The Great Gatsby

By: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Narrated by: Scott Baker

The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession with reuniting with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.

The novel was inspired by a romance Fitzgerald had with socialite Ginevra King, and the riotous parties he attended on Long Island's North Shore in 1922.

Following a move to the French Riviera, Fitzgerald completed a rough draft of the novel in 1924. He submitted it to editor Maxwell Perkins, who persuaded Fitzgerald to revise the work over the following winter. After making revisions, Fitzgerald was satisfied with the text, but remained ambivalent about the book's title and considered several alternatives. Painter Francis Cugat's cover art greatly impressed Fitzgerald, and he incorporated aspects of it into the novel.

Public Domain (P)2021 Hexagon Tech

Narrator lessens a Classic American Novel

It was the first Audible book I’ve listened to where the narrator lessened the value of a classic novel. His accents are simply wrong and always annoying. Also, his depiction of the emotions and sentiments of each character are very amateurish, making the experience unpleasant at time. The entire mood of this narration is incorrect.

Worth Revisiting

Great narration/performance. Americans typically have to read this in high school, why I do not know. I struggle to see how a high schooler would have enough experience and context to appreciate the story and all that it implies. But re-listening as an adult, it is a home run.

The story

The reader’s voice is monotonous, some of the words are mumbled and overall not a good narration. It’s a pity for such a great masterpiece

Wonderful Classic

The author has a way with his words and insults. Highly offensive but or properly dished out, Clever book, later in my life did I figure how witty it is.

Great read.

I struggled through this book in high school. Listening to it made a huge difference.

Wealth and Tragedy in the 1920s

Sad story during jazz Era in America. Friends are plentiful where wealth abounds, but who will come to your funeral after you're gone?

Great Gatsby

A great book. Poetry. A bit disappointed in the reader - a reader with an English accent seems an odd choice.

The narrator’s mincing wilting imitation of what he thinks women sound like.

This narrator should not be allowed to voice women. His female voices all sound like a joking version of how women talk.

Why?

I can't comprehend why this considered a classic. It's poorly worded as though written by someone with ADHD. Many times it's seems he filled sentences with word vomit. Overall, it's intresting considering life of someone from the 1920's but I find it hard to belive more than a handful of people may have lived a life such as those in the book. Worse it built up to a potentially wonderful, but scandalous story just to end with too many questions.

I chose to listen to it because I am working on listening to or reading classic, influential novels, but this was the 1st and it greatly reduced my motivation to read what is considered classic and influential novels.

Love the story, but this narrator wasn’t it

I have loved Jay Gatsby’s story since I first read this in high school. I enjoy the dialectical choices made by the author and the information we get through Nick Caraway’s perspective.

That said, I could not get past this narrator. His voice has a reedy quality and it takes away from the sentences being read. I found the emotion lacking in his performance; he read so many different sentence with different informational bits in exactly the same way… Not my favorite.