American · 1896–1940
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) defined the literature of the Jazz Age in the United States — the parties, the money, the disillusionment — and in The Great Gatsby produced what many consider the most perfectly constructed American novel. At 47,000 words, it is one of the shorter books in warpread.app's library and one of the most richly packed: every sentence is doing structural work. It rewards close reading at speed.
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Jay Gatsby throws parties at his Long Island mansion every weekend hoping that one night she will walk through the door. She is across the bay, a green light at the end of her dock, and married to someone else. Fitzgerald wrote the American Dream's obituary and dressed it in a white suit.
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