The Great Gatsby at 100

De: Sheila Liming, The Great Courses

Narrado por: Sheila Liming

How does a 100-year-old novel feel fresher than ever? F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was first published in April of 1925. Though it initially sold poorly in comparison to Fitzgerald’s previous novels, it has since come to be considered his masterpiece. Not only is the novel frequently cited as a cornerstone of American literature, but it also continues to appear on best-seller lists in the 21st century. It is also regularly adapted for stage and screen and has been one of the most assigned novels in American high schools for decades. How did a Jazz Age novel become such a lasting work of literature? What is it about Fitzgerald’s tragic story of lost love and the dark side of the American Dream that has kept the novel so relevant to generations of readers?

In the six lectures of The Great Gatsby at 100, you will join Sheila Liming of Champlain College to revisit the context and culture of the Roaring ‘20s, which inspired the story of the mysterious Jay Gatsby and his disastrous pursuit of Daisy Buchanan. As you’ll discover, while Gatsby is framed as a love story, it’s also a story of the American experience, revealing the unspoken rules of wealth and class and the false promises of self-made success in a world of Old Money privilege.

As you explore Gatsby’s complex view of money and class, you’ll also dive into the way the novel interrogates gender and sexuality and the popular culture of its day—a time that, much like our own, was rapidly changing thanks to technological innovation and social movements. While the trappings of jazz music, bobbed hair, and bootleg gin may set The Great Gatsby firmly in the past, you’ll find that many of its themes and ideas remain as relevant today as they were a century ago.

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Dr Sheila Liming is brilliant!

Dr Liming was absolutely fantastic! I will be listening again as she brought up many points I would have never considered on my own. I truly wish I were her student as she clearly does her research and generates excitement to a lecture hall. I hope to see more of her classes available in the future!

Learning more of this familiar novel

Good short read of a good short book. Illuminated facets I had not considered. I’ll have to read TGG again.

Almost

I discovered that “lascivious” is apparently a difficult word to pronounce. Just a mind boggling observation because I have to submit more than fifteen words to complain about one word in a so-called grate coarse (sic)

A couple fresh ideas

The author covers the usual perspectives of class, class mobility, the American dream, masculinity and gender, capitalism and consumerism. I enjoyed the addition of new to me lenses from wardrobe and music. Overall a thorough yet concise presentation.

Gatsby just got better!

Get one of the world’s favourite novel and have an Uber smart academic decipher nuances, historical, economic, political and sociological context in easily accessible lectures and your IQ will go up 5% and you’ll be whetting your appetite for more FSF. What a find!