The Great Gatsby

Widely considered his greatest work, The Great Gatsby is set in the Jazz Age, a term popularized by Fitzgerald. It captures the prosperity of a postwar America, filled with jazz music and illegal alcohol. A story about the promise and failure of the American Dream, it centers around the character of Jay Gatsby, a young man who rises from rags to riches, and his love for a wealthy young woman. The book was unsuccessful when it was first published. Reviews were mixed, and the first printing sold slowly. The novel, however, was rediscovered a few years after Fitzgerald died and grew in popularity, becoming a standard text of high school curricula. It is now considered a masterpiece of American fiction. Several film adaptations have been made of the book, most notably a production directed by Jack Clayton in 1974, starring Robert Redford as Gatsby, and one in 2013 directed by Baz Luhrmann, starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role.