get in to it. Some parts had beautiful writing but overall it was a snooze fest for me.

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kendal_reads's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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carlycormier_'s review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it... It faced-or seemed to face-the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”

During quarantine, I've taken up reading again and I am very glad that I have. I am, however, upset that it took me as long as it did to read this brilliant little book! I flew through it in a day I was so hooked. I was reluctant to pick this one up out of fear that I would envision or compare it to the film (which I saw ages ago). Fitzgerald's superb writing is a big reason why I was able to separate the two and enjoy this more.

It’s a story of false hope, ego, disillusionment, hypocrisy, the idealization of love from naive eyes, romanticizing the mundane, unreliable narration, and the collapse of a rose-colored bubble. Fitzgerald fills this story with poetic imagery that dances across the pages, pulling you in deeper and deeper.

To annotate the book in this review would not do it justice. Simply spectacular and way better than any movie could hope to be.

It was as dazzling as you would expect it to be.

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caribbeangirlreading's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

2023: Re-read this book for my Classics Book Club. As always, we had a spirited discussion as to the themes of the book. However, I still did not enjoy reading it and I still hate all the characters - Gatsby is a con-man. Daisy is NOT a victim. Tom is still a horrible human being. Gatsby and Daisy's relationship is toxic AF. Daisy and Tom deserve each other and all their unhappiness. And Nick . . . This time around I really noticed something that I had forgotten from my first read, that Nick is our narrator, and he's a very unreliable one. He "thinks" he's above the superficial and vapid lifestyle of the rich and famous of East/West Egg, but he's in fact just like them. He just doesn't have the money.

2013: Intellectually, I can see why this book has remained a classic. It is a scathing social commentary on life in the 1920s, and maybe even specifically of upper class society in the northeast US. But emotionally, I despised Gatsby, and Tom, and Daisy, and Jordan and many of the other secondary characters so much that reading this book was more torture than pleasure. I had to force myself to finish this book (over 2.5 weeks!) just so I could say I have read it. And then F. Scott Fitzgerald's book will join the ranks of the classic American novels that I despise, i.e., every book ever written by his friend and contemporary, Ernest Hemingway.

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atlantisblauw's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Took until about page 140 for it to get interesting, but I did like the ending. Fitzgerald is a good writer, there are some beautiful sentences in there and he's good at writing flashbacks and other jumps through time. His characters are credible, but quite flat.

Ironically, Gatsby is presented as the mysterious one but you learn more about him than all other characters combined.

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faith99's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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marenm's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

so sad and yet so good. given that i was reading this for school, it surprised me that i enjoyed it so much. loved the setting and nick and gatsvy’s relationship

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nataliapassos's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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emeraldeunoia's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

I had to read this for summer reading and I dont feel like im old enough to really understand most of it really? Im also not the biggest fan of America or rich people so that kinda tetered me off of it aswell. I did deduct a few stars are slurs and racism (but also it was the 1920s so im cutting them some slack) and the fact that Francis Scott Fitsgerald plagarized it from his wife, Zelda Fitzgerald, yet its still under his name.
I do however think the writing was great and the more drama-ish bits were entertaining. The choice to have it be from an outsiders perspective was also quite a good choice aswell.

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