The Great Gatsby

By: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Narrated by: Anthony Heald

Jay Gatsby is still in love with Daisy, whom he met during the war when he was penniless. Having made himself wealthy through illegal means, he now lives in a mansion across the bay from the home of Daisy Buchanan, who has since married for money. Holding on to his illusion of Daisy as perfect, he seeks to impress her with his wealth, and uses his new neighbor, Nick Carraway (our narrator), to reach her.

Daisy’s wealthy but boring husband is cheating on her. When his mistress is killed in an accident caused by Daisy, Gatsby covers for her and takes the blame. The result is a murder and an ending that reveals the failure of money to buy love or happiness.

Fitzgerald’s elegantly simple work captures the spirit of the Jazz Age and embodies America’s obsessions with wealth, power, and the promise of new beginnings.

Public Domain (P)2007 by Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Great depressing book!

Great book, depressing ending. If you want a happy ever after, don’t read this one.

One of the greatest books of all time

I don't think I need to say much about the book itself, given it's stature, so I'll instead say the narrator was excellent and I would firmly recommend this version. All the characters sound unique and the tone always fits the story

it was great!

I loved every bit of the story and also was impressed with the narrator, did a great job.

Honestly surprised me.

Honestly surprised how much I got riled up towards the end. I struggled with the beginning trying to get through it. But as it went on it got better and better.

A classic

It was well written, well read, and a great short story. Also, one of the few books the moview follows very well.

A great job

I loved the book and the narration. There is a reason The Great Gatsby is a classic! And the narrator does it justice!

Annoying Smacking noise

A classic, of course, and amazing. But though I liked the narrator’s tone and inflections, his voicing of female characters sounded like a mimicry… and worst of all there was so much smacking and the sound of too much spit in his mouth. Maybe that doesn’t bother a lot of people, but those of us who can’t stand that noise will understand. I wish the sound editors had muffled it so it wasn’t quite so annoying.

The Great Gatsby: A Classic

The Great Gatsby has been one of my favorite books since I first read it back in high school for an assignment. Ever since reading it, I’ve always felt some invisible string tethering me to the story. A story about the American Dream and how, at the end of the day, it’s really all just smoke and mirrors. The true dream is love and being surrounded by it. True genuine love, to be specific. Because it’s one thing to be loved and admired for your accolades and accomplishments, but it’s another to be loved for who you are behind all the glitz, gold and glam!

As the song goes, all that glitters ain’t gold… and my oh my how that is true! In the end, Jay Gatsby dies a poor man longing for the one true thing he could never have: LOVE. And to add salt to the wound, he loved a woman who came from a world he was never from. A world in which marrying for love isn’t priority in most cases. If anything marrying is for business purposes and the advancement of one’s current established wealth or name in an industry. He loved a women from the world of the elite and he was simply just an average man, from an average background, who experienced the world in ways Daisy, the love of his life, never had and never will because she never has too. That is what excited her about him but that excitement wasn’t enough to keep her from following the traditional footsteps of women of her status in that era typically follow. Gatsby, in the end, never stood a chance - even despite the wealth he amounted. He would always be seen as the “other” in the world of the elite - which circles back to the idea of the American Dream being smoke and mirrors. As glitzy as one get, when the pomp and circumstances die down, you are left with the bitter, ugly and honest truth that the American Dream is simply just that: a dream until you redefine it as something GREATER beyond just material things.

In the end, it’s a classic book worth a read - even if just for the culture of reading the classics. It’s a great read in the sense of understanding the haves and the have nots. It’s eye opening to the fact that, in the end, all you need is love as all the other “stuff” is just a perk but not NECESSARY to creating the life you truly want. The American Dream may just be a dream but it can quickly become a reality if you have someone to share your life with in meaningful way.

A shallow story of ceaseless eloquence…

... that somehow captures so much. Abandoned and wanton characters that are somehow eternally interesting and... beautiful. Perhaps it is the unmatched prose, but this is indeed, a runner-up for the great American novel. Not my first go at the great Gatsby… I had read it several times years before… so I'm not sure of the narrator Is the best, but he is certainly adequate.

voices in the reading

the reader used character voices which was quite pleasing. His overall tone elicited the emotions needed to embrace this story.