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The Great Gatsby  By  cover art

The Great Gatsby

By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Narrated by: Jake Gyllenhaal
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Editorial review


By Madeline Anthony, Audible Editor

HOW THE GREAT GATSBY BECAME THE QUINTESSENTIAL JAZZ AGE NOVEL

If you ever find yourself pondering the correlation between the greatness of a work and it’s commercial success (or lack there of), and whether or not the first has anything to do with the latter, here’s a case study to wrap your mind around—F. Scott Fitzgerald died thinking that his third novel, The Great Gatsby, was a dismal failure and that his body of work would soon be forgotten.

While the novel sold only 20,000 copies during Fitzgerald’s lifetime, The Great Gatsby stood the test of time and is now widely considered Great American Novel canon. Largely seen as a literary masterpiece, the novel has made its way into high school and college curriculum as required reading, inspired multiple critically acclaimed films, and set the stage for creative spin-offs set in the world of Gatsby (such as Daisy, a reimagined take on the novel from the perspective of Daisy Buchanan herself), and has generally inserted itself into American vernacular.

There are other authors and novels with similar stories; for instance, Moby Dick was a critical and commercial flop until it finally gained popularity 30 years after author Herman Melville passed. Sometimes an author is ahead of his or her time, and sometimes chance works in mysterious ways. In Fitzgerald’s case, copies of Gatsby were handed out freely to soldiers during World War II. The renewed interest in the book breathed new life into it, and from that moment on, Gatsby soared.

Today, the nostalgia conjured by the Roaring 20s is in a kind of renaissance. Or maybe, the truth is that a sort of longing for the romanticism of this era never really died. In lower Manhattan, guests can venture into The Gatsby Experience for instance, which is an interactive theatre of sorts equipped with a speakeasy tour and live performance. The Great Gatsby, a new musical, is running off-Broadway, and a general appreciation of not only the classic novel but also the time in which the novel was set is alive and well. Don’t we all want to live in a time where the champagne flows, and life, for a brief moment at least, seemed easy?

Continue reading Madeline's review >

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Finalist, Classic, 2014

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel of the Roaring Twenties is beloved by generations of readers and stands as his crowning work. This new audio edition, authorized by the Fitzgerald estate, is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain). Gyllenhaal's performance is a faithful delivery in the voice of Nick Carraway, the Midwesterner turned New York bond salesman, who rents a small house next door to the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby. There, he has a firsthand view of Gatsby’s lavish West Egg parties - and of his undying love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan.

After meeting and losing Daisy during the war, Gatsby has made himself fabulously wealthy. Now, he believes that his only way to true happiness is to find his way back into Daisy’s life, and he uses Nick to try to reach her. What happens when the characters’ fantasies are confronted with reality makes for a startling conclusion to this iconic masterpiece.

This special audio edition joins the recent film - as well as many other movie, radio, theater, and even video-game adaptations - as a fitting tribute to the cultural significance of Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age classic, widely regarded as one of the greatest stories ever told.

©1925 Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright renewed 1953 by Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Combining a deeply loved classic like The Great Gatsby with a well-known Hollywood voice like Jake Gyllenhaal’s could create magic or disaster. Could there be competition between the two? Which side would come out stronger? This production strikes a graceful balance, with both big names blending to complement each other. Gyllenhaal’s reserved tone lends polish to Fitzgerald’s text, accentuating the mood of poetry that pervades the novel. His delivery is simultaneously youthful and experienced, aware of the subtleties of the characters and the plot nuances as he infuses them with life. Gyllenhaal controls his performance with style and careful pacing, seemingly keeping as reverent an eye on the novel as Gatsby himself kept on that elusive green light." (AudioFile magazine)

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What listeners say about The Great Gatsby

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  • 12-11-17

I just didn't like the story

I must be un-american or something because I simply did not enjoy the story very much. It's well written, it is on of the most acclaimed american works of literature ever........and I just did not understand what all the fuss is about. I guess I'm just uncultured swine.

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Stunned!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If they would have used another narrator.

Has The Great Gatsby turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

How could the performance have been better?

Wrong person for the job he just couldn't read the story.

What character would you cut from The Great Gatsby?

None, the book was not the problem, I love the book.

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Absolutely fantastic!

What did you love best about The Great Gatsby?

Enchanting story told well.

Any additional comments?

Gyllenhaal's performance is enthralling. It draws you in. He changes his voice for each character, and doesn't sound ridiculous as the female characters. Fantastic!

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I Hope this Starts a Trend

Would you listen to The Great Gatsby again? Why?

Absolutely. The prose is beautiful.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Gatsby, the person with a past.

Have you listened to any of Jake Gyllenhaal’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, I have not heard him narrate. It's wonderful for actors to narrate classics such as this. They bring intent and interest to the story. The elocution is wonderful. Gives me a new appreciation for how important voice is one of the instruments of master actors.

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zzzzzzzz

Are you are having a hard time sleeping? Insomnia got ya down? here you go.

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Tolerated it in high school. Loved it now

I vaguely remember grinding through reading this book in high school. With the new movie coming out and knowing that is one of the great classic American novels, I wanted to give it another chance. This time the experience was so much different and better in every way. The story was fascinating and crisp and the prose was wonderful.

I won't really review the novel itself since it is a classic and held in the highest regard. I will say that Gyllenhaal did an outstanding job with the narration -- one of the best I've ever heard. The only disappointing thing was learning that this is the only book he has narrated on Audible.

If you are at all curious about this book, I can't imagine a better way to experience it than this.

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A Perfunctory and Listless Performance

You have to wonder why Gyllenhaal bothered with this performance since he clearly devoted so little time or consideration to it. Was this some resume enhancing exercise in order to burnish his credentials as a person of culture and taste? If so, he certainly failed outright. He might have bothered to do a few read throughs, study the text, the characters, think about how they might be brought out in all of their individuality. Instead, the reading sounds like he just sat down and read through the book without prior rehearsal. To say that his reading is flat hardly describes the evident lack of interest which he has in inhabiting any of the various and highly individual characters peopling this novel. He even manages to mispronounce the word, claret - pronouncing it as claray. Good grief.

Unfortunately, like the two movies which have been made of the Great Gatsby, this reading succeeds only in diminishing the text. A sad waste of time and unfortunately, the sole audio book of this historic novel which appears to be available for purchase in the U.S.! This was an Amazon original freebie. Unfortunately, it did cost something, the complete waste of time listening to this sad wreck of a reading.

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Why Try?

Fitzgerald is too much greater than me to try to review him. Want to listen to what a great American novel is? Listen to Jake Gyllenhall read this. One of the greatest books in the American language. Did I write "Great" enough?

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Great Audio Quality With Miscast Narrator

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I have much enjoyed Gyllenhaal's film performances and he's certainly someone I keep an eye on for movies I would enjoy. That being said I think he was sadly miscast as the Nick Caraway narrator. Gyllenhaal just isn't a period piece sort of guy. He's modern in every way, voice, inflection, tone, accent, and just not believable as a young man of the post-WWI era. Caraway is educated, sophisticated, knowledgeable. He may not have the ready wealth of the crowd he runs with, but he's certainly not out of place or uncomfortable in such "elevated" surroundings. He recognizes the trappings of large amounts of money as exactly that--trappings. It's the people and their characters which preoccupy him, not their stuff. The rube in the palace, in spite of his wealth and experience, is Gatsby himself. His money and its purchasing power is far too new for him to be taking it for granted. And this childlike enjoyment and appreciation is part of Gatsby's charm for Nick. Gyllenhaal's most successful characterization is Tom Buchanon, the boorish, foolish, philandering husband of Nick's cousin Daisy. Fitzgerald paints him in broad strokes, not quite a parody of the ex-jock, he's too destructive, too powerful to laugh at, but Tom is the modern one that Gyllenhaal "gets."

What other book might you compare The Great Gatsby to and why?

Fitzgerald's "voice" is easily recognizable and distinct from other early 20th century writers. Great Gatsby fans would love his other novels and short stories. He's poetic, but never obscure and sometimes humorous. An easy read with intense themes.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Gyllenhaal is not a natural narrator, but he has a pleasant baritone and would probably improve if he continues in this work. The first chapter contained two stand-out mistakes in pronounciation: the word claret mispronounced as "klar-ay," rather than "klar-it," and the word settee mispronounced as "set-tay," rather than "sett-ee." Neither word is of French derivation, which I am assuming was Gyllenhaal's assumption. (Both words come from English and have a standard English pronounciation.) It's not so surprising that a young American actor doesn't have these words in his lexicon. What is surprising is that no one on the production/direction side of this recording caught the mistakes. Doesn't anyone "literary" audit these recordings before they're released? Now there's a plan.

Was The Great Gatsby worth the listening time?

In spite of my issues with this recording, I did not feel my money wasted. I got it at a very good price. Fans of Jake Gyllenhaal of the he-can't-put-a-foot-wrong stripe will love this.

Any additional comments?

The audio quality of this recording is very, very good.

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Interesting Listen of By Gone Era in America

I really enjoyed listening to The Great Gatsby which covered the time of prohibition and boot legging in America. The story of Gatsby was both inspiring and deeply sad. This is the times that my grandparents and mother-in-law grew up in and I was surprised to find that people back then could be just as superficial as they are now, nothing new there. Like Solomon said, there's nothing new under the sun. The lonesome end to Gatsby's life after everyone rode on his coat tails just about summed it up for me. That was the moral of the whole thing. Be who you really are. Love honestly. Be able to look yourself in the mirror.

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