Dear readers,

I want to present my vocabulary based on the book I have read:

1) reserved : adj. - formal or self-restrained in manner and relationship; avoiding familiarity or
intimacy with others: a quiet, reserved man.
2) privy : adj. - participating in the knowledge of something private or secret
3) feign: verb – to make believe; pretend
4) levity: noun - a manner lacking seriousness
5) mar : verb – to damage, ruin, deface
6) abortive : adj. - partially or imperfectly developed; vain
7) elation : noun - a feeling or state of great joy or pride; exultant gladness; high spirits
8) confer : verb – 1. to bestow upon as a gift, favor, honor; 2. to consult together
9) acute : adj. – sharp; intense
10) savor : verb – to taste or smell
11). reproach : noun – an object of scorn or contempt
12) wistfully/wistful : adv/adj – full of wishful yearning or longing, often with sadness
13) supercilious : adj. – having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views
as unworthy; cocky
14) effeminate: adj. – having traits, tastes or habits traditionally considered feminine
15) pungent : adj. – sharply affecting the organs of taste or smell
16) buoy : verb – to float or rise by reason of lightness
17) divan : noun – sofa or couch, usually without arms or a back
18) compulsion : noun – a strong, usually irresistible impulse to perform an act, esp. one that is
irrational or contrary to one's will
19) deft : adj. – quick and skillful
20) retort : verb – to reply to, usually in a sharp or retaliatory way
21) incredulously/incredulous : adv/adj – skeptical; disbelieving
22) reciprocal : adj. – given or felt by each toward the other; mutual
23) contemptuously/contemptuous : adv/adj – showing or feeling disapproval or disdain toward
something a person considers mean, vile, or worthless; scornful
24) languidly/languid: adv./adj. – lacking energy or vitality; weak
25) unobtrusively/unobtrusive : adv./adj. – Not undesirably noticeable or obvious
26) claret : noun – the red table wine produced in the Bordeaux region of France
27) fervent : adj. – having or showing great warmth or intensity of spirit, feeling, enthusiasm
28) infinitesimal : adj. – immeasurably small; less than an assignable quantity
29) vigil : noun - a devotional watching, or keeping awake, during the customary hours of sleep
30) settee : noun – a seat for two or more persons, having a back and arms
31) cynical : adj. – distrusting, criticizing, or mocking the motives of others; pessimistic; glass is half empty mentality
32) rotogravure : noun – a print made by a photomechanical process using a copper cylinder
33) corroborate : verb – to make more certain; confirm
34) libel : noun - a false publication, as in writing, print, signs, or pictures, that damages a person's
reputation
35) banns : noun – any public announcement of a proposed marriage
36) intimation/intimate : noun/verb - an indirect suggestion; a slight suggestion or vague
understanding
37) indignant wives :adj. - angry; annoyed
37) malevolence : noun - a desire to harm others; evil
38) enjoined me eagerly ( verb – 1) to urge or command with authority; 2) to forbid
39) man in a long duster:  noun - a long coat designed to protect clothing from dust
40) caterwauling horns  : adj. - a howl that sounds like a cat in heat
41) chasms : noun - deep crack or hole; metaphor comparing NYC streets to a crack or hole
42) subterfuge :  noun - a plan that hides the real purpose; a deceptive scheme
43) insolent smile : adj. - boldly rude; disrespectful
44) muslin : noun - delicately woven cotton fabric
45) indeterminate : adj. - indefinite, uncertain; not clear
46) haughty : adj. - snooty; arrogant
47) countenance : noun - appearance, especially the face
48) rakish angle : adj. - Dashingly or sportingly stylish
49) incessant : adj. - never-ending; ceaseless
50) innumerable pottery : adj. - countless; very numerous
51) laughed immoderately : adv. - without restraint; excessive; extreme
52) I had a few beaux myself : noun - boyfriends
53) wife was shrill : adj. - high-pitched
54) impressive hauteur/haughty  noun - pride, arrogance; cockiness adj. – cocky, snobby
55) high mincing shout : adj. - dainty, elegant
56) disdain : verb – to despise or scorn; noun – haughty contempt, extreme dislike; scorn
57) shiftless : adj. - lazy, without ambition
58) flounce : - to go with impatient or impetuous, exaggerated movements
59) kike/kyke : noun - offensive slang for a Jewish person
60) strident : adj. - loud, harsh, grating, or shrill
61) a wave : noun - women’s hairdo from the 1920s that created waves in the hair


Dear readers, I expect you've liked this book and my blog. I wanted it to be interesting for reading.
Well this is my final letter. Thank you for attention!

With love,
Nastya

Hello, I had like to imagine and write a letter from Gatsby to Daisy. So...

Dearest Daisy,

You must forgive me, my dear, for I am afraid I have never been good with opening statements. Words simply cannot express the love I feel for you, and no matter how I start this letter, I am fearful that it would never truly capture my feelings for you. I wish that we could be together forever, and I wish that our love could be a bright light shining in the midst of a troublesome world. However, I know that this will never happen as long as you are married to Tom. He is keeping you away from me, and our relationship will never be what we wish it to be, as long as he is in your life. Daisy, I wish there was a gentler way of saying this. You need to leave Tom.
I see what Tom is doing to you, Daisy, and I know it not your fault that you ended up with a brute like him. You must know that I do not hold that against you, just that I am concerned of how he is treating you. He is abusive, Daisy. The bruises on your arm are all the proof I need to be convinced of that. I can only imagine that you must live in fear each day, wondering if and when he will strike you again. Tom is also harsh and mean. I see the way he talks to you and about you. He flies into a rage over the tiniest things that you say. He is always contradicting you, and he never listens to a word you have to say. When you do get a word in, he dismisses it and calls you a fool. That is not a fair way to treat a lady such as yourself. Furthermore, Tom is not devoted to you. Yes, Daisy, I know about his affair with Myrtle Wilson. Why he would ever dream of leaving someone like you is beyond me. These actions have made it clear to me that he does not, nor ever will, love you like I do. So why, Daisy, would you stay with a man who is no good for you?
Now Daisy, do you remember all the times we spent together? We have known each other for so long, and it feels as though we know each other inside and out. You were my first and only love, and that makes you so special in my sight. I know that you feel the same way about me; I can see it in your eyes and your smile. Do you remember all the picnics we had, talking all day long about our hopes, our fears and our dreams? We do not just know each other, we know each other's soul. We have developed a deep connection, which I believe, will never be broken. It is destiny that brought us together. Why should we let one man come between this very special bond that we have? We cannot just throw everything away because of him. Our love is destined, and it will happen no matter what, so why hinder it? You need to leave him. You need to let him know that he cannot prevent destiny.
Daisy, if you leave Tom, I promise to be all that he is not. I will touch those tender bruises, all those places where he has injured you, and I will heal them all with a gentle kiss. You know that you will never have to be afraid of me. I will never raise my hand to strike you, and you will never have to cower in fear because of me. I will be there to protect you from monsters like Tom, and I will never rest until you are safe. I will also never be harsh and mean to you. You will never be afraid to speak what is on your mind or on your heart. I will listen with the utmost of attention, and I will never contradict you or tell you that you are a fool. Last, but not certainly not least, I will be utterly devoted to you. I will never even look upon another woman, as long I have you in my life. Your beauty surpasses all others, and Tom, who does not believe this is fatally mistaken. I will fulfill all that he fails to accomplish for you, and I will love you with all of my heart.
So, my dearest Daisy, this is how I will leave the letter. The rest is up to you now. You must tell Tom that he is no good for you. You must tell him that you have already given your soul to another, who has promised you so much more than he has ever dared to promise. Then you must run away from him and into my loving arms, where I will be waiting to comfort you and care for you. There is nothing more I can say now. I can write until my pen runs out of ink, but I will never truly express all the love for you in my heart. So now Daisy, I leave you, and I am eagerly awaiting your return into my life.
Yours eternally,
Jay Gatsby

            25 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘The Great Gatsby’

1. In its initial publication, the novel received mixed reviews. Although championed by The New York Times, noted essayist and critic H.L. Mencken called it a “glorified anecdote” and others felt it to be a “minor” work and a comedown after The Beautiful and the Damned and This Side of Paradise. The New York Evening World claimed that Gatsby debunked the idea that Fitzgerald was one of the great writers of his generation.


2. The book was also a commercial flop. At the time of his death in 1940, Fitzgerald claimed to have made just $4,000 off the novel, believing that because of the strong cult of female readership in the era, the lack of a strong (or even remotely likable) female protagonist left the audience cold. (Others now blame the wealth of its characters in contrast to the hard economic times for most readers.) Fitzgerald worried that his work was doomed to be forgotten and left behind by time and regretted Gatsby. The New York Times’ obit on Fitzgerald even cited the novel as a sign he never reached his full potential.

3. Had he lived just ten years longer he would have witnessed popular reception warm to the novel. The Edmund Wilson edition of The Last Tycoon included the novel as a way to get readers to reconsider this work, and the book became a cult classic among an influential cadre of writers who felt critics’ misunderstood the novel.

4. The novel gained immense popularity during WWII as the critical mainstream came to embrace Fitzgerald’s work. The Armed Services Editions circulated 150,000 copies to troops (100,000 more than were sold during Fitzgerald’s lifetime).

5. During the fifties and sixties, the book became a staple of high school English lit curricula, and the novel remained a commercial success. By 1960, the book steadily sold 50,000 copies each year, and today it has sold over 25 million copies — 500,000 more each year. According to Scribner, the book’s publisher, it’s their most popular novel ever.


6. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a noted novelist even while he was alive, but it wasn’t how he made most of his income. Before his death in 1940, Fitzgerald published 160 short stories, almost four for every year of his life. His first draft of a proper novel The Romantic Egotist was finished in 1918 while he was at combat in World War I and he believed he would never survive the conflict to see it published. It would later see the light of day, many drafts later, under the name of This Side of Paradise.

7. Although industrious readers might have figured it out, Daisy Buchanan is largely seen as a surrogate for Fitzgerald’s “mad” wife, Zelda. When Fitzgerald initially proposed to Zelda, she shot him down, because he was too poor for her — hence the inspiration for Daisy. This is strange, as Nick Carraway is considered the F. Scott Fitzgerald stand-in, who is Daisy’ cousin and possibly gay (depending on your reading). Paging Dr. Freud.

8. Gatsby himself is open to a number of interpretations. Although it’s the opinion of his writer that Jay Gatsby was Jewish (nee James Gatz, associated with Meyer Wolfsheim), some have argued that Jay Gatsby was black.

9. Before settling on the now iconic title for the novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald juggled a number of different options. He threw around such mouthfuls as Among Ash-Heaps and Millionaires, On the Road to West Egg, Trimalchio in West Egg, Gold-Hatted Gatsby, The High-Bouncing Lover and  Under the Red, White and Blue, the latter of which called upon the themes of dissolution with the Jazz Age and American ideology. Given Fitzgerald’s sometimes expat status and the fact that Fitzgerald wrote much of it in France, the latter makes relative sense, but Trimalchio in West Egg? Imagine presenting that to your Sophomore English class.

10. Despite the clunkiness of the title, Trimalchio didn’t come from nowhere. The name was taken from Petronius’ novel Satyricon, as Trimalchio is a notorious reveler and party host, a representation of lavish and ostentatious wealth. Trimalchio is name-dropped in the novel’s seventh chapter. After the lights fail to turn on to announce another Gatsby party, Fitzgerald writes, “Obscurely as it began, his career as Trimalchio was over.” Trimalchio also makes appearances in Les Miserables and Henry Miller’s Black Spring and the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Octavio Paz.

11. Francis Cugat designed the now classic cover art for the novel, and F. Scott Fitzgerald was just as impressed with its haunting imagery as readers have been; the design has become a mainstay in the popular consciousness. Fitzgerald was so taken with it that he rewrote the novel to place more emphasis on the symbol of the eyes, making T.J. Eckleburg’s business a larger motif of the work.

12. Meyer Wolfsheim, Gatsby’s business associate and fellow moonshiner, was based off a real person. He was inspired by Arnold Rothstein, the infamous racketeer credited with “turning organized crime into a big business” by writer Leo Katcher. His most famous gig was helping to fix the 1919 World Series. This event was chronicled in another popular work, Eight Men Out, and Rothstein has inspired numerous other fictional characters in literature and film.

13. The fact of Meyer Wolfsheim’s ethnic and religious identity was not uncommon for novels of the era. Lost Generation works were notable for their treatment of the Jews of the era, often depicted as greedy, corrupt and/or pathetic. In The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway vented many of his own anti-Semitic feelings in the character of Robert Cohn, the “whipping boy” of the novel.

14. The Sun Also Rises shared an editor with The Great Gatsby, Maxwell Perkins, whose criticism of the novel is largely credited with its success. Perkins was a prolific editor, working closely with Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, who Perkins repeatedly advised to cut down his works. Look Homeward, Angel got a 90,000 word trim before it was published. Perkins was also responsible for the success of The Yearling, Cry the Beloved Country, From Here to Eternity and Miss Macintosh, My Darling — all of which were found by Perkins or developed with his encouragement. Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea was dedicated to Perkins, as he died before it was published.

15. The Great Gatsby opens with a famous epigraph by the poet Thomas Parke D’Invilliers: “Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her/ If you can bounce high, bounce for her too/ Till she cry, “Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover / I must have you!” Haven’t heard of him? That’s because he doesn’t exist. The character was a creation of Fitzgerald’s in This Side of Paradise. John Green later stole this idea for the stunning epigraph for The Fault in Our Stars, by the fictional Peter Van Houten. Looking for Van Houten’s An Imperial Affliction? Good luck, because it’s not a thing.

16. The first adaptation of The Great Gatsby was conceived in 1926. Warner Baxter, who later won an Academy Award for his performance in The Cisco Kid, played Gatsby and Lois Wilson was Daisy; Wilson was a prolific silent film actress who worked on 150 films during her career, yet most of them were lost. This fate also befell the earliest adaptation of Gatsby, although recovered footage (of a silent, black-and-white trailer) has popped up online. The Fitzgeralds weren’t a fan of this version. They walked out of the film. In an open letter, Zelda claimed that it was “rotten and awful and terrible.” The New York Times also gave it a scathing review.

17. Another film version was attempted in 1949 with Alan Ladd (no relation to Diane) in the Gatsby role; Ladd would later go onto play the title character of Shane in George Stevens’ 1953 adaptation of the Jack Schaefer Western novel. The film’s most brilliant casting was for Myrtle Wilson, played with sufficient over-the-top gusto by Shelley Winters, who made a career out of going for broke. She won Academy Awards for The Diary of Anne Frank and A Patch of Blue, but her most infamous performance is in The Poseidon Adventure, for which she became a drag and camp icon. For that role, she’s one of the few people to be ever nominated for an Oscar and a Razzie.

18. One adaptation of the novel that never happened was Truman Capote’s vision for a film version of Gatsby. Likely seeing some of his Breakfast at Tiffany’s narrator in Nick Carraway, Capote planned on bringing out Nick’s repressed homosexuality, which would shock no one familiar with the text. What’s more interesting is that Capote wanted to make Daisy a “vindictive lesbian.” When the studio read his rendering of the novel and (obviously) hated it, they fired him and hired The Godfather’s Francis Ford Coppola to do a hasty rewrite, which he popped off in three weeks while living in the real-life West Egg. This resulted in the 1974 film version, which explains a lot about the so-so result.

19. In casting the ‘74 adaptation, Marlon Brando and Warren Beatty were in the running to play Gatsby, but Brando wanted too much money and Beatty wanted to direct it. Love Story’s Ali McGraw (producer Robert Evans’ wife) was the choice for Daisy, even though Jack Nicholson vehemently lobbied against her involvement in the film. Evans fired MacGraw when she left him for Steve McQueen, who she fell for while filming The Getaway; MacGraw only acted in The Getaway because they couldn’t get a script for Gatsby ready in time for shooting. (Thanks, Truman Capote!) In her absence, Faye Dunaway, Candice Bergen, Katharine Ross, Lois Chiles, Julie Christie, Cybill Shepherd, Tuesday Weld and Natalie Wood all were considered for Daisy.

20. Robert Redford was not well-received for his flat performance as Jay Gatsby (The New York Times claimed his looks and persona were too “Ivy League” for a man who came from poverty), and there is a reason for his flatness onscreen. During filming, Redford was so obsessed with the burgeoning Watergate scandal that he mentally checked out, spending most of the shoot in his trailer watching television or reading about it. Redford gave a far more engaged performance in All the President’s Men, released two years later. He played Bob Woodward.

21. The novel would see one more adaptation before the current one: An extremely ill-fated TV version that aired on A&E in 2000. Best watched by no one, it features future Bond villain Toby Stephens as Gatsby, Paul Rudd (!) as Nick and Mira Sorvino as Daisy. The Sorvino casting (while tone deaf) is a notable choice, considering Sorvino won an Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite. That film was directed by Woody Allen, the ex-husband of Mia Farrow, who was very pregnant during her performance in the 1974 version. Clearly A&E didn’t learn from history.

22. Baz Luhrmann did. When he began casting the film in 2010, he wanted Rebecca Hall (daughter of Royal Shakespeare Company founder Peter Hall) to play Daisy. When Hall read for the part, she was hot off a Golden Globe nomination for Vicky Cristina Barcelona — her breakout role in Woody Allen’s 2008 film. After having Hall read for the part, Luhrmann decided against it, shopping a who’s who of Hollywood actresses — in which folks from Keira Knightley to Scarlett Johansson and Blake Lively (!!!!) were considered. Luhrmann settled on the up-and-coming Carey Mulligan, who hadn’t read the novel when she got the part. Mulligan stood next to Hall in Vanity Fair’s 2010 Women of Hollywood shoot. Also pictured was fellow Daisy contender Amanda Seyfried. That must have been awkward.

23. Fun facts: Rebecca Hall’s personal life would have made her an oddly fitting choice for Daisy Buchanan. Before notably starring in The Prestige, Hall’s first film role was as Rebecca Epstein in Starter for 10, the little-seen 2006 British film produced by Sam Mendes. Mendes has a strong background in British theatre and would have already been familiar with Hall, but apparently found working with her quite enjoyable, as Mendes cast her in two of his plays. Mendes left Kate Winslet, his then wife, for Hall following their separation in 2010. (They are still together.) Later that year, Hall filmed The Town with Ben Affleck, who was Luhrmann’s original choice for Tom Buchanan before Affleck dropped out to win a bunch of Oscars for Argo. She can currently be seen in Iron Man 3, involved in another non-Daisy love triangle.

24. Although Bradley Cooper threw in his hat for the part of Tom in The Great Gatsby during an interview with the The New York Times in 2011, after the success of The Hangover films, Luhrmann went with Joel Edgerton, the Australian actor who came to prominence in David Michod’s 2010 crime flick Animal Kingdom. Before Gatsby, Edgerton’s last role was being married Jennifer Garner in The Odd Life of Timothy Green, the wife of the last Nick. Instead of playing Tom, Cooper took a part in Silver Linings’ Playbook, which earned him an Academy Award nom. His mother in that film was Jacki Weaver, who earned her first Oscar nod in Animal Kingdom, as Edgerton’s villainous mama.

25. When Baz Luhrmann read the book as a child, his father ran the local gas station, just like Wilson, and later the town cinema. He later conceived his own adaptation in 2004, while listening to Gatsby on tape during a train ride through Siberia (’cause obviously). Luhrmann immediately saw DiCaprio as Gatsby and worked for two years to secure the rights to film what he saw in his head. With the success of his Great Gatsby adaptation, Baz Luhrmann has another idea for DiCaprio in mind: Baz wants him to play Hamlet.

Dear readers,

Today I want to write a conclusion of reading the book I have choosen.

"The Great Gatsby" is an excellent book in which to study the writer's art. In this short book the reader can detect a collection of symbolic details which make the story much more than the tale which appears on the surface: the ash heap, as a symbol of the waste of American society; the green light on Daisy's dock, which means so much to Gatsby as a symbol, until he again meets Daisy, when it again becomes, for Gatsby, as for everyone else, just a light.
The characters all play their roles in the development of the story. Shallow figures fill Gatsby's parties, but show their true level of concern for him when they all absent themselves from his funeral. The class distinctions between Daisy, a true upper class maiden, who can never lower herself to accept Gatsby, the aspirant to a class rank which wealth and parties cannot buy.
Nick Carraway is the one character in the book who develops his own moral sense. His role as narrator permits us to see Gatsby's world through his eyes. It is he who sees, and is repelled by, the rotten cores of Gatsby and the worlds in which lives and into which he aspires. He sees the corruption deep inside Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Most of all, we see the innate goodness in Tom. Observing, but not entering Gatsby's world, he is able to understand and judge it. His final evaluation of Gatsby's world is seen when he abandons it all to return to his native Midwest.
I can say that the process of reading seemed to me more interesting than I'd expected. It was really exciting, every time I began to read with pleasure. The plot of the book is so thrilling!
Of course, we ask some questions reading a book. I think if the book makes the reader think of something important or something new, it'll be called a right book. I don't regret of the choice of this book at all. The main thing I've learned is that the most important entity in our life is to follow your dream.
It wasn't so difficult to read "The Great Gatsby". Nevertheless, I think I should learn more new words and phrases to be a better reader.

With love,
Nastya

Hello, my dear readers.

Now I want to present a film on this story. Maybe you know that there is a film "The Great Gatsby" by Baz Luhrmann. I have seen the film early and it reflects the main idea of the book very well. Of course, the book is more interesting, but the film also incredible.
While the film received mixed reviews from critics, audiences responded much more positively, and F. Scott Fitzgerald's granddaughter praised the film, stating "Scott would have been proud". As of 2014, it is Baz Luhrmann's highest grossing film to date, earning over $350 million worldwide.At the 86th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design, winning both.The Great Gatsby earned $144,840,419 in North America, and $206,200,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $351,040,419.

Talking about the actors in the film "The Great Gatsby", I can say that they are brightly chosen for their roles. There are some of them:

                                                      Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby

                                                      Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway

Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan

Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan

HELLO!

Today I want to provide a new ending for the story.

As for me, the story ends sorrowfully: the lifelong dream was shattered, the main character died.
Gatsby was obsessed with the dream , was obsessed with love for Daisy.
All that was trying to make Gatsby for his dream - to no avail. I believe that he should be happy. His death was terrible. He was devoted by the woman,  he loved, and in spite of his popularity, his funeral no one came.

I think, that Gatsby and his love should be together. It should be happy end , happy life, where he could finally be able to be with Daisy once again and forever and the book was supposed to end with the words, such as... " He lived to reached that green light and to live in that orgastic future, with Daisy. She was his. She was his green light. She was his hope... and happily until one`s death:)"

Hello!

Today I want to write about some question. I think, many people thought about it.

The questions are "Is Gatsby great? What are some reasons that Nick thinks of Jay Gatsby as The Great Gatsby?"

I think that Gatsby is essentially 'great'. Nick thinks Gatsby is great because he was able to create a new identity for himself when he needed to be someone else. Gatsby's determination and audacity are amazing to Nick. Gatsby focused on a goal, that of winning Daisy, and he did whatever was necessary to attain it.

Gatsby established that he would need wealth to keep Daisy in the manner she was accustomed to, and so he attained a "business" that would give him financial wealth. He studied mannerisms and expressions he thought would be what the social elite would say and do, and in this way , his gullibility is endearing.

Another aspect of Nick's admiration of Gatsby is the fact that he is a romantic at heart. Gatsby never veers from his goal and dream of winning Daisy, and even in the face of reality, his steadfast determination is admirable , if somewhat misguided.

HELLO, MY DEAR READERS!

I want to introduce the main character of book, Gatsby.

Jay Gatsby is a cryptic and attractive man.

His past was interesting. Jay Gatsby son of a poor farmer. During the Second World War Gatsby - the young officer. He falls in love with a woman from a wealthy family; hide his poverty; seeking love in return. Daisy promises to wait for him to return from the war, but marries a rich man. Gatsby wants to return Daisy and begins swindler life. It is help him to become rich.

HIS HOUSE: 
He has a huge, magnificent, luxurious villa where Gatsby often throw parties.
House emits a mysterious charm associated with an aura of luxury and wealth.