THE

GREAT

GATSBY

On a warm summer night in 1922, Jay Gatsby stands in

the garden of his mansion

on Long Island, looking out

across the dark water of the bay. Out at sea is a green

light, tiny and far away, and Gatsby
arms toward this light, trembling

stretches

out his

a little.

Newly arrived in Long Island, Nick Carraway

watches

Gatsby from his garden next door, and wonders. Who is

this mysterious

Jay Gatsby, whose generous

champagne

parties are famous all over New York? Where did his great
wealth come from? The beautiful

people who drink and

dance all night at his parties are full of wild tales about
Gatsby's past - is he a murderer, is he a bootlegger? - but
nobody knows the answers.
At a dinner party with Tom and Daisy Buchanan,
meets Jordan

Nick

Baker, and is soon drawn into the life of

Long Island. And as the summer passes, he slowly begins

to uncover the mystery that is Jay Gatsby.
It is a story of excitement

and violence,

of love and

despair; a story of bright, romantic hopes and impossible,

hopeless dreams ...

F. SCOTT

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,

FITZGERALD

The Great Gatsby

I must have you!"

THOMAS PARKE D'INVILLIERS

Retold by
Clare West

~
OXFORD

UNIVERSITY

PRESS

CONTENTS

OXFORD
UNIVERSITY

PRESS

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INTRODUCTION

This simplified edition IS> Oxford University Press 2013

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PEOPLE IN THIS STORY

Vlll

PLACE NAMES IN THIS STORY

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ISBN:

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A complete recording of this Bookworms edition of

The Great Gatsby is also available in an audio pack. ISBN: 9780194786089

Dinner with the Buchanans

Meeting Tom's mistress

11

A party at Gatsby's

20

Gatsby's past

28

Gatsby and Daisy meet again

37

The truth about Gatsby

46

A hot day in town

55

Wilson's revenge

72

The funeral

81

GLOSSARY

90

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Word count (main text): 23,445 words
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visit www.oup.comjbookworms
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ACTIVITIES:

Before Reading

93

ACTIVITIES:

While Reading

94

ACTIVITIES:

After Reading

96

Illustrations by Gavin Reece

The publishers would like to thank the following for
their permission to reproduce images:

99

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

plOO, Jay Henry

Despite their best efforts, the Publishers have been unable to trace the
copyright holder of the cover image, but would be pleased to hear
from the copyright holder if they would like to contact them.

ABOUT THE BOOKWORMS

LIBRARY

101

PEOPLE

IN THIS

STORY

CHAPTER

MAIN CHARACTERS

Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story

Jay Gatsby (also James Gatz), a young mysterious millionaire
Daisy Buchanan, distant cousin to Nick Carraway
Tom Buchanan, Daisy's husband, a millionaire
Jordan Baker, Daisy's friend, a young professional female golfer
Myrtle Wilson, Tom Buchanan's mistress
George Wilson, Myrtle's husband, a garage owner

DINNE~WITH THE BUCHANANS

nmy younger

'Whenever

NAMES

IN THIS

STORY

years my father

gave

anyone,'

he told me, 'just

in this world haven't

He didn't say any more, but I understood

had the

that he meant a

great deal more than that. As a result, I usually wait some time
before making any judgements.
strange characters

This habit has opened up many

to me, as people are often eager to tell me

about themselves. When I was at college, I was unjustly accused

of being a politician,
wild, unknown

PLACE

you feel like judging

remember that all the people

advantages that you've had.'

OTHER CHARACTERS

Meyer Wolfshiem, a gambler, a business connection of Gatsby

Catherine, Myrtle Wilson's sister
Mr & Mrs McKee, Myrtle Wilson's New York friends
Klipspringer, a man who is almost always at Gatsby's house
Michaelis, George Wilson's neighbor
Henry C. Gatz, Jay Gatsby's father

and more vulnerable

me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever

smce.

because I knew the secret sadnesses

of

men. I hardly ever wanted to hear these secrets

- in fact, I have often pretended

to be asleep or busy when I

realized by some unmistakable

sign that

a young man was

Some place names in the story are real; others are invented.

preparing

The story is set on Long Island, which stretches for more than
100 miles east of New York City. West Egg in the story is Great

Holding back judgement is a matter of hope. There is always

I he possibility
that someone, in time, will turn out well. What

Neck

lily

(where Scott Fitzgerald

himself

lived), and East Egg is

Sands Point, the end of the Port Washington

lies just across Manhasset

peninsula,

which

Bay.

and the West to the west coast.

or Mid-West,
Chicago.

includes

states

However, anybody

might be called a Westerner.

was suggesting

feelings.

was that we are all born with a

different sense of right and wrong. And if I forget that, then I

a little afraid of missing something.

:1111

In the story the East refers to the east coast of the United
States,

father

to tell me his deepest, most personal

The Middle

like Minnesota

West,

and cities like

who was not from the east coast

However, I have to confess that I haven't always taken my

f:l ther's

advice. When I came back from the East last autumn,

I felt I wanted

the whole world to be in moral

living a highly moral life for ever. I wanted

110

more secrets of the human

heart.

uniform,

all

no more wildness,

Only Gatsby, the man

who gives his name to this book, was an exception

- Gatsby,

The Great Gatsby

who represented

everything

Dinner with the Buchanans

for which I would normally

only the deepest scorn. There was something

about him, a heightened
presence

of an earthquake

an extraordinary

machines

ten thousand

gift for hope, a romantic

like a great idea. He found the house, a small weather-beaten

truly wonderful

sensitivity to the promises

was like one of those complicated

have

place at eighty dollars

of life - he

company

that show the

ordered

out to the country

miles away. He had

readiness

a month,

but at the last minute

him to move to Washington,

the

and I went

alone. I had a dog - at least I had him for

a few days until he ran away - and an old car, and a woman

which I

from Finland, who made my bed and cooked breakfast

whispered darkly to herself in Finnish in the kitchen.

have never found in any other person and which it is not likely
I shall ever find again. No - Gatsby turned out all right at the

and

It was lonely for a day or so, until one morning some man,
more recently arrived than I, stopped me on the road.

end. It was what lay in wait for Gatsby, what foul dust followed
on the heels of his dreams that, for a while, ended my interest

'How do you get to West Egg village?' he asked helplessly.

in the failed sorrows and short-lived

I told him. And as I walked on, I was lonely no longer. I

joys of men.

was a guide, a pathfinder.

My family, the Carraways,
people

in this

grandfather's

Middle
brother

have been successful, fairly wealthy

Western

came

city for many

years.

My

And so, with the sunshine,

here in 1851 and

started

the

the trees, I had that recognizable

over again with the summer.

business that my father carries on today. I finished my studies

at Yale University

I belonged

in 1915, and a little later I took part in the

Great War. I enjoyed this excursion

so much that I came back

from Europe feeling restless. Instead of being the warm center

to the place. Without

knowing it, he had given me the freedom of the neighborhood.

and the leaves bursting

out on

feeling that life was beginning

My house was on that slender island which lies east of New

York. At one end of the island the land is in the shape of two
enormous

eggs, separated

by a bay. They look so similar that

of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the torn edge

they must be confusing

of it. So I decided

the wingless on the ground know that they are dissimilar

everything except shape and size.

bond business.
so I supposed

to go East, to New York, and learn the

Everybody

I knew was in the bond business,

it could support

one more single man. All my

for the seabirds that flyover them. But

in

aunts and uncles talked it over and finally said, 'Why - ye-es,'

East Egg was the more fashionable of the two, where the
rich lived in unbelievable luxury. I lived at West Egg, where

with very serious,

most people

were managing

Surprisingly,

the house next to mine was an enormous

hesitant

faces. Father agreed to pay me an

income for a year, and I came East, for ever, I thought,

in the

spring of 1922.

on comparatively

low incomes.
place _

it was an exact copy of some grand Town Hall in France, with

The sensible thing was to find rooms in the city, but it was
a warm season and I had just left a country

of wide lawns and

:1

tower on one side, a beautiful swimming

large gardens.

It was Gatsby's

mansion,

pool, and extremely

although,

as I didn't

friendly trees. So when a young man at the office suggested we

know him then, to me it was simply a mansion

should rent a house together

someone of that name. My own house was small and ugly, but

just outside

the city, it sounded

inhabited

by

Dinner with the Buchanans

The Great Gatsby

I had a view of the water, a part view of my neighbor's

and the comfortable

lawn,

feeling of living close to millionaires

for eighty dollars a month.

Across the bay the white palaces

- all

sofa, on which two women were lying. They were both in long
white dresses,

which were rising and falling with the wind,

until Tom banged shut the windows.

of East Egg shone along

the water, and the history of the summer

really begins on the

From her sofa Daisy turned to me and held my hand for a

moment.

She gave a pretty little laugh and looked up into my

evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Buchanans.

Daisy

was a distant

husband

cousin

Tom in college;

of mine,

team.

He was one of those

limited excellence

at twenty-one

a little disappointing.

and I'd known

her

they had a very young daughter,

whom I'd never met.

Tom had been one of the strongest
football

players

in the Yale

men who reach

that everything

His family were enormously

and then moved here and there, unrestfully,

such

afterwards

is

wealthy. He

and Daisy had spent a year in France for no particular

reason,

wherever

people

rode horses and were rich together.

And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove
over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I didn't know at
all well. Their house was even larger than I expected, a cheerful
red-and-white

mansion overlooking

the bay. The windows were

wide open to the sun and wind, and Tom Buchanan

clothes was standing

in riding

with his legs apart on the front porch.

He had changed since his years at Yale. Now he was a wellbuilt man of thirty, with a rather
manner.

Not even his beautifully

hide his body's enormous

moving under

hard mouth

and a proud

made riding clothes

could

power - you could see the muscles

his thin coat. It was a cruel body, capable

anything.
He greeted me and took me into a bright rosy-colored
A light wind blew through

it, blowing curtains

of

room.

in and out like

pale flags at the windows. In the center of the room was a large

Daisy turned to me and held my hand for a moment.

The Great Gatsby

Dinner with the Buchanans

face, promising that there was no one in the world she so much

We talked of this and that through dinner. Daisy and Miss

wanted to see. That was a way she had. She mentioned that the

Baker made polite, pleasant conversation

other girl's name was Baker, and Miss Baker and I greeted each
other politely.

telephone rang, and the butler came to whisper in Tom's ear.

Daisy asked me questions

in her low, exciting voice. Her

face was sad and lovely, with bright eyes and a bright beautiful
mouth,

but it was her voice that men who loved her found

difficult to forget. It had a singing kind of power, a whispered

that was as cool as

their white dresses. Tom seemed restless. Inside the house the
Tom frowned and without
forward and spoke to me.

a word went inside. Daisy bent

'I love to see you at my table, Nick. You remind me of - of a

rose, an absolute rose. Doesn't he?' She turned to Miss Baker.

'Listen', a promise that she had done amusing, exciting things

This was untrue. I am nothing like a rose. I felt that her heart

just a while ago and that there were amusing, exciting things

was trying to come out to me, hidden in those breathless, warm

to do in the next hour.

words. Then suddenly she got up and went into the house.

The butler brought in four drinks, but Miss Baker said, 'No,
thanks, I'm absolutely in training.'
I looked at her, wondering

what she was in training for. I

enjoyed looking at her. She was a slender, small-breasted

girl

I was about

to speak when Miss Baker said 'Shh!' in a

warning voice. She bent forward to listen unashamedly

low voice we could hear inside the house.

who held herself very straight, and she had gray eyes in a pale,

'This Mr Gatsby you spoke of is my neighbor-'

'Don't talk. I want to hear what happens.'

pretty, frowning face.

'Is something happening?'

'You live in West Egg,' she remarked

scornfully. 'I know

somebody there.'

I began.

I asked innocently.

'You mean to say you don't

honestly surprised.

know?'

said Miss Baker,

'I thought everybody knew.' She hesitated

'I don't know a single-'

for a moment. 'Tom's got some woman in New York.'

'You must know Gatsby.'

Almost before I had understood

Daisy were back at the table.

'Gatsby?' demanded
'Dinner

Daisy. 'What Gatsby?'

what she meant, Tom and

the butler said, before I could

'It couldn't be helped!' cried Daisy brightly. Her voice shook

reply, and we all went to sit down at a table on a porch outside.

a little as she continued, 'There's a beautiful bird singing in the

garden. It's romantic, isn't it, Tom?'

'Look!'

is served, madam,'

to the

said Daisy suddenly. Her eyes were on her little

finger. We all looked. It was black and blue.

'You did it, Tom,' she said accusingly. 'I know you didn't
mean to, but you did do it. That's what I get for marrying a
great big powerful animal of a man.'

'Very romantic,'

he said, and then miserably to me, 'If it's

light enough after dinner, I want to show you my horses.'

The telephone

rang inside again, and as Daisy shook her

head decisively at Tom, there was no further conversation

of

'I hate that word animal,' said Tom crossly, 'even as a joke.'

any kind and the dinner came to an end. Tom and Miss Baker

'Animal,' insisted Daisy.

went into the library, while I followed Daisy round the outside

Dinner with the Buchanans

The Great Gatsby

of the house to the front porch. In the darkness

was reading aloud to Tom from the Saturday Evening Post. As we

we sat down

entered, she stood up.

on a long seat.
Daisy took her lovely face in her hands. I saw that powerful

'Ten o'clock,'
'Jordan's

feelings had taken hold of her, so I asked what I hoped would

be some calming questions
'We don't

know

very well, Nick,'

Suddenly

she said

Nick, and I don't believe in anyone or anything

I couldn't

any more.'
I

rather weakly to asking about her daughter.

'Oh, yes.' She looked at me absently. 'Listen, Nick, let me tell

'Very much.'
'Well, she was less than an hour old, and Tom was God
alone, and asked

the nurse if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl,

and so I turned my head away and cried. "I'm glad it's a girl,"

thinks

so. And

everything

everything's

I know.

that's the best thing a girl

terrible

I've been

and done everything.

laughed scornfully.
The moment her voice stopped,
away. I felt the basic insincerity

anyway. Everybody

everywhere

Nothing's

and

seen

new to me!' She

her power over me died

of what she had said, and it

made me uneasy. I waited, and sure enough,

a second later she

looked at me with a silly smile on her lovely face.

Inside, the red-colored

it.

to let her run around the country

Daisy coldly. 'Anyway, Nick's

room was full of light. Miss Baker

'Her family

this way.'

a thousand

years old,' said

going to look after her, aren't

you, Nick? She's going to spend lots of weekends out here this
summer. I think the home influence will be very good for her.'
Daisy

and Tom looked

at each other

for a moment

in

silence.
'Did you give Nick a little heart-to-heart
demanded

talk on the porch?'

Tom suddenly.

'Did I?' She looked at me. 'I can't seem to remember.'

'Don't

little fool."

one, but

and she went upstairs.

'Her family is one aunt about

you what I said when she was born. Would you like to hear?'

'You see, I think

Daisy

Baker, the well-

'She's a nice girl,' said Tom after a moment.

oughtn't

'I suppose she talks, and - eats, and everything.'

can be in this world, a beautiful

quite remember

We all said goodnight,

I waited but she didn't say any more, and after a moment

I said. ''And I hope she'll be a fool-

I knew who she was - Jordan

I had heard some story about her too, an unpleasant

'I wasn't back from the war.'

'That's true.' She hesitated. 'Well, I've had a very bad time,

knows where. I woke up, feeling completely

match tomorrow,'

known golfer. Photos of her were in all the sports magazines.

suddenly. 'You didn't come to my wedding.'

returned

she said. 'Time for this good girl to go to bed.'

playing in an important

explained.

about her little girl.

each other

believe everything

you hear, Nick,' he advised me.

'Oh, I heard nothing at all,' I said lightly.

A little later I got up to go home. They came to the door
with me and stood side by side in a cheerful square of light.
'Wait!' called Daisy. 'I forgot to ask - we heard you were
engaged to a girl out West.'
'That's

right,' agreed Tom. 'We heard that.'

'It's not true. I'm too poor to get engaged.'

Of course I knew

what they were talking about. It was one of the reasons I had
come East. The girl was an old friend, but people had started

11

The Great Gatsby

10

saying we were engaged,

Their interest

rather

and I had no intention

touched

CHAPTER

of marrying.

me, but I was still confused

MEETING TOM'S MISTRSSS

as I drove away. It seemed to me that the thing for Daisy to do

was to rush out of the house, child in arms - but she did not
appear to have any such intentions

in her head. As for Tom,

the fact that he 'had some woman in New York' was not at all

alfway between West Egg and New York, the road meets
the railway and runs next to it for a quarter

of a mile, in

surpnsmg.
Already it was deep summer, and when I reached my house,

order to avoid a certain unpleasant

I put the car away and sat for a while out in my small garden.

strange-looking

It was a loud, bright night, with wings beating in the trees and

and chimneys, and finally of ash-gray men. Occasionally

insects flying above my head. A cat moved across the grass in

of gray cars moves slowly along an invisible path and comes

the moonlight,

and, turning

my head to watch it, I saw that I

was not alone. A figure had appeared

neighbor's
pockets,
suggested

mansion
looking

from the shadow of my

and was standing

with his hands

up at the silver stars. Something

it was Mr Gatsby

himself,

that he wanted to be alone. He stretched

some distance

strange

and far away. When I looked

farm where ashes grow into hills and

gardens,

where they take the shape of houses

to rest, and immediately

the ash-gray

men rush up and start

digging, creating a thick cloud of gray dust all around

But after a moment,

them.

above the gray land and through

dust clouds, you see the eyes of Doctor

are blue and enormous,

a line

T.

J. Eckleburg.

suggested

out his arms toward

way, and although

the
They

and look out of no face, but instead

from a pair of huge yellow glasses. The advertisement

from him, I felt sure he was trembling.

have been put up there by some local eye specialist,

must

who then

forgot it and moved away. But the eyes, paler now after many

I was

paintless days under sun and rain, still look thoughtfully

I too

over the rubbish

out

heaps.

except a green light, tiny

On one side of the valley is a small, dirty river, where trains

once more for Gatsby, he had

always have to stop for at least a minute before crossing. It was

looked out to sea - and saw nothing

disappeared,

about him

who had come out to

determine what share of our local sky was his.

I was going to call to him, but his next action
the dark water in a rather

in his

of ashes - a fantastic

area of land. This is a valley

and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness.

because of this that I first met Tom Buchanan's

Everyone

knew that he had one. Although

about her, I had no particular

by the ash-heaps,

I was curious

wish to meet her. I went up to

New York with Tom on the train one afternoon,

stopped

mistress.

he jumped

and when we

to his feet and, taking

hold of my elbow, forced me to get off the train.

'We're getting off,' he insisted. 'I want you to meet my girl.'
I had the feeling he'd drunk a good deal at lunch. He must

12

The Great Gatsby

Meeting Tom's mistress

13

have thought I had nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon,

past her ghost-like husband,

which rather annoyed me.

him full in the face. Then she ran her tongue around her lips,

We got off the train and walked back along the road under
Doctor Eckleburg's staring eyes. It was like a desert around us.
There was only one small building standing on its own on the
edge of the ash-heaps.

It contained

three shops. One was for

rent, and another was an all-night restaurant;

garage, with a sign saying Repairs GEORGE

the third was a

B. WILSON

Cars

bought and sold. I followed Tom inside.

The garage looked unused and almost empty. The only car
visible was a dust-covered old Ford in a dark corner. I thought
this shadow of a garage must be a pretence, and that luxurious,
romantic apartments

must be hidden upstairs. Then the owner

shook hands with Tom, looking

and, without turning to look at Wilson, spoke to him in a soft,

coarse VOIce.
'Get some chairs,
down.'

why don't

you, so somebody

can sit

Wilson hurried back to the little office. A white ashen dust

covered his dark suit and everything around him - except his
wife. She moved close to Tom.
'I want to see you,' said Tom quietly. 'Get on the next train.'
'All right,' said Mrs Wilson. She moved away from Tom just
as George Wilson came out of his office with two chairs.
We waited for her down the road, out of sight. A thin, gray-

himself appeared at the door of an office. He was a fair-haired,

looking child was playing near the ash-heaps by the road.

dull-looking man, pale, and almost handsome. When he saw us,

'Terrible
Eckleburg.
'Awful.'

a hopeful look came into his light blue eyes.

'Hello, Wilson,' said Tom cheerfully. 'How's business?'
'I can't complain,'

answered Wilson doubtfully. 'When are

you going to sell me that car?'

'Works pretty slow, don't he?'
'No, he doesn't,' said Tom coldly. 'And if you feel that way
about it, maybe I'd better sell it to someone else.'

at Doctor

'It does her good to get away.'

His voice died away and Tom looked impatiently

'Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York.

He's so dumb he doesn't know he's alive.'
So Tom Buchanan

and his girl and I went up together

New York - or not quite together,

'I don't mean that,' explained Wilson quickly. , I just-'

around the

garage. I heard footsteps on the stairs, and in a moment

the

thickish figure of a woman darkened the office doorway. She

and heavily-built,

isn't it,' said Tom, frowning

'Doesn't her husband ask questions?'

'Next week. I've got my man working on it now.'

was in her mid-thirties,

place,

but carried herself

to

because Mrs Wilson sat

separately from us, in case there were other East Eggers on the
train.
When we got out of the train, Mrs Wilson bought

two

magazines and a bottle of perfume at the station shop. Then

she noticed an old man with a basket of little dogs for sale,

sensuously. There was nothing of beauty in her face, but she

and told Tom she wanted one. Tom was not enthusiastic,

had an immediately noticeable vitality - her whole body seemed

handed over some money and Mrs Wilson chose her dog. In the
taxi she held it delightedly in her arms.

to be giving off waves of heat. She smiled slowly and, walking

but

Meeting Tom's mistress

The Great Gatsby

14

We arrived at Tom's apartment

on 158th Street, and I made

an attempt to say goodbye. But Tom wanted me to come up to

the apartment,

and Mrs Wilson said she would telephone her

15

Mrs Wilson looked scornful. 'This crazy old thing? I just slip
it on sometimes when I don't care what 1 look like.'
'If Chester could only get you, in that position,'

continued

sister Catherine to join us, so I went up with them.

The apartment was on the top floor - a small living room,

Mrs McKee, 'I think he could make something of it.'

a small dining room, a small bedroom,

hair from her eyes and looked back at us with her brightest

crowded with furniture

and a bath. It was

that was much too large for it. Tom

I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second time
so everything that happened has a misty

quality about it. Sitting on Tom's knees Mrs Wilson called up

several people on the phone, then I went out to buy cigarettes.
When I came back, they had both disappeared,

smile. Mr McKee looked at her carefully, his head on one side.

'I'd change the light,' he said after a moment.

brought out a bottle of whisky from a locked cupboard.

was that afternoon,

We all stared in silence at Mrs Wilson, who pushed back her

so I politely sat

down and waited in the living room. Just as Tom and Myrtle

'1 wouldn't think of changing the light-' cried Mrs McKee.

'Shh!' said her husband, deep in artistic thought, and we all
looked at Myrtle again. Suddenly Tom yawned and stood up.
'You McKees, have something to drink,' he said. 'Get some
more ice, Myrtle, before everybody goes to sleep.'
'I told that boy about the ice.' Myrtle rolled her eyes upwards.

(after the first drink Mrs Wilson and I called each

'These people! You have to keep an eye on them all the time.'

other by our first names), guests started arriving.

The sister, Catherine, was a slender, worldly girl of about

She looked at me and laughed pointlessly. Then she marched

purposefully

thirty, with red hair. There was also a man called Chester

had ten hired cooks in there, waiting for her orders.

reappeared

into the kitchen, clearly wanting us to think she

McKee, from the flat below. He had just shaved, and there was

Her sister, Catherine,

still a tiny bit of shaving soap on his face. I learnt that he

'Do you live down on Long Island, too?' she asked.

was a photographer.

His wife was loud,

slow, handsome,

and horrible.

She told me proudly

photographed

her one hundred and twenty-seven times since

they had been married.

Mrs Wilson had changed

that her husband

had

sat down beside me on the sofa.

'I live at West Egg.'

'Really? I was down there at a party about a month ago. At
Gatsby's. Do you know him?'
'I live next door to him.'

her clothes

and was wearing

an expensive afternoon dress. With the influence of the dress, her

'Well, they say he's a relation of Kaiser Wilhelm's. That's

where all his money comes from - the German royal family.'

character had also changed. The warm vitality that had been so

'Really?' I was interested.

remarkable in the garage had become overpowering arrogance.

'I'm afraid of him. I'd hate him to know anything about me.'

'My dear,' she told her sister loudly, 'most of these servants
will cheat you every time. All they think of is money.'
'I like your dress,' remarked Mrs McKee, 'it's wonderful.'

She looked

over at Tom and

Myrtle,

then

whispered,

'Neither of them can stand the person they're married to.'

'Can't they?'

16

The Great Gatsby

Meeting Toms mistress

17

'Can't stand them. What I say is, why go on living with them
if they can't stand them? If I was them, I'd get a divorce and get
married to each other as soon as possible.'
'Doesn't

your sister like her husband,

The answer to this was unexpected.

who had overheard

the question,

'You see!' cried Catherine,

then?'
It came from Myrtle,

and it was violent and rude.

pleased

that she was right. She

went on in a lower voice, 'It's really Tom's wife that's keeping

them apart. She doesn't believe in divorce.'
I knew this wasn't true, and I was a little shocked at the lie.
Suddenly

we heard

the sharp,

across the room. 'I almost married

saying to Myrtle.

high voice of Mrs McKee

the wrong man,' she was

'I knew he was far below me socially. But if

I hadn't met Chester, the nasty little man would have got me,
that's for sure.'
'But at least you didn't marry the wrong man,' said Myrtle.
'The difference

between you and me is that I did.'

'Why did you marry George, Myrtle?'

demanded

Catherine.

'I thought he knew how to behave to a lady, but he was no

good. I wouldn't let him lick my shoe.'
'You were crazy about him for a while,' said Catherine.
'Crazy about him!' cried Myrtle in horror. 'I never was any
more crazy about him than I was about that man there.'
She pointed

suddenly

at me, and everyone

accusingly. I tried to show by my expression

to be loved.

looked

at me

that I didn't expect

'She really ought to get away from him,' Catherine

whispered

to me. 'They've been living over that garage for eleven years.
And Tom's the first boyfriend she ever had.'
A second bottle of whisky was now constantly
'Get some more ice, Myrtle, before everybody goes to sleep.'

:111 present, except Catherine,

in demand by

who 'felt just as good on nothing

The Great Gatsby

18

at all'. 1 wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park

face to face, discussing

in the soft evening half-light, but each time 1 tried to go, 1 got

Wilson was allowed to mention Daisy's name.

involved in some wild argument, which pulled me back into the

room. Anyone watching in the darkening

streets outside must

have seen our yellow windows high up against the sky, and 1
was that person too, looking up and wondering.

1 was inside

and outside, at the same time delighted and horrified by the

brought

'Daisy!

her chair close to mine, and her warm

breath poured over me the story of her first meeting with Tom.
'I was going up to New York to see my sister and spend the
night. Tom sat opposite me on the train, and 1 couldn't

take

in loud angry voices whether

Daisy! Daisy!'

shouted

Mrs Wilson.

Mrs

'I'll

say it

movement Tom Buchanan

broke

whenever 1 want to! Daisy! Dai-'

With a short, deliberate
her nose with his open hand.
Then there were bloody towels on the bathroom
angry women's

never-ending variety of life.

Myrtle

19

Meeting Tom's mistress

floor, and

voices, and high over the confusion

a long

broken cry of pain. Mr McKee woke from his sleep and started
stiffly toward the door. Halfway there he turned around and
stared at what was going on. His wife and Catherine
falling over the furniture

were

as they moved about the crowded

my eyes off him. When we came into the station, he was next

room, trying to help the bleeding figure on the sofa. Then Mr

to me, and his shirt-front

McKee turned and continued

was touching my arm, so 1 told him

I'd have to call a policeman,

but he knew 1 was lying. 1 was

so excited when 1 got into a taxi with him that 1 didn't really
know where I was. All 1 kept thinking about, over and over, was

on out the door. 1 took up my

hat and followed.

'Come to lunch some day,' he suggested, as we went down
in the elevator.
'Where?'

"You can't live forever, you can't live forever".'

She turned to Mrs McKee and the room rang full of her
false laughter.
'My dear,' she cried, 'I'm giving you this dress as soon as

'Anywhere. '
'All right,' 1 agreed. 'I'll be glad to.'
. .. 1 was standing

beside his bed and he was sitting up

I've finished with it. I've got to buy another one tomorrow. I'm

between the sheets, wearing his underwear, with a great pile of

going to make a list of all the things I'm going to buy.'

photographs

It was nine o'clock - almost immediately afterwards 1looked

at my watch and found it was ten. Mr McKee was asleep in a
chair. Taking out my handkerchief,

I removed from his face

the dried shaving soap that had worried me all the afternoon.
People

disappeared,

reappeared,

made

plans

to

go

somewhere, and then lost each other, searched for each other,
found each other nearby.
Some time around

midnight,

Tom and Mrs Wilson stood

in his hands.

'Beauty and the Beast ... Loneliness ... Old Grocery Horse
... Brooklyn Bridge ... '
Then 1 was lying half asleep in the cold lower level of the
Pennsylvania Station, staring at the morning newspaper,
waiting for the four o'clock train.

and

A party at Gatsby's .

20

CHAPTER

21

and ended up at Gatsby's door. Sometimes they arrived and

departed without meeting their host at all.

A PARTY AT GATSBY'S

But I had been actually invited. Early that Saturday morning

Gatsby's driver, in a pale blue uniform, crossed my lawn with a

here was music from my neighbor's

house through

the

summer nights. In his blue gardens, men and girls came

and went like night-flying insects among the whisperings and

surprisingly formal note from his employer, inviting me to his

party that evening.
As soon as I arrived, I tried hard to find my host. But the two

I watched his

or three people I asked stared at me so strangely that I turned

guests swimming from his private beach, and on weekends his

away from them and walked toward the safety of the cocktail

Rolls-Royce became a bus, carrying people to and from the city

table. It was the only place in the crowded garden where a

between nine in the morning and long past midnight. And on

single man could stand around without

Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, worked

and alone.

the champagne

and the stars. In the afternoons

all day to make the house and garden perfect again after the

After a while I saw Jordan Baker come out of the house

and look down, with scornful interest, into the garden. I was

weekend.
By seven o'clock

every Saturday

night, the orchestra

has

arrived. The last swimmers have come in from the beach and
are dressing upstairs; there are at least five rows of cars from
New York parked in front of the house, and already the halls
and rooms are full of colorful dresses and the latest, strangest
haircuts.

looking purposeless

Cocktails

are being served in the garden, until the

delighted to see someone I recognized, and greeted her warmly.

'I thought

you might be here,' she replied. 'I remembered

you lived next door to-'

'Hello, Jordan!'

cried two girls in yellow dresses, who were

passing. 'Sorry you didn't win your match last week.'

They moved on, and with Jordan's

slender golden

arm

air is alive with cheerful talk and laughter, and introductions

resting in mine, we walked around the garden. Soon we sat

immediately

down at a table with the two girls in yellow, and three men

forgotten,

and enthusiastic

meetings

between

women who never knew each other's names.

The lights grow brighter as the earth moves away from the
sun, and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music.
The voices are louder and higher, and laughter is easier minute

whose names I did not catch.

'Do you come to these parties often?' Jordan asked the girl
beside her, whose name was Lucille.
'Yes, I like to come,' Lucille said. 'I never care what I do, so I

by minute. Suddenly a girl dances out alone on to the lawn,

always have a good time. When I was here last, I tore my dress

and the party has begun.

I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house,

on a chair, and he asked me my name and address. Well, in less

than a week I got a parcel with a new evening dress in it.'

I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited.

'Did you keep it?' asked Jordan.

People were not invited - they went there. They got into cars

'Sure I did. It cost two hundred and sixty-five dollars.'

22

23

A party at Gatsby's

The Great Gatsby

'There's something about a man that'll do a thing like that,'

pages and everything. I thought they'd have nothing inside, but

said the other girl. 'He doesn't want any trouble with anybody.'

- Here! Let me show you.' He rushed to a shelf and opened a

book. 'See!' he cried delightedly. 'It's a real book! This Gatsby,

'Who doesn't?' I asked.

'Gatsby.

Somebody

told

me-'

She lowered

her voice.

'Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once.'

what a library he's got!'

He put the book back on the shelf. 'I've been drunk for

The three men bent forward and listened eagerly.

about a week now,' he added, 'and I thought it might help if I

'I don't think it's so much that,' argued Lucille. 'It's more

sat in a library for a while.'

that he was a German spy during the war.'

One of the men agreed. 'I heard that from a man who grew
up with him in Germany,' he said.

about the books? They're real. They're-'

'Oh no,' said the other girl, 'it couldn't

he was in the American
enthusiastically,

army during

be that, because

the war.' She added

'You look at him sometimes when he thinks

nobody's looking at him. I'm sure he's killed a man.'

She narrowed her eyes and shivered. Lucille shivered. We all
was now being served,

was polite and uninteresting,

now on the lawn, the orchestra

was

than finger bowls. The moon had risen higher, and floating in
the ocean was a silver triangle, trembling a little in the night air.

me

I was still with Jordan Baker, and I was enjoying myself now.
We were sitting at a table with a man of about my age, and

so she and I got up

during a pause in the music he looked at me and smiled.

'I've seen you somewhere before,' he said politely. 'Weren't

invited

and told them we were going in search of our host.

The bar, where we looked first, was crowded, but Gatsby
was not there. We tried an important-looking

door, which

opened into a beautiful library with a high ceiling.

A fat middle-aged

back outdoors.
There was dancing

table. But their

and Jordan

to eat with some of her friends at another

conversation

'You told us.' We shook hands with him politely and went

playing jazz, and champagne was being served in glasses bigger

turned and looked for Gatsby, but there was no sign of him.
Supper

'Has it helped?'
'I can't tell yet. I've only been here an hour. Did I tell you

man was sitting, rather drunk,

you in the army during the war?'

'Why, yes. I was in the First Infantry Division.'
'So was I, until June 1918. I knew I recognized you.'

on the

We talked

for a moment

about

some wet,

gray little

edge of a great table, staring at the shelves of books all around

villages in France. Then he told me he had just bought a new

him. His enormous

motorboat

glasses made him look owl-eyed. As we

entered, he turned excitedly and spoke to us.

'What do you think?' he demanded.

and was going to try it out the next morning.

'Want to go with me, old sport?'

he asked. 'Just off the

'About what?' Jordan asked.

beach near here. Any time that suits you best.'

'I'd like that,' I replied and added, 'This is an unusual party

He waved his hand toward the books. 'About all these. You

for me. I haven't even seen the host. I live next door, and this

needn't bother to find out. I found out. They're real- they have

man Gatsby sent his driver over with an invitation.'

24

The Great Gatsby

For a moment he didn't seem to know what I meant. Then

he said suddenly, 'I'm Gatsby.'
'What!' I cried. 'Oh, I'm so sorry!'
'I thought

showed you that he understood

you, believed in you, and had

the best possible opinion of you. Suddenly it disappeared - and

I was looking at a fashionably dressed young man, a year or two

you knew, old sport. I'm afraid I'm not a very

good host.' He smiled understandingly.

25

A party at Gatsby's

It was one of those

smiles that you see only four or five times in your life. It

over thirty, who seemed to choose his words with great care.
The butler appeared, with the information

that Chicago was

calling Gatsby on the telephone.

'Excuse me,' he said, standing up. 'I have to go. If you want
anything, just ask for it, old sport.'
When he was gone, I turned to Jordan impatiently. 'Who is
he?' I demanded.

'Where is he from? And what does he do?'

'Now you're just like everyone else!' she replied smiling. 'He
told me once he was an Oxford man. But I don't believe it.'
'Why not?'
'I don't know. I just don't think he went there.'
This made me even more curious than before. After a few
minutes 1 caught sight of him. He had come out of the house
and was standing there, looking in a pleased way at his guests.
I could see nothing

darkly mysterious

about him at all. I

wondered if the fact that he was not drinking made him appear
different from the rest of us. It seemed to me that he grew more
formal as everyone else behaved more wildly. There was no girl
in his arms, or glass in his hand, or song on his lips.
'Excuse me, madam.'

The butler was speaking to Jordan.

'Mr Gatsby would like to speak to you alone.'

'With me?' she said in surprise.
She got up slowly, and followed the butler toward the house.
An hour or so later she had not returned, and 1 decided to
leave. As 1 was waiting for my hat in the hall, the library door
opened, and Jordan and Gatsby came out together.
She came over to me and whispered,
'This is an unusual party for me. I haven't even seen the host,' I said.

most surprising

'I've just heard the

thing. Look, please come and see me. I'm

26

A party at Gatsby's .

The Great Gatsby

staying at my aunt's
book ...

...

Mrs Sigourney

' She was hurrying

Howard

...

phone

away as she spoke, to join her

at staying so late, I went to say goodbye to

Gatsby. I wanted to apologize for not knowing who he was.

'Don't

give it another

thought,

old sport,'

he said eagerly.

'And don't forget we're going out in the motorboat

tomorrow morning at nine o'clock.'
'Philadelphia

wants you on the phone,

together

behind his shoulder.

I was glad I was among the last to leave, because it

seemed important
night.'

to him. 'Good

the lawn. A sudden

night, old sport

my front door, I looked

emptiness

...

good

back across

seemed to flow now from the

and the great doors of Gatsby's

mansion.

Standing

on the porch was the lonely figure of the host, his hand raised
in a formal goodbye.
That was a busy summer
the bond business.

that I hadn't

been able to remember

her first big golf match someone

hopelessly dishonest.

for me. I worked

hard, learning

I began to like New York, especially

the

adventurous

feel of it at night. I liked to walk up Fifth Avenue

and choose

romantic

women

from

the crowd - I used to

that night at Daisy's. At

had accused her of secretly

moving her ball to a better position.

me realize

In the end the story was

that Jordan

Baker was

It made no difference to me - dishonesty

you never blame deeply - and I soon

forgot about it.

It was during that same house party that we had a strange
conversation.
workmen

Once I had reached

windows

lied about it. And suddenly the story came back to me, the one

in a woman is something

'Tell them I'll be right there,' he said. He smiled at me - and

suddenly

she left

car out in the rain with the top down, and then

covered up, but it made

sir,' said the butler

and one day I found

what it was. When we were at a house party together,

a borrowed

friends who were waiting to drive her home.

Feeling ashamed

turned to the world was hiding something,

27

It started

because

she drove so close to some

that her car touched a button on one man's coat.

'You're a rotten driver,' I protested.

more careful, or you oughtn't

'Either you ought to be

to drive at all.'

'I am careful.'
'No, you're not.'
'Well, other people are, and they'll keep out of my way.'
'Suppose you met someone just as careless as yourself?'
'I hope I never will,' she answered.

'I hate careless people.

That's why I like you.'

For a moment

I thought

I loved her. But I said nothing.

imagine that in a few minutes I was going to enter their lives,

knew that first I had to get myself out of that connection

and no one would ever know. Sometimes

home. For me, it had never been more than friendship,

I felt miserably lonely,

and knew there were plenty of other young men who felt that
way too.
For a while I lost sight of Jordan Baker, then in midsummer
I found her again. At first I was delighted to go places with her,
because everyone knew who she was. I wasn't actually in love,
but I felt a strong interest in her. The bored, arrogant

face she

there was a sort of understanding

back
but

between us, and that had to

be gently broken off before I was free.

Everyone believes they have at least one good point, and this
is mine: I am one of the few honest people I have ever known.

28

Gatsby's past

CHAPTER

29

'I see.'

'My family left me a good deal of money, so I lived like a

GATSBY'S P~T

A t nine o'clock
l"\. car arrived at
on me, although
his motorboat
'Good

king in all the capitals

horses, painting

one morning

in July, Gatsby's

beautiful

my door. It was the first time he had called

I had gone to two of his parties,

been out in

and, at his urgent invitation, used his private beach.

morning,

old sport.

today and I thought

You're having lunch with me

we'd drive up to town together.'

me looking admiringly

He saw

at his car. 'It's pretty, isn't it, old sport?

Haven't you seen it before?'

I'd seen it. Everybody

like it in West Egg. Long and luxurious,

it was a rich yellowish

color. I got in and we started on the road to New York.

village. 'What's

and

that he did not have much to say.

what happened

'Look here, old sport,'

next.

he said suddenly

'I'm going to tell you something

about my life,' he said. 'I

I am the son of some wealthy

people in the Middle West - all dead now. I was brought

He looked

and I knew why Jordan

believed he was lying. He swallowed

Oxford'.

up in

at Oxford, like all my family before me.'

at me sideways,

had

the words 'educated

And with this doubt, I could not believe any of it.

'What part of the Middle West?' I asked innocently.

'San Francisco.'

in some magical way. I was sent to France as an army officer,

and my men and I held an important

position for two days and

and received medals from all the countries

Montenegro,

little Montenegro,

at

on our side - even

down on the Adriatic Sea!'

what he could possibly

invent to tell me next. But he took a piece of metal from his

pocket and put it in my hand.
the medal from Montenegro.'

To my great surprise, the thing looked real. On the back was

'Here's

don't want you to get the wrong idea from all these stories you

America, but educated

'Then came the war, old sport. I was glad to go and fight,
and I tried very hard to die, but my life seemed to be protected

written,

I gave the usual polite reply.

hear. I'll tell you God's truth.

not to laugh in his face. It was an old, old story,

heard many times before - not even the words were new.

'That's

as we left West Egg

your opinion of me?'

A little surprised,

very sad

to me long ago.'

I stared at him admiringly, wondering

I had talked with him several times in the past month

So I was not expecting

jewels, riding

two nights against three German divisions. I was made a major,

had seen it. There was no other car

found, to my disappointment,

collecting

a little, and trying to forget something

that had happened

I managed

of Europe,

To Major Jay Gatsby, for Extraordinary

another

days.' He showed me a photograph

doorway

Bravery.

thing I always carry. A memory

of Oxford

of six young men in the

of an ancient college; one of them was Gatsby.

So it was all true. I believed in him at last.

'I'm going to make a big request of you today,' he went on.
'That's why I thought you ought to know something
You'll hear about it this afternoon.'

about me.

'At lunch?'
'No, this afternoon.

I happened

to find out that you're taking

Miss Baker to tea. She has kindly agreed to speak to you about
this ma tter.'

30

The Great Gatsby

I had no idea what 'this matter' was, but I was more annoyed
than interested. I hadn't asked Jordan Baker to tea in order to
discuss Mr Jay Gatsby.
As we drove at high speed into New York, we were stopped
by a policeman on a motorbike.
'All right, old sport,'

31

Gatsby's past

It turned out, however, that he was not speaking to me, but

to Gatsby.
'I handed the money to Katspaugh
Katspaugh,

and I said, ''All right,

don't pay him a cent until he shuts his mouth."

He shut it then and there.' Mr Wolfshiem gave a pleased smile.

called Gatsby. He took a white card

from his pocket and waved it at the policeman.

'Right you are,' agreed the policeman politely. 'I'll know you
next time, Mr Gatsby. Excuse me!'

Gatsby took both of us by the arm and moved us toward a

table. The head waiter brought cocktails.
Mr Wolfshiem turned to me. 'I understand
for a business connection,'

you're looking

he said.

'What was that?' I asked Gatsby. 'The picture of Oxford?'

Gatsby said quickly, 'Oh no, this isn't the man.'

'I was able to help the chief of police once, and he sends me

'No?' Mr Wolfshiem seemed disappointed.

a card every year.'

'This is just a friend. I told you we'd talk about that some

We drove over the great bridge, with the sunlight on the

seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the

other time.'
The food arrived, and we started eating.
'Look here, old sport,' said Gatsby, turning

first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the

afraid I made you a little angry this morning in the car.' There

beauty in the world.

was the smile again, but this time I was able to fight against it.

moving cars, and the city rising up across the river. New York

'Anything can happen now that we've come over this bridge,'
I thought, 'anything

at all ... '

Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular

to me. 'I'm

'Idon't like mysteries,' I said, 'and I don't understand

why

you won't tell me honestly what you want. Why has it all got
wonder.

to come through Miss Baker?'

'Oh, it's nothing unpleasant,

I promise you. Miss Baker's

By midday it was very hot. I left my office and met Gatsby for

a great sportswoman,

lunch, in a cool Forty-second Street restaurant. When I arrived,

that wasn't all right.'

Suddenly he looked at his watch, jumped up and left the

he was there already, talking to another man.

'Mr Carraway, this is my friend Mr Wolfshiem,' Gatsby said
to me.
Wolfshiem was a small, flat-nosed man of about fifty, with
a large head and two tiny eyes.
'So I took one look at him,' said Mr Wolfshiem, shaking my
hand, 'and what do you think I did?'
'What?' I asked politely.

you know, and she'd never do anything

room, leaving me and Mr Wolfshiem together.

'He has to telephone,'
he? Handsome

said Mr Wolfshiem. 'Fine man, isn't

to look at, and perfect manners. He went to

one of the most famous colleges in the world - Oxford College

in England. You know it?'
'I've heard of it,' I said. 'Have you known him long?'
'Since just after the war. It only took me an hour to discover

32

Gatsby's past

The Great Gatsby

he was a man of good family and education.

I said to myself,

"There's the kind of man you'd like to take home and introduce
to your mother and sister.'"
at my shirt buttons.'
I hadn't

He paused.

'I see you're looking

of human teeth,' he informed

'Well!' I said. 'That's

rang in her house and excited young officers asked

to take her out.

When I came opposite

her house that morning,

a very interesting

'Yes.' He went on, 'Gatsby's

He was looking at her in such a romantic way that I've never

forgotten it. His name was Jay Gatsby, and I didn't see him again

me.

for over four years.

idea.'

very careful about women. He

Soon after Gatsby's return, Mr

coffee, said goodbye and left us.

Then one night that winter her mother found her packing a
bag to go to New York and say goodbye

would never even look at a friend's wife.'

Wolfshiem

finished

his

going overseas.

Her family stopped

to an officer who was

her going, but she didn't

speak to them for weeks. A year and a half later, she marriedTom

'Who is he?' I asked Gatsby. 'An actor? A dentist?'

Buchanan. He hired a whole floor of Louisville's best hotel for his

'Meyer Wolfshiem?

guests, and the day before the wedding

No, he's a gambler.

1919 World Series? Wolfshiem's

You remember

the

the man who paid eight of the

Chicago players to let the other team win. He made a lot of

money out of it.'

he gave her a necklace

which cost three hundred and fifty thousand

dollars.

I was her best friend by then, and the night before the wedding
I went into her room just before dinner. I found her lying on her

'Why isn't he in prison?'

bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress - and as

'They can't get him, old sport. He's a smart man.'

drunk as a monkey. She had a bottle of wine in one hand and a

I saw Tom Buchanan

At that moment
room.

across the crowded

He came over to our table and I introduced

him to

Gatsby. They shook hands, and to my surprise Gatsby looked

quite uncomfortable.

Tom and I said a few words

other, and when I turned

there.

to each

back to Gatsby, he was no longer

letter in the other.

'Congratulate

me; she called out. 'Never had a drink before,

but oh, how I do enjoy it!'

'What's the matter, Daisy?' I was scared,

I can tell you; I'd

never seen a girl like that before.

'Here, my dear: She felt drunkenly

around on the floor, and

picked up the necklace. 'Give it back to whoever

One October

day in nineteen-seventeen

(said Jordan Baker that afternoon,

tea-garden at the Plaza Hotel)
...

I saw her

sitting in her little white car with an officer I'd never seen before.

been looking at them, but I did now.

'Finest examples

telephone

33

I was walking

And tell them all, Daisy's changed

...

sitting up very straight in the

Daisy was just eighteen

then, two years

her mind!'

She began to cry - she cried and cried. I rushed

found her mother's

servant

older than

me,

and by far the most popular girl in Louisville - all day long the

out and

girl. We locked the door and got

Daisy into a cold bath. She wouldn't

past Daisy Fay's house.

it belongs to.

let go of the letter and kept

it in the bath with her, until it came to pieces like snow. But
she didn't say another

word. We put ice on her forehead

and

34

The Great Gatsby

Gatsby's past

buttoned her up in her dress, and half an hour later, when we

walked out of the room, the necklace was round her neck and it
was all over. Next day at five o'clock she marriedTom Buchanan
without so much as a shiver.
I saw them later that summer in Santa Barbara, and I thought
I'd never seen a girl so mad about her husband. It was touching
to see her with Tom. That was in August. One night a week later,
Tom had a car accident, and there was a photograph of him in
the local newspaper. The girl who was with him got into the
papers too - she was a waitress at the Santa Barbara Hotel.
The next April Daisy had her little girl, and they went to France
for a year.They came back to Chicago, and then moved to Long
Island. About six weeks ago, she heard the name Gatsby for the
first time in years, when I asked you - do you remember? - if
you knew Gatsby in West Egg. After you had gone home, she
came to my room and asked me, 'What Gatsby?' And when I
described him, she said in the strangest voice that it must be the
man she used to know. It wasn't until then that I connected this
Gatsby with the officer sitting in her little white car.
By the time Jordan had finished, we were in a horse-drawn

cab,

driving through Central Park in the warm half-light.

'It was a strange coincidence,'

I said.

'But it wasn't a coincidence at all. Gatsby bought that house

so that Daisy would be just across the bay.'
So when I saw him on his lawn that June night, stretching
out his arms, it wasn't just the stars that he wanted to touch.
He came alive to me; suddenly his shallow life of great wealth
and parties had a deeper purpose.
'He half expected her to come to one of his parties, but she
never did,' continued Jordan. 'Now he wants to know if you'll

Daisy came to my room and asked me, 'What Gatshy?'

35

36

37

The Great Gatsby

invite her to your house one afternoon

and let him come over.'

CHAPTER

It was so little to ask. He had waited five years and bought a

mansion - so that he could 'come over' to a stranger's garden.

GATSBY AND DAISY MEET AgAIN

'Why didn't he ask you to arrange a meeting?'

'He wants her to see his house, and you live right next door.'
It was dark now, and I put my arm round Jordan's golden

l A Jhen
V V for

I came home to West Egg that night, I was afraid

a moment that my house was on fire. Two o'clock

shoulder and drew her toward me. Suddenly I wasn't thinking

in the morning, and the whole of the coastline seemed to be in

of Daisy and Gatsby any more, but of this clean, hard, limited

flames. Turning a corner, I saw that it was Gatsby's house, lit

person,

from tower to cellar.

who believed in nothing

and who sat confidently

At first I thought

within the circle of my arm.

it was another party. But there wasn't a

'And Daisy ought to have something in her life,' she added.

sound, only wind in the trees. As my taxi drove away, I saw

'Does she want to see Gatsby?'

Gatsby walking toward me across his lawn.

'He doesn't

want her to know

about

this. You're just

supposed to invite her to tea.'

We passed a line of dark trees, and then the lights of Fiftyninth Street shone down into the park. Unlike Gatsby and

'Every light in your house must be on,' I said.

He turned his eyes toward it absently. 'I've been looking into
some of the rooms. Let's go for a drive, old sport.'
'It's too late.'

Tom Buchanan, I had no girl to dream about, so I drew up the

'All right.' He waited, trying to hide his eagerness.

girl beside me, tightening my arms. Her pale, scornful mouth

'I talked with Miss Baker,' I said after a moment. 'I'm going

smiled, and so I drew her up again closer, this time to my face.

to call up Daisy tomorrow and invite her over here to tea.'

'Oh, I don't want to put you to any trouble,' he said.
'What day would suit you?' I asked.
'What day would suit you?' he corrected me quickly.
'How about the day after tomorrow?'
He hesitated.
suspected

'I want to get the grass cut,'

he said.

that he meant my untidy lawn. 'There's

thing,' he added uncertainly.

another

'You don't make much money,

old sport, do you?'

'Not very much.'
He went on more confidently, 'You see, I carry on a little
business. I think it would interest you. It wouldn't

take up

much of your time and you might pick up a nice bit of money.'

38

Gatsby and Daisy meet again

The Great Gatsby

He was obviously making this offer because I was going to

help him meet Daisy, so I didn't feel I could accept. I refused
politely. After another attempt at conversation, he went home.
I called up Daisy from the office next morning and invited

'Don't be silly. It's just two minutes to four.'

He sat down miserably, and at that moment we heard a car
arriving. We both jumped up, and I went outside.
From the car window Daisy's face looked out at me, from
under a three-cornered

her to come to tea. 'Don't bring Tom,' I warned her.

39

hat, with a delighted smile.

'Who is "Tom"?' she asked innocently.

'Is this absolutely where you live, my dearest one?'

The following day it was pouring with rain. At eleven o'clock

Her lovely voice made the gray day feel brighter. I took her

Gatsby's

gardener

came over to cut my wet grass, and I

drove into West Egg village to search for my Finnish woman

and to buy some cakes and cups and flowers. The flowers
were unnecessary,
Gatsby's,
them in.

because at two o'clock a car arrived from

delivering a mountain

of roses, with vases to put

hand to help her from the car.

'Are you in love with me?' she said low in my ear. 'If not,
why did I have to come alone?'
'That's my secret. Tell your driver to go away for an hour.'
We went indoors.

To my surprise,

the living room was

deserted. There was a light knocking at the front door. When I

An hour later the front door opened nervously, and Gatsby

hurried in. He was pale, and
sleeplessness under his eyes.

there

were dark

signs of

opened it, Gatsby was standing on the doorstep, pale as death,

with his hands deep in his coat pockets. Without a word, he
walked past me into the living room.

'Is everything all right?' he asked immediately.

For half a minute there wasn't a sound. Then I heard a sort

'The grass looks fine, if that's what you mean.'

of murmur and part of a laugh, followed by Daisy's voice on a

'What grass?' he asked vacantly. 'Oh yes, your grass.' He

clear, false note: 'I certainly am awfully glad to see you again.'
There was a pause. It lasted a horribly long time. I had

looked out at it, but I don't believe he saw a thing.

'Have you got everything you need for - for tea?'

nothing to do in the hall, so I went into the living room.

I showed him the twelve little cakes from the baker's.

'Will they do?' I asked.

of the fireplace. The back of his head was touching a clock on

Gatsby, his hands still in his pockets, was standing in front

a shelf, but he was trying to look perfectly comfortable

and

'Of course, of course! They're fine!' and he added hollowly,

'old sport.'

even a little bored. His miserable eyes stared down at Daisy,

By half-past three the rain had slowed to a heavy wet mist.

who was sitting, frightened but beautiful, on the edge of a stiff

Gatsby

sat there,

looking

with unseeing

eyes through

my

magazines. Finally he stood up and told me he was going home.

'Why's that?'
'Nobody's coming to tea. It's too late!' He looked nervously
at his watch. 'I can't wait all day.'

chair.
'We've met before,' murmured

Gatsby. Luckily the clock

chose this moment to fall off the shelf, so he turned and caught
it with trembling fingers. 'I'm sorry about the clock,' he said.
I couldn't think of a single sensible thing to say. 'It's an old

40

The Great Gatsby

clock,'

I told them stupidly. I think

Gatsby and Daisy meet again

we all believed for a

moment that it had smashed in pieces on the floor.

'Five years next November.'

of their voices, but in the new

I went in - after making every possible noise in the kitchen

- but I don't believe they heard a sound. They were sitting at

quality of Gatsby's answer made us all feel

even more embarrassed.

like the murmur

silence, I felt that silence had fallen within the house too.

'We haven't met for many years,' said Daisy, almost calmly.
The automatic

sounded

41

either end of the sofa, and every sign of embarrassment

was

I made the desperate suggestion that

gone. Daisy had been crying, and was drying her tears. But

they help me make tea in the kitchen, and they were both on

there was a surprising change in Gatsby. He simply shone with

their feet when the Finnish woman brought the teapot in.

delight; his new-found happiness filled the little room.

In the welcome confusion of cups and cakes, things were

'Oh, hello, old sport,' he said. I could have been a friend he

better. Gatsby sat down in the shadows, and watched Daisy

hadn't seen for years. I thought for a moment he was going to

and me talking,

shake hands.

with dark, unhappy

eyes. But at the first

possible moment I got up and said I had to leave them.

'Where

are you going?' demanded

'It's stopped raining.'

Gatsby in immediate

alarm. 'I've got to speak to you before you go.' He followed me

wildly into the kitchen, closed the door, and whispered, 'Oh,
God!' in a miserable way.

'I'm glad, Jay.' Her throat, full of achingly sad beauty, told

'What's the matter?'

only of her unexpected joy.

'This is a terrible mistake, a terrible, terrible mistake.'

'You're just embarrassed,
'Daisy's embarrassed

'I want you and Daisy to come over to my house,' he said.

that's all,' and luckily I added,

too.'

'Absolutely, old sport.'

'You're behaving like a little boy,' I went on. 'Not only that,
'but you're being rude. Daisy's sitting in there all alone.'
he raised his hand

'I'd like to show her arosnd.'

'You're sure you want me to come?'

This came as a great surprise to him.

Frowning,

'Has it?' When he realized what I was talking about, he

smiled and repeated the news to Daisy. 'What do you think of
that? It's stopped raining.'

to stop my words,

and,

opening the door cautiously, went back into the living room.
I walked out the back way - just as Gatsby had done half an
hour earlier - and waited under a huge black tree in the middle
of my lawn. Once more it was pouring, and there was nothing
to look at from under the tree except Gatsby's

Daisy went upstairs to wash her face, while Gatsby and I

waited on the lawn.

enormous

mansion.
After half an hour the sun shone again. The rain had

'My house looks well, doesn't it?' he demanded.

I agreed that it was very handsome.
'Yes.' His eyes went over every detail of it. 'It took me just
three years to earn the money that bought it.'
'I thought you inherited your money.'
'I did, old sport,' he said automatically,

'but I lost most of it

when the money markets crashed after the war.'

Before I could answer, Daisy came out of the house.

The Great Gatsby

42

Gatsby and Daisy meet again

'That huge place there?' she cried, pointing.

'They're such beautiful shirts,' she sobbed. 'It makes me sad

'Do you like it?'

because I've never seen such - such beautiful shirts before.'

'I love it, but I don't see how you live there all alone.'
'I keep it always full of interesting

Outside

people, night and day.

People who do interesting things. Famous people.'

down to the road and entered through

the main gates. With

of delight Daisy admired the flowers, the gardens,

and the way the mansion stood out against the sky.
Inside, as we wandered

through

Gatsby's

window it began to rain again, and we

stood in a row looking out at the sea beyond the lawn.

'If it wasn't so misty, we could see your home across the bay,'

Instead of taking the short cut across the lawn, we walked

murmurs

43

said Gatsby. 'You always have a green light that burns all night
at the end of your dock.'
Daisy put her arm through
in thought.

music rooms and sitting

importance

Possibly

he had

his, but Gatsby seemed lost

realized

that

the enormous

of that light had now gone for ever. To him it had

rooms, I felt there were guests hidden behind every sofa and

seemed very near to her, almost touching her, as close as a star

table, under orders to be breathlessly silent until we had passed

to the moon. Now it was just a green light on a dock again.

by. As Gatsby closed the door of the library, I was almost sure I
heard the owl-eyed man break into ghostly laughter.

we came to Gatsby's own apartment,

had parted in the west,

and there were pink and golden clouds above the sea.

Upstairs, we saw luxuriously furnished bedrooms with fresh

flowers on the tables, dressing rooms, and bathrooms.

'Look!' cried Daisy. The darkness

Finally

where we sat down and

drank a glass of wine from a bottle he kept in a cupboard.

She whispered, 'I'd like to just get one of those pink clouds
and put you in it and push you around.'
I tried to go then, but they wouldn't

hear of it. Perhaps my

presence made them feel more satisfactorily

He hadn't once stopped looking at Daisy. Sometimes too, he

alone.

'I know what we'll do,' said Gatsby, 'we'll have Klipspringer

stared around in a dazed way at the valuable things he owned,

play the piano for us.' Klipspringer

thinking perhaps that in her actual presence they weren't real

at Gatsby's most of the time - he did not seem to have any

any longer. After his embarrassment

other home.

and then his unreasoning

joy, he now felt only wonder that she was there.

Gatsby went to find Klipspringer, and we all went downstairs

Pulling himself together, he opened two huge cupboards

to

show us his well-cut suits, expensive shirts, and silk ties.

over some things for me to choose from, twice a year.'

we admired,

While

the soft rich heap grew higher. Suddenly Daisy

bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily.

down with her on a sofa far across the room, in the shadows,
while Klipspringer

He took out a pile of shirts and threw them down in front of

confusion.

to the music room.

Gatsby lit Daisy's cigarette with a trembling hand and sat

'I've got a man in England who buys me clothes. He sends

us. They covered the table in many-colored

was a young man who lived

started playing.

When he had finished the first piece, Klipspringer

turned

around and searched unhappily for Gatsby in the darkness.

'I'm all out of practice, you see. I told you I couldn't play.'
'Don't talk so much, old sport,' commanded

Gatsby. 'Play!'

44

The Great Gatsby

45

Gatsby and Daisy meet again

In the morning,
In the evening,
Ain't we got funOutside

the wind was loud. All the lights were going on

in West Egg now; the electric trains were carrying men home
from New York, and there was excitement in the air.
One thing's sure and nothing's

surer,

The rich get rich and the poor get - children.

In the meantime,
In between timeAs I went over to say goodbye, I saw the dazed look on
Gatsby's

face again.

Was he doubting

the quality

of his

happiness? Almost five years! There must have been moments,

even that afternoon,

when Daisy disappointed

him a little - not

through her own fault, but because of the enormous

vitality

of his dream. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He

had thrown his whole being into creating it, adding to it every
bright feather

that came his way. No fire or freshness

can

challenge what a man can keep safe in his ghostly heart.

While I watched him, his hand took hold of hers, and as
she said something

low in his ear, he turned toward her with

a sudden rush of feeling. I think that feverish, exciting voice

of hers held him most, because it couldn't

be dreamed - that

voice was a deathless song.

They had forgotten

me, but Daisy looked up and held out

her hand; Gatsby didn't know me now at all. I looked once

more at them and they looked back at me, distantly, enclosed
in their own bright world. Then I went out of the room and
down the grand steps into the rain, leaving them there together.
'I'd like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it
and push you around,' whispered Daisy.

46

47

The truth about Gatsby

CHAPTER

dreams kept him awake at night, while the moonlight

shone in

on the untidy heap of his clothes on the floor. He was sure that

THE TRUTH ABOUT GATSBY

a great future lay ahead of him. He was still searching

on the day that Dan Cody's yacht dropped

hat summer there were many wild stories about Gatsby, as

the hundreds

of people who attended

his parties told their

friends about him, using their imagination

his present

and past. Exactly

to fill in details of

why these wild stories were so

pleasing to James Gatz of North

Dakota

isn't easy to say.

James Gatz - that was his real name. He had changed

at the age of seventeen and at the exact moment

he had made several fortunes

to separate
especially

it

that saw the

in the Nevada

that afternoon

in a torn green jacket and a pair of old trousers,

but when he borrowed

a boat, rowed out to the yacht, and

informed Cody that a wind might catch it and break it up in

half an hour, he had already become Jay Gatsby.
I suppose

he'd had the name ready for a long time, even

then. His parents

were lazy, unsuccessful

his head he never thought

farm people,

of them as his parents

and in

at all. He

however, he

To young Gatz, looking up from his rowing boat, that yacht

smiled at Cody - he had probably

along the beach

had tried

was sailing alone.

represented

aimlessly

silver fields and

of women

him from his money, and some had succeeded,

anchor in one of the most dangerous

He was J ames Gatz as he walked

wealthy, as

the latest, Ella Kaye. At the moment,

start of his new life - when he saw Dan Cody's yacht drop
parts of Lake Superior.

anchor in the lake.

Cody was fifty years old then, and extremely

the Yukon gold rush. A large number

all the beauty and power in the world. I suppose he

discovered that people liked

him when he smiled. Anyway, Cody asked him a few questions

and found that he was quick and extremely

ambitious.

days later, Cody bought him some yachting clothes, and when
He was paid to cook the meals, serve the drinks,
yacht, and write Cody's letters. Sometimes
to lock up his employer;

sail the

he was even told

Cody was a hard drinker, who knew

he was likely to do stupid

things

when he was drunk.

arrangement

would be likely to invent, and he went on believing

invention to the end.

for longer, except for the fact that Ella Kaye arrived

For over a year he had been making his way along the south

A few

the yacht left for the West Indies, Gatsby left too.

invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old

in this

for it,

The

lasted for five years. It would probably have lasted

on the

yacht one night in Boston, and a week later Dan Cody died.
It was from Cody that Gatsby inherited

money - Cody left

shore of Lake Superior, fishing or doing any other work that

him twenty-five

paid for his food and bed. His brown,

didn't get it. The law was used against him in some way, and he

naturally

through

the half-fierce,

hardening

half-lazy

body lived

work of the cold

never understood

windy days. He knew women early, and because they offered

millions

themselves willingly to him, he became scornful of them.

an unusually

But his heart was never at peace. The wildest, most fantastic

thousand

dollars

at his death.

But Gatsby

how it was done. What remained

went untouched
valuable

to Ella Kaye. Gatsby

education;

the shadowy

of Cody's

was left with

figure of Jay

Gatsby had filled out to become a solid, real person.

48

He told me all this much later, but I've put it down here,
with the idea of exploding

those first wild stories about his

past, which weren't even partly true.

For several weeks after I had invited Daisy to tea, I didn't
see Gatsby. Mostly I was in New York, going out with Jordan
and trying to endear myself to her ancient aunt. Finally I went
over to his house one Sunday afternoon.

49

The truth about Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

I hadn't

been there

now, and he wanted to see more of Tom. 'Why don't you - why
don't you stay for supper?'
'You come to supper with me,' said the lady enthusiastically.
'Both of you.' This included me. Mr Sloane got to his feet.
'Come along,' he said, but to her only.
Gatsby looked at me questioningly. He wanted to go but he
didn't see that Mr Sloane was determined

he shouldn't.

drink. There were three of them - Tom, a man named Sloane,

'I'm afraid I won't be able to,' I said.

'I'll follow you in my car,' said Gatsby. 'I'll get my coat.'

and a pretty woman who had been there before.

The rest of us walked out on the porch, where Sloane and

two minutes when somebody brought Tom Buchanan in for a

'I'm delighted to see you,' said Gatsby. 'Sit right down. Have
a cigarette.'

He walked round the room quickly, ringing bells.

the lady began an angry conversation.

'My God, 1 believe the man's coming,'

Tom said to me.

'Doesn't he realize she doesn't want him? She's arranged a big

'I'll have something to drink for you in just a minute.'

He was uneasy because Tom was there. But he also felt

dinner party and he won't know anyone there.' He frowned. 'I

realizing

wonder where he met Daisy. By God, my ideas may be a little

that that was all they came for. There was a little polite

out of date, but I think women run around too much these

conversation;

spoke

days. They meet all kinds of crazy fish.'

Suddenly Mr Sloane and the lady walked down the steps.

'So we did.

late.' And then to me, 'Tell him we couldn't wait, will you?'

uncomfortable

until he had given them something,

then

Gatsby,

unable

to stop

himself,

suddenly to Tom.
'I believe we've met somewhere before, Mr Buchanan.'
'Oh, yes,' said Tom, obviously not remembering.
I remember very well.'

'Come on,' said Mr Sloane over his shoulder to Tom, 'we're

Tom and I shook hands, and the three of them departed,

'I know your wife,' continued Gatsby, in a challenging way.

just as Gatsby, with hat and light overcoat in hand, came out

'Is that so?' Tom turned to me. 'You live near here, Nick?'
'Next door.'

of the front door.

Tom was obviously concerned about Daisy's running around

Mr Sloane said nothing, and nor did the woman. But after

alone, because on the following Saturday night he came with

two cocktails she became more friendly.

'We'll all come over to your next party, Mr Gatsby,' she
suggested. 'What do you say?'

her to Gatsby's party. Perhaps his presence gave the evening its
peculiarly threatening

quality - it stands out in my memory

from Gatsby's other parties that summer. There were the same

'Certainly. I'd be delighted to have you.'

people, or at least the same sort of people, the same generous

'We ought to start for home,' said Mr Sloane, unsmiling.

provision of champagne, the same colorful confusion, but 1 felt

'Please don't hurry,' said Gatsby. He had control of himself

an unpleasantness

in the air that hadn't been there before. Or

The truth about Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

50

perhaps it was just that I had grown used to it, grown to accept
West Egg as a world complete in itself, and now I was looking
at it again, through Daisy's eyes.
They arrived as darkness was beginning to fall, and Daisy's
lovely voice was playing murmuring

tricks in her throat, as we

walked out among the hundreds of guests on the lawn.

'These things excite me so,' she whispered. 'If you want to
kiss me at any time during the evening, Nick, just let me know
and I'll be glad to arrange it for you. Just mention my name.
Or present a green card. I'm giving out green-'
'Look around,'

suggested Gatsby. 'You must see the faces of

many people you've heard about.'

Tom's arrogant eyes searched the crowd. 'I was just thinking,
I don't know anyone here.'
Gatsby took Tom and
introducing

Daisy

from

group

to

group,

them to actors, film directors, singers, sportsmen,

businessmen.
'I've never met so many famous people!' cried Daisy.
She and Gatsby danced. I was surprised

by his beautiful

dancing - I'd never seen him dance before. Then they walked
over to my house and sat on the steps for half an hour, while
at Daisy's request I remained watchfully in the garden. 'In case
there's a fire or a flood,' she explained, 'or any act of God.'
Tom reappeared as we were sitting down to supper together.
'Do you mind if I eat with some people over there?' he
asked. 'A man's started telling some jokes.'
'Go ahead,'

answered Daisy cheerfully, 'and if you want

to take down any addresses, here's my little gold pencil.' She

looked around after a moment and told me that the girl was
'coarse but pretty'. I knew that except for the half hour she'd
been alone with Gatsby, she wasn't having a good time.

Daisy and Gatsby danced.

51

52

The Great Gatsby

The truth about Gatsby

Later on, I sat on the front steps with Tom and Daisy, while
they waited for their driver to bring the car to the door.

'Of course she did.'

'Who is this Gatsby, anyway?'

'Some big bootlegger?'

He was silent, and 1 guessed at his deep sadness.

demanded

Tom suddenly.

'Where did you hear that?' 1 asked.

'She didn't like it,' he said immediately.

'She didn't like it,' he insisted. 'She didn't have a good time.'
'I feel far away from her,' he said. 'It's hard to make her

'I didn't hear it. 1 imagined it. A lot of these newly rich
people are just big bootleggers, you know.'
'Not Gatsby,' I said shortly.
He was silent for a moment.

53

'Well, he certainly must have

worked hard to get this crowd of crazy people together.'

'At least they're more interesting than the people we know,'
Daisy said.
'You didn't look so interested.'
'Well, 1 was.'

understand. '
'You mean about the dance?'
'The dance?' He waved the idea away scornfully. 'Old sport,
the dance is unimportant.'
He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to
Tom and say, 'I never loved you.' Then she and Gatsby could
decide what to do next. After she was free, he wanted them to
return to Louisville and be married from her house - just as he
had intended five years ago.

'I'd like to know what he is and what he does,' insisted Tom.

'And I think I'll make a point of finding out.'
'I can tell you right now,' she answered. 'He owned some
drug-stores, a lot of them. He built up the business himself.'
Their car arrived and they got in.

'And she doesn't understand,'

to understand.
'I wouldn't

he said. 'She used to be able

We'd sit for hours-'

ask too much of her,' 1 said daringly. 'You can't

repeat the past.'

'Can't repeat the past!' he cried, shocked. 'Why, of course

'Good night, Nick,' said Daisy.

you can!' He looked around him wildly. He seemed to think

She looked away from me and up to the top of the steps. We

the past was hiding here in the shadow of his house, just out

could hear Three o'clock in the Morning, a neat, sad little dance
song, coming from the open door. What was it in the song that
seemed to be calling her back inside? What would happen now
in the soft hours of darkness? Perhaps some unbelievable guest

of reach of his hand.

'I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before,' he
said determinedly. 'She'll see.'
He talked a lot about the past, and 1 understood

that he

would arrive, some lovely, bright-eyed young girl who with one

wanted to rediscover something, some idea of himself perhaps,

look at Gatsby, in one magic, romantic

those five years of unchanging love.

that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and

moment, would undo

I stayed late that night, because Gatsby asked me to wait

until he was free. When he came down the steps to the garden,
where 1 was waiting, his eyes were tired.

meaningless since then, but if he could only return to a certain

starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what
that thing was ...
. . . One autumn

night, five years before, they had been

54

The Great Gatsby

55

walking down the street. The ground was white with moonlight,

CHAPTER

and they stopped and turned toward each other. It was a cool

A HOT

night, but with that mysterious excitement in it which comes

DAY

IN TOWN

as the seasons change. Out of the corner of his eye, Gatsby

ne Saturday night the lights in Gatsby's house failed to

reached up to a secret place above the trees. He could climb to

it, if he climbed alone, and once he was there he could drink

party-giver was over. Cars came eagerly up to his house, stayed

the milk of life.

just for a minute, then drove crossly away. Wondering

saw that the houses on the street made a kind of ladder, which

His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came

go on, and as confusingly

as it had begun, his life as a

if he

were sick, I went over to find out, but I was turned away by a

up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, he would

butler I did not recognize, who was rude and unhelpful.

never dream his wild dreams again. So he waited, listening for

Finnish woman informed me that Gatsby had sent away all his

a moment longer to the music of the stars. Then he kissed her.

servants a week ago, replacing them with new ones, who never

At the touch of his lips, love opened like a flower and his new

went into West Egg village.

life was born.

Next day Gatsby called me on the phone.

Through all he said - and it was horribly over-romantic

was reminded

My

of something

I had heard somewhere

- I

a long

'Going away?' I asked.

'No, old sport.'

time ago. Words tried to take shape in my mouth, and my lips

'I hear you've got new servants.'

parted like a dumb man's. But they made no sound, and what

'I wanted people who wouldn't talk about me in the village.

I had almost remembered

was forgotten for ever.

Daisy comes over quite often - in the afternoons.'

So the parties

and the famous people, the music and the

dancing - he had thrown this kind of life away because Daisy

didn't like it.
'Look, old sport, Daisy asked me to ring you. Will you come
to lunch at her house tomorrow? Miss Baker will be there.'
I accepted, wondering what was going to happen. I couldn't
believe Daisy and Gatsby would choose this occasion to tell
Tom about their affair.
The next day was almost the last, certainly the warmest, of
the summer. At the Buchanans'

house we were shown into the

sitting room, which was cool and shaded from the sun. Daisy
and Jordan lay on an enormous sofa in their white dresses.