Great Gatsby

YOUNG ADULT READERS STAGE 5
Eli Readers is a beautifully illustrated series of timeless classics and

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F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD THE GREAT GATSBY
STAGE 5
The Great Gatsby
“Gatsby?” asked Daisy urgently. “What Gatsby?” THE GREAT GATSBY
Could it be the same young army lieutenant whom Daisy Fay met five years ago –
and who owns a sumptuous house on Long Island, where New York society
enjoys the best parties on offer? Is it just coincidence that Gatsby lives across
the bay from Daisy – now married to wealthy polo-player Tom Buchanan?
As one man’s mysterious dream moves towards its ultimately tragic conclusion,
Midwesterner Nick Carraway is drawn into the dark world of Gatsby’s past and
present – a world of hidden frustrations and superficial relationships which
perfectly illustrates the “careless and confused” nature of America’s Jazz Age.
Scott Fitzgerald’s third novel was published in 1925 and has justifiably become
a 20th century literary classic.
In this reader you will find:

- Information about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life
- Sections focusing on background and context
- Glossary of difficult words
- Comprehension activities
- CAE-style activities
- Exit test
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Love Society
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Classic - American English
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F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
Adaptation and activities by Richard Larkham
Illustrated by Rodolfo Brocchini
YOUNG ADULT READERS

The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Adaptation and activities by Richard Larkham
Illustrated by Rodolfo Brocchini
ELI Readers
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ISBN 978-88-536-0666-2
First edition: March 2011
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Contents
6 Main Characters
8 Before you read
10 Chapter One Dinner at the Buchanans’
20 Activities
24 Chapter Two A Trip to New York
34 Activities
38 Chapter Three The First Party
48 Activities
52 Chapter Four The Plan
62 Activities
66 Chapter Five The Reunion
76 Activities
80 Chapter Six Important Meetings
90 Activities
94 Chapter Seven Confrontation
104 Activities
108 Chapter Eight Chaos
118 Activities
122 Chapter Nine Seeing the Light
132 Activities
134 Focus on... Scott and Zelda - a romance
“beautiful and damned”
136 Focus on... The Genesis of a Classic
138 Focus on... The Jazz Age
140 Focus on... How America joined The Great War
142 Test yourself
143 Syllabus
144 Other Titles
These icons indicate the parts of the story that are recorded start stop
main Characters
Jordan Baker Tom Buchanan Henry Gatz
Nick Carraway Jay Gatsby
‘Owl-eyes’
Dan Cody
Meyer Wolfsheim
Michaelis Myrtle Wilson
George Wilson
Daisy Buchanan
The McKees
Doctor T. J. Eckleburg
Catherine Ewing Klipspringer
Before you read
Vocabulary
1a Here are the titles of the 9 Chapters in this book – but not in the
right order!
A Trip to New York • Confrontation • Seeing the Light •
The Reunion • Chaos • Dinner at the Buchanans • The Plan •
The First Party • Important Meetings
Do they give you an idea of what type of story The Great Gatsby
will be? Underline one or more of these categories:
horror story • romance • tragedy • thriller • detective story •
historical drama • western • comedy
1b If you know something about the story already (perhaps you’ve
read the blurb on the back of this book or seen the film version),
discuss what you know in pairs or groups.
2 The Great Gatsby is set near New York City in the mid-1920s.
It’s about the lives of very rich people and the parties that rich
people go to. What words do you expect to find? Make a list in
the chart below.
NOUNS ADJECTIVES VERBS
Speaking
3 he Great Gatsby is set in America in the 1920s. This period is
T
sometimes called “the Roaring Twenties”. Why do you think it
was a “roaring” time? (If you look up the adjective “roaring” in
the dictionary or online, it might help.) Discuss in pairs or groups.
8
Writing
4 Let’s focus on the characters we read about in Chapter 1. Underline
the adjectives and adverbs which describe them and the way they
interact, and then write the words you’ve found in the chart below.
Nick ______________________________________________
Daisy ______________________________________________
Jordan ______________________________________________
Tom ______________________________________________
Gatsby ______________________________________________
Reading
5 Look at these sentences and decide whether they are true (T) or
false (F).
T F
1 Nick Carraway was born in New York City. ■ ■
2 After he graduated, Nick went to Europe as a soldier. ■ ■
3 When he came to Long Island, Nick rented a small
house with a work colleague. ■ ■
4 Daisy Buchanan is a relative of Nick’s. ■ ■
5 Nick and Tom Buchanan went to the same university. ■ ■
6 Dinner at the Buchanans was interrupted twice
by a telephone call for Tom. ■ ■
7 Daisy’s friend Jordan Baker is a tennis player. ■ ■
8 Jordan didn’t know Gatsby when Nick talked about him. ■ ■
Speaking
6 In this Chapter, one of the characters talks about “a beautiful
little fool”. Identify who says this, and what they are referring
to. Does this phrase have a wider meaning? (Think about what
happens in Chapter 1 and what you think will happen in the rest
of the book.)
9
Chapter One
Dinner at the Buchanans’
2 When I was younger and more vulnerable, my father gave me some

interesting advice.
“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he said, “just remember
that not everybody is as lucky as you are.”
That’s all he said - but I know he meant a lot more. I am a reserved
person like my father and I understood him. I don’t judge too quickly,
although my tolerance of people does have its limits.
Last autumn I came back home from the East* and I wanted
everybody to be morally perfect - I wanted no more partying, no
more meeting people but never really knowing them. Only Gatsby,
the central character of my story, escaped my demands: he was more
successful, more sensitive, more hopeful than anyone I have ever met.
He was all right in the end; the people around him were the ones who
disgusted me.
In this Midwestern city my family has been important for three

generations, and my father’s hardware* business was started by his
great-uncle back in the mid-19th century. People say that I look like
my distant relative - even though I never met him.
the East the nine states in the Northeastern region of the hardware metal tools
United States: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the six
New England states
10
The Great Gatsby
After graduating from Yale* in 1915, I served in The Great War.

That experience made me restless and so on my return I decided to
learn the bond* business and my father agreed to finance me for one
year. That’s how, in the spring of 1922, I came East… permanently, I
thought.
I needed to find accommodation, so I was happy when a work
colleague suggested we rent a house together in a nearby commuter*
town. Unfortunately, at the last minute his company sent him to
Washington and so I went to this simple old bungalow alone. I had
a dog for a few days – before he ran away – an old Dodge car and a
Finnish housekeeper.
Then one day a man who was even more a newcomer than me asked
for directions to West Egg village. When I told him, I suddenly felt
like a guide, a part of the neighbourhood. The sunshine made me
feel my life was beginning again: I bought a lot of books on banking
and started reading as much as I had in college, with the intention of
becoming a “well-rounded* man” again.
I was renting in one of North America’s strangest communities.
Long Island extends east of New York and around 20 miles from
the city you find two unusual land formations, shaped like a pair
of enormous eggs and separated by a small bay. I lived at the less
fashionable West Egg, right at the end, 50 yards from the salt waters
of Long Island Sound, and sandwiched between two gigantic houses.
The one on the right was like a French town hall, with a tower on
one side, a marble swimming pool and more than 40 acres of lawn
Yale private university in Connecticut, founded in 1701 commuter town person who travels a certain distance to work
bond financial loan (repaid, with interest, in instalments) from where s/he lives
‘well-rounded’ (here) comprehensively educated, well-read
11
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
and garden. This was Gatsby’s mansion… but I didn’t know him yet.
From my own ugly house I could see the Sound and a part of his
lawn, and I also had the comfort of knowing that I was surrounded
by millionaires – all for 80 dollars a month!
My acquaintance with the fashionable white palaces of East Egg

began one summer evening when I drove there to have dinner with
my distant cousin Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom, whom I
knew from college. Tom came from a wealthy Chicago family and
had been a football hero at Yale. He and Daisy had lived in France for
a year and had then come East for some unknown reason. Daisy said
they were here to stay but I didn’t believe her. The reality was, I was
going to have dinner with two old friends I hardly knew.
Their house was a red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion,
with a line of French windows overlooking the bay. Tom was dressed
in riding clothes and was standing in the sunshine on the front porch*
– a sturdy man of 30, muscular, with an aggressive manner and a
rough tenor voice. Although we had never been close friends, I think
he had a good opinion of me and wanted me to like him.
“I’ve got a nice place here,” he said in a restless tone, while pointing
out the view to me. Then we went inside, to a rosy-colored drawing-
room, where two young women sat at either end of an enormous
couch*. I didn’t know the younger one but Daisy tried to get up and
then laughed as I came hesitantly into the room.
“I’m p-paralyzed with happiness,” she cried, holding my hand
and looking into my face. She murmured the name Baker to indicate
porch covered entrance

couch sofa
12
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
the other girl, who nodded* at me, and then she started to ask me
questions. She looked sad and lovely and there was excitement in her
voice.
When I told her I had spent a day in Chicago on my way East and
had met a dozen people who sent their love to her, she asked “Do
they miss me?”
“The whole town is desolate*,” I replied.
“How wonderful! Let’s go back tomorrow, Tom!” Then she said
abruptly, “You should see my baby, but she’s asleep. She’s three years old.”
Meanwhile, Tom, who still seemed restless, put his hand on my
shoulder and asked me what I was doing.
“I’m a bond man,” I replied.
When I told him the name of the company, he just said, “Never
heard of them.”
I was annoyed at that. “You will, if you stay in the East.”
Tom looked at Daisy and said confidently, “Oh, I’ll stay in the East.
I’d be foolish to live anywhere else.”
Miss Baker said “Absolutely!” and then yawned* and stood up.
“I’m stiff from lying so long on that sofa,” she complained.
“Well, I’ve been trying to persuade you all afternoon to come with
us to New York,” said Daisy.
As cocktails arrived, Miss Baker added, “No, thanks. I’m in training.”
“Really?” cried Tom in amazement. “I don’t know how you manage
to do anything!”
I looked at Miss Baker. She was slim and she stood like a young
cadet. Her grey eyes looked back at me politely and I saw that she
nodded (here) said hello silently, moving her head up and yawned opened her mouth wide, inhaling deeply (from
down boredom or tiredness or both)
desolate (here) extremely sad
14
The Great Gatsby
was not a happy person. I enjoyed looking at her and I was sure that I
knew her from somewhere.
“You live in West Egg,” she said in a superior tone. “I know
somebody there.”
“I don’t know any---” I started to say.
“You must know Gatsby.”
“Gatsby?” asked Daisy urgently. “What Gatsby?”
I was about to say that he was my neighbor when dinner was

announced. Tom took my arm and led me out of the room, while
Daisy and Miss Baker walked calmly outside onto the porch, where
four candles flickered on a table in the wind. Daisy put them out and
said, “It’ll be the longest day of the year in two weeks’ time.”
“We should plan something,” said Miss Baker, in a bored tone.
Daisy turned to me. “What do people plan?” she asked, but before
I could answer, she showed us her little finger.
“Look! I hurt it.” We all looked at her knuckle*, which was black
and blue.
“You did it, Tom,” she said accusingly. “I know you didn’t mean to
do it, but you DID do it! That’s the price I pay for marrying a brute*
of a man – a big, hulking*, physical---”
“I hate the word ‘hulking’,” interrupted Tom angrily, “even if you
are joking.”
“Hulking,” repeated Daisy.
During dinner, Daisy and Miss Baker sometimes talked at the
same time. It was always conversation without meaning – relaxed
knuckle bony, protruding finger joint on the back of the hand hulking very big, awkward-moving
brute (here) brutal, insensitive person
15
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
and with no passion. I realized that they were here simply to entertain
or be entertained.
“I feel uncivilized in your company, Daisy,” I told my cousin during
my second glass of wine. “Can’t you talk about crops* or something?”
“Civilization is collapsing!” Tom shouted. “I’ve become very
pessimistic.”
“Tom reads books with long words in them,” added Daisy, sadly,
and Tom looked at her impatiently.
The telephone rang inside the house and when the butler came
outside and whispered in Tom’s ear, Tom frowned* and left the table.
When he had gone, Daisy leaned forward.
“I love to see you at my table, Nick. You remind me of a – of a
rose. Doesn’t he?” She turned to Miss Baker for confirmation.
Then suddenly she threw her napkin* down and went into the
house. Before I could speak, Miss Baker said “Sh!” and tried to hear
the murmuring inside.
“This Mr Gatsby you mentioned is my neighbor---” I started to say.
“Don’t talk. I want to hear what happens.”
“Is something happening?” I asked innocently.
“Don’t you know?” Miss Baker said with surprise. “I thought
everybody knew. Tom’s got a woman in New York – and she doesn’t
even respect his privacy at dinner time.”
At that moment Tom and Daisy returned to the table.
“Sorry about that,” cried Daisy with a kind of tense joy in her
voice. “Isn’t it romantic outside, Tom?”
“Very.”
crops agricultural produce (eg. grain) napkin serviette (piece of cloth for the hands and mouth)
frowned made lines on his forehead, from displeasure,
disapproval or puzzlement
16
The Great Gatsby
Then the telephone rang again, startling* everybody, and Daisy

shook her head at Tom.
I can’t remember much of the last five minutes at the dinner
table, only that the candles were lit for a second time and none of
us looked directly at each other. All topics of conversation vanished
into thin air. Tom and Miss Baker strolled back into the library and I
followed Daisy to the porch at the front of the house. We sat down on
a wicker* settee. Daisy held her face in her hands, I asked her about
her little girl to try to calm her turbulent emotions.
Suddenly she said, “We are cousins but we don’t know each other
very well, Nick. You didn’t come to my wedding.”
“I wasn’t back from the war.”
“That’s true.” Then, after a hesitation: “I’ve had a bad time, Nick,
and I’m quite cynical about everything.”
There was an awkward silence and I returned to the subject of her
daughter.
“Nick,” she said, “would you like to know what I said when she
was born?”
“Very much.”
“Tom was away – God knows where – and the baby was less than an
hour old. I asked the nurse whether it was a boy or a girl and she said it
was a girl. I cried. Then I said, ‘Well, I’m glad it’s a girl – and I hope she’ll
be a fool. That’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little
fool.’ Now you understand how I feel about things, Nick.”
She finished with a mocking laugh: “God, I’m sophisticated!” and
at that moment I felt her insincerity.
startling making … very surprised

wicker settee small sofa made of branches of willow tree
17
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Inside the house, Tom and Miss Baker sat at either end of a
long couch. Miss Baker was reading aloud from a magazine but she
stopped when Daisy and I came in. She stood up and announced that
she was going to bed.
“Jordan’s playing in the golf tournament at Westchester tomorrow,”
Daisy said.
“Oh – you’re JORDAN Baker,” I exclaimed. I remembered seeing
her picture in various places. I had also heard an unpleasant story
about her but that was a long time ago and I had forgotten the details.
“Good night,” said Miss Baker. “See you again, Mr Carraway.”
“Of course you will,” interrupted Daisy. “In fact, I think I’ll arrange
a marriage. Come and visit us often, Nick, and I’ll throw you two
together.”
“Good night,” called Miss Baker from the stairs, “I haven’t heard
a word!”
“She’s a nice girl,” said Tom afterwards.
Daisy added: “Nick’s going to look after her, aren’t you, Nick?
She’s going to spend lots of weekends out here this summer.”
“Is she from New York?” I asked.
“From Louisville,” Daisy replied. “We spent our white girlhood
together there.”
Suddenly Tom demanded: “Daisy, did you have an intimate talk
with Nick on the veranda?”
“Did I?” Daisy looked at me.
“I can’t seem to remember…” I started to say.
18
The Great Gatsby
After a few minutes I got up to go home. Tom and Daisy came to

the front door and stood side by side in the light. I started my motor
and Daisy called out: “Wait! I forgot to ask you something important,
Nick. We heard that you were engaged to a girl out West!”
I denied* it instantly. I was involved with somebody, it was true,
but unwelcome gossip was one reason why I had come East. I drove
home confused and a little disgusted by Tom and Daisy.
When I arrived, I sat for a while in the yard. The night was bright,
there were plenty of birds in the trees and the frogs sang. Suddenly
I realized that I wasn’t alone. Fifty feet away, a figure had appeared
from the shadow of my neighbor’s mansion. He was standing with
his hands in his pockets, looking up at the stars. Something in the
relaxed and confident way he stood on the lawn suggested to me that
this was Mr Gatsby himself. He had come outside to determine* his
share of the night sky.
I decided to call to him – but suddenly he made a movement which
told me that he was happy to be alone. He stretched out his arms
towards the dark water of the Sound, and I think he was trembling.
I looked towards the sea and saw nothing but a small, single green
light, far away – the end of a dock*, perhaps. I looked back once
more towards Gatsby, but he had gone, and I was alone again in the
unquiet* darkness.
denied declared … as untrue dock platform in the water (where boats can stop)
determine decide on, resolve unquiet turbulent, uneasy
19
After-reading Activities
Writing
1 Think about the characters you have met in Chapter 1. Now write
a sentence describing each of them. (You can use some of the
words you underlined.) How are the characters connected?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Writing – CAE-type activity

2 Choose one of these two characters and write a letter.
Either
You are Nick. Write a letter of thanks to Daisy and Tom for the
dinner. Say that you hope to see them again soon – and add
anything else you think Nick would say, based on what you’ve read
so far.
or
You are Daisy. Write a letter of thanks to Nick for coming to dinner.
Say that you hope to see him again soon – and add anything else
you think Daisy would say, based on what you’ve read so far.
Speaking – CAE-type activity

3 Do you think that the Buchanans’ dinner party was a success?
Why/why not? Will Nick see Daisy and Tom again soon? Will
Daisy arrange for Nick and Jordan to be “thrown together”?
Discuss in pairs or groups.
20
Reading
4 Correct this summary of the events of Chapter 1.
Nick Hathaway is a middle-aged man from California who comes
to Long Island in the winter of 1922. He rents a house in West Egg,
a very fashionable area, next to a bungalow owned by a millionaire
called Gatsby. Soon after he arrives, Nick is invited to dinner across
the bay in East Egg by his niece Daisy Buchanan. There he meets
Daisy’s husband, Tom, whom he knew from college at Harvard.
Tom plays tennis and is proud of his mansion and his marriage to
Daisy. That evening Nick meets Daisy’s neighbour, Jordan Baker,
who is a professional golfer. She tells Nick that she has been to a
party given by Mr Gatsby. Daisy tells Nick over dinner that she is
unhappy and that she wants Nick and Jordan to see each other
again. Nick goes home a little confused and sees Gatsby sitting
on a chair, looking across Long Island Sound to a blue light on the
other side of the bay.
Grammar
5 Use the information to make sentences and use one of the following
reporting verbs.
suggest • agree • apologise • insist • complain •

tell • ask • explain
Daisy / dinner / Nick / East Egg

newcomer / directions / West Egg village / Nick
Nick / Jordan / Gatsby / neighbor
Nick / Daisy / daughter / emotions
Tom / Daisy / ‘hulking’
Daisy / Nick / wedding / war
Chicago / Nick / Daisy / desolate
Jordan / sofa / sit / too long
Tom and Daisy / dinner table
Daisy / Nick / summer weekends / Jordan
21
Writing
6 At the end of this Chapter, Nick sees Gatsby for the first time.
What do you think Gatsby is thinking? Why does he stretch out
his arms?
Write down some ideas and then discuss them with the class.
Vocabulary
7 Look at these groups of words. Can you find the odd one out?
1 sensitive – younger – successful – vulnerable – reserved

2 drawing-room – porch – library – veranda – couch
3 banking – hardware – commuter – tournament – colleague
4 annoyed – restless – sad – bored – happy
Reading Comprehension
8 Answer these questions (using complete sentences) about what
happens in Chapter 1.
1 How often was dinner at the Buchanans interrupted and by what?

2 Why does Jordan Baker decide not to drink a cocktail?
3 What advice does Nick Carraway’s father give him? (Use your
own words.)
4 Which parts of the Buchanans’ house are mentioned in this chapter?
5 Why do you think Daisy asks the question “What Gatsby?” urgently?
6 What is Nick’s opinion of Daisy by the end of the dinner party?
Reading
9 Identify who is talking.
1 “Is something happening?” ____________________
2 “I’m p-paralyzed with happiness” ____________________
3 “not everybody is as lucky as you are” ____________________
4 “I haven’t heard a word!” ____________________
5 “I’ve become very pessimistic.” ____________________
22
Pre-reading activities
3 Listening – CAE-type activity

10 Listento the first part of Chapter 2 and circle the words you
hear from the list below.
East Egg • railway • four miles • desolate • West Egg •

ashes • smoke • train • screech • cloud • eyes • weather •
river • stop • woman • chair • greet • staring • foreign •
garage • pears
Speaking - Writing
11 Chapter 2 is entitled “A Trip to New York”. Can you predict what
will happen in the city and what more will we learn about the
characters involved?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Sequencing
12 Putthese ten sentences into a possible order and then check
your answer with the order of events in this Chapter.
A ■ Nick gets drunk.

B ■ Nick and Tom catch a train to New York.
C ■ Nick sees Tom’s mistress.
D ■ A drinks party takes place in an apartment on 158th Street.
E ■ Catherine Wilson talks to Nick about Gatsby.
F ■ Tom breaks Myrtle Wilson’s nose.
G ■ Myrtle Wilson tells Nick about the first time she met Tom.
H ■ Catherine talks about unhappy marriages.
I ■ Tom talks to George Wilson about a car.
J ■ Myrtle Wilson travels to New York in a separate railway carriage.
23
Chapter Two
A Trip to New York
3 About half way between West Egg and New York, the road joins the
railway and runs next to it for a quarter of a mile, moving away from
a desolate* area of land. This area is a valley of ashes*, consisting
of hills and other elevated parts where ashes surround houses and
chimneys and where rising smoke and ash-grey men move through
the powdery air. From time to time, a train comes slowly to a stop
with a terrible creak and the ash-grey men work with their spades,
creating an impenetrable cloud as the ashes are dumped*.
Above this grey land and the endless dust, after a moment you notice
the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg – blue and gigantic, looking out
from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles* which sit on a non-
existent nose. Obviously a crazy oculist put the eyes there to promote
his business activity in the borough of Queens – and then either
forgot about them or moved away. But his eyes remain, less bright
than before from the effects of the weather, looking out over this
solemn valley.
On one side is a small, bad-smelling river and, when the drawbridge
is up to let barges* pass through, the city trains wait for at least half
desolate deserted, lifeless dumped emptied, got rid of

ashes grey-black powder (which is left when something is spectacles (eye)glasses
burnt) barges (here) large boats used for transporting goods
24
The Great Gatsby
an hour and the passengers can stare at this depressing sight. There is
always a stop there of at least a minute, and it was for this reason that
I first met Tom Buchanan’s “woman”.
I was on the train with Tom to New York one afternoon. When it
stopped by the ashheaps*, Tom jumped out of his seat and forced me
out of the carriage.
“I want you to meet my girl,” he insisted.
With the eyes of Doctor Eckleburg staring at us, we walked towards
a yellow-brick building on some wasteland*. There were three shops
there, one for rent, another an all-night restaurant and the third a
garage. The sign said Repairs. GEORGE B. WILSON. Cars bought and
sold. – and I followed Tom inside.
The interior of the garage was bare, just a dusty old Ford car in the
corner. I started to imagine that this was just a front* for something
more luxurious, when the owner appeared. He was quite handsome
but he had an unhealthy look. Seeing us made his blue eyes light up.
“Hello, Wilson, old man,” said Tom heartily. “How’s business?”
“I can’t complain,” answered Wilson. “When are you going to sell
me that car?”
“Next week. My man is working on it now.”
“He works very slowly, doesn’t he?”
“No,” said Tom coldly. “If that’s what you think, then I’ll sell it to
somebody else.”
“I only meant---” Wilson started to explain, then his voice faded.
Tom looked around the garage impatiently. Then I heard footsteps
ashheaps piles/hills of ash

wasteland uninhabited land
front (here) external appearance
25
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
and saw a stout* woman coming down some stairs. She was around
thirty five years old and had a sensuous air of vitality about her. She
smiled slowly, went past her husband as if he were a ghost and shook
hands with Tom while looking him directly in the eye.
Mrs Wilson turned to her husband and ordered him to fetch some
chairs.
“Oh, sure,” he replied and hurried towards the office.
“I want to see you,” Tom said to her. “Get on the next train.”
“All right.”
“I’ll meet you by the news-stand.”
She smiled as George Wilson came back with two chairs.
We waited for her down the road.

“Terrible place, isn’t it,” remarked Tom. “It does her good to escape.”
“What about her husband?” I asked.
“He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He’s so stupid
that he doesn’t know he’s alive.”
So Tom Buchanan and his girl and I went together to New York –
although Mrs Wilson sat in another carriage. At least Tom recognized
the sensibilities of the East Eggers on the train.
When we arrived, she bought a couple of magazines, some skin
cream and some perfume. She chose the fifth taxi that came along and we
left the station and found sunshine. Suddenly she pointed to an old man
with puppies for sale and said, “I want to have a dog for the apartment.”
A few minutes later a puppy with white feet was relaxing in Mrs
Wilson’s lap*.
stout large in body

lap area (of a person sitting) between the waist and the knees
26
The Great Gatsby
“How much is it?” she asked the man.

“That dog will cost you ten dollars,” he replied.
“Is it a boy or a girl?”
“A boy.”
“No it isn’t, it’s a bitch,” said Tom decisively and he gave the old
man his money.
We drove to Fifth Avenue on that warm summer Sunday afternoon.
“Stop,” I told the taxi driver, “I have to get out here.”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” said Tom. “Myrtle wants you to come up to
the apartment. She’ll be offended if you don’t, won’t you, Myrtle?”
She tried to persuade me. “I’ll telephone my sister Catherine –
people say she’s very beautiful.”
“Well, I’d love to, but…”
The taxi continued to 158th Street and stopped outside a row of white
apartments. With an air of superiority, Mrs Wilson went inside,
accompanied by her dog and her purchases. “I’m going to invite the
McKees – and my sister, of course,” she announced.
The top-floor apartment consisted of a small living room, a small
dining-room, a small bedroom and a bath. The living-room was filled
with oversized furniture which made it difficult to move around.
On the wall was an enlarged photograph of what looked like a hen
sitting on a rock. If you looked from a distance, however, the hen
transformed itself into a bonnet* and the face of a stout old lady
smiled down into the room. A selection of magazines lay on a table.
Mrs Wilson ordered the elevator-boy to get milk and a bed for the
bonnet hat made of cloth or straw, with a ribbon to tie under

the chin
27
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
dog, and he came back with a tin of biscuits, too. Meanwhile Tom
found a bottle of whiskey.
I’ve been drunk only twice in my life, and that afternoon was the
second time, so all I can remember is that there was plenty of sunshine
in the apartment until at least eight o’clock. Mrs Wilson sat on Tom’s
lap and telephoned several people. Then there were no cigarettes, so
I went out to buy some at the drugstore on the corner. When I came
back, the two of them had disappeared, so I sat down to read a book.
Either it was of terrible quality, or the whiskey was distorting things,
but it made no sense to me at all.
When Tom and Myrtle (we were now on first-name terms, thanks
to the drink) re-appeared, more people started arriving. Catherine,
the sister, was a slim girl of around thirty, with red hair, a milk-white
complexion and eyebrows painted on at an immoral angle. The large
number of pottery bracelets on her arms meant that there was a
constant clicking as she moved around. She looked so possessively at
the furniture that I asked her if she lived here – but she just laughed
loudly, repeated my question and then told me she lived with a
girlfriend in a hotel.
Mr McKee was a pale, polite man from the apartment below who
had evidently just finished shaving; a small white spot of soap was still
on his cheek. He told me that he was in ‘the artistic game’ and I learned
later that he was a photographer and that the picture of Mrs Wilson’s
mother on the wall was his work. Mrs McKee was loud, languid*,
handsome and horrible. She told me proudly that her husband had
languid slow-moving, having no energy
28
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
photographed her a hundred and twenty-seven times since they had

been married.
Mrs Wilson now wore a cream-colored dress which seemed to
change her personality. The vitality that I had noticed in Wilson’s
garage was transformed into affectation.
“My dear,” she shouted to her sister, “most of these people only
think of money. They’ll always trick* you. Last week a woman did
my feet and when she gave me the bill, you would think I had major
surgery!”
“What was her name?” asked Mrs McKee.
“Mrs Eberhardt. She does home visits.”
“I love your dress, it’s adorable,” said Mrs McKee.
Mrs Wilson looked at her with contempt*. “Oh, it’s an old thing
which I put on when I don’t care about my appearance.”
“It looks wonderful,” Mrs McKee continued. “Chester could take
a great photograph of you in that pose*.”
She smiled at us. Mr McKee made a gesture to show he thought
his wife was crazy. “I would change the light, and some other things,”
he commented.
“Oh, not the light,” reacted Mrs McKee, but her husband just said, “Sh!”
Tom yawned and stood up. “Get some ice and mineral water, Myrtle,
before we all fall asleep.”
Catherine sat down next to me on the couch. “Do you live on
Long Island, too?” she asked.
“At West Egg.”
trick (verb) deceive, be dishonest with pose particular position (here, ready to be photographed)
contempt disrespect
30
The Great Gatsby
“Really? I was at a party there about a month ago. Man named

Gatsby. Do you know him?”
“I’m his next-door neighbor.”
“Well, they say he’s a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm’s*.
That’s where his money comes from. Actually, I’m scared of him.”
Mrs McKee interrupted us by pointing at Catherine. “Chester, I
think you could photograph HER.” Mr McKee nodded in a bored way.
Catherine looked at Myrtle and then at Tom and whispered in my
ear. “Both of them hate the person they’re married to.”
“Do they?”
“I say, why go on living together if you can’t stand the other
person? If I were them, I’d get a divorce and get married to each other
straightaway.”
“Doesn’t she like Wilson?” I asked. The answer – violent and
obscene – came from Myrtle herself, who had overheard my question.
“Tom’s wife is the problem,” Catherine went on. “She’s Catholic.”
I knew Daisy wasn’t Catholic and I was shocked at this elaborate lie*.
“When they do get married, they’ll move West until the scandal is
forgotten,” Catherine concluded.
“It would be more discreet to go to Europe, I offered.”
“Do you like Europe?” Catherine exclaimed. “Why, I just got
back from Monte Carlo. I went there with another girl. We went via
Marseilles and we had twelve hundred dollars when we started. But
we spent it all in two days in private rooms – we had a terrible time
getting back home!”
Mrs McKee’s terrible voice broke the dream of blue Mediterranean
Kaiser Wilhelm German emperor (1859 - 1941), Kaiser in The lie (noun) false fact
Great War, who abdicated in 1918
31
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
which the late afternoon sky had brought.

“I was so lucky I met Chester. I nearly married the wrong man,
a Jew who had wanted me for years. I knew he was below me* –
everybody said so!”
“Yes, but at least you didn’t marry him,” said Myrtle Wilson. “I
did – and that’s the difference. I thought he was a gentleman, but I
was wrong.”
“But you were crazy about him for a time,” said Catherine.
“The only CRAZY thing I did was marry him!” Myrtle cried. “He
even borrowed somebody’s suit for the ceremony – without telling
me. The man wanted it back the next day.”
“She should really escape,” Catherine said to me.” They have lived
over that garage for eleven years. Tom is the first sweetheart* my
sister’s ever had.”
Everyone except Catherine demanded a glass from the second bottle
of whiskey and then Tom ordered a large quantity of sandwiches. I
tried a few times to go for a walk towards Central Park, but I became
entrapped in a series of wild arguments.
At one point Myrtle came over to me and told me about her first
meeting with Tom.
“The last two seats on the train – facing each other. I was coming
to New York to see my sister. He was dressed so elegantly, I couldn’t
stop looking at him. At the station we were next to each other – I was
so excited. We found ourselves in a taxi together and I kept thinking,
‘You only live once, you only live once.”
Then she turned to Mrs McKee. “When I’ve finished with this
below me on a socially inferior level to me

sweetheart lover, admirer
32
The Great Gatsby
dress, I’ll give it to you. I’m going to buy another one tomorrow. I’m
going to make a list of all the things I’ve got to buy.”
Suddenly it was nine o’clock, then I looked at my watch and it
was ten. Mr McKee was asleep on a chair, the dog was sitting on the
table looking blindly through the smoke and moaning* occasionally.
People came and went. Some time towards midnight Tom and Mrs
Wilson stood face to face arguing about whether she should mention
Daisy’s name.
“Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!” cried Mrs Wilson. “I’ll say it any time I want to!”
With a short movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his
open hand. There were cries of pain, women’s voices commenting
on the drama and bloodstained* towels on the bathroom floor. Mr
McKee woke up and left, but not before looking back at the scene: his
wife and Catherine moving around the furniture and Myrtle Wilson
on the couch with a bloody nose.
I followed McKee out of the apartment.
“Come to lunch some day,” he said.
“I’d be glad to,” I replied.
The next thing I remember, he was showing me his photographic
studies in his apartment… then I was lying half asleep in the cold of
Pennsylvania Station, staring at the morning newspaper, waiting for
the four o’clock train.
moaning complaining (by making a crying sound)

bloodstained covered with blood marks
33
Grammar
1 Complete these sentences with the correct form of the verbs in
brackets.
When the train (1) (halt) _____________ at the drawbridge,

Tom (2) (leap) _____________ out of his seat and (3) (take)
_____________ Nick to meet his ‘woman’.
George Wilson (4) (not realize) ___________ that his wife (5) (go)
_____________ to New York with Tom.
Someone (6) (fill) ____________ the living-room in the apartment
with too much furniture and it (7) (be) very difficult to move
around.
After Nick (8) (come back) ____________ with more cigarettes,
he (9) (see) _________ Tom and Myrtle anywhere, so he (10)
(begin) ___________ to read a book.
While Catherine (11) (discuss) __________________ Gatsby with
Nick, Mrs McKee (12) (interrupt) __________ and (13) (suggest)
__________ to her husband that he (14) (photograph) __________
Myrtle’s sister.
Reading
2 Look at these remarks/comments and identify who is talking.
1 “Quick! Get up – we’re getting off the train!” ____________

2 “These two people need to sit down. Fetch a couple of chairs.”
____________
3 “I got everything you asked for, Mrs Wilson – I even brought
some biscuits.” ____________
4 “Ha, ha, that’s funny! Do I live here??!!” ____________
5 “I’m in the artistic game.” ____________
6 “I can’t stand him! He’s pathetic!” ____________
7 “Don’t you dare mention her name!” ____________
8 “Chester – don’t leave now. Help Catherine and me to look after
Mrs Wilson!” ____________
9 “Business isn’t too bad – but I need money... and fast.”
____________
34
Writing
3 Write a short summary of what happens in Chapter 2. Use these
prompt words to help you.
valley of ashes • George Wilson’s garage • Myrtle • New York •

apartment • whiskey • Catherine • the McKees • Gatsby •
divorce • first meeting • Myrtle’s nose • railway station

4 Look at the illustration on page 29, showing Tom and Nick in the
valley of ashes. Discuss with a classmate what world this valley
represents. How is it different from the world of the Buchanans’
dinner party (illustration on page 13)?
Grammar – CAE-type activity

5 Transform these sentences using the language prompts provided.
1 Tom and I went inside the garage. Immediately I heard footsteps
and saw a stout woman coming down some stairs.
No sooner __________________________________________
2 I started to say to Tom that I was leaving them but he insisted
that I come along to Myrtle’s apartment.
Hardly _____________________________________________
3 I noticed after a few drinks that Mrs Wilson had changed her
dress and that it had changed her personality.
Only when __________________________________________
4 Mrs McKee was unaware how loud and horrible she was.
Little (realise) _______________________________________
5 I tried unsuccessfully to escape to go for a walk towards Central
Park.
At no time __________________________________________
6 I remembered nothing – and then it was midnight and Mr McKee
was showing me his photographic studies.
Not until ___________________________________________
35
Vocabulary
6 Find the correct definitions for these words.
1 ■ chimney
2 ■ stare (at)
3 ■ sensuous
4 ■ drugstore
5 ■ scared
6 ■ argument
7 ■ demand (verb)
8 ■ occasionally
a look at something or someone for a long time

b ask strongly for something, insist
c vertical structure which takes away smoke from a factory
d frightened
e conversation in which you say you don’t agree with what the other
person / people is / are saying
f something/somebody pleasing to the senses
g sometimes
h (American English) pharmacy where you can buy a lot of general
goods
Reading
7 Look at these sentences and decide whether they are true (T) or
false (F).
T F
1 Tom asked Nick if he wanted to meet Myrtle Wilson. ■ ■
2 Doctor T.J. Eckleburg is an oculist’s in the valley of ashes. ■ ■
3 Myrtle Wilson was a slim woman of around thirty. ■ ■
4 Tom cared about what people thought about his affair
with Myrtle. ■ ■
5 Nick wanted to meet Myrtle’s sister Catherine. ■ ■
6 The weather was very bad in New York. ■ ■
7 Nick thought that the apartment on 158 Street
th
was Catherine’s. ■ ■
8 Nick found out that Gatsby was related to a German king. ■ ■
36
Pre-reading aCtivities
Writing
8 in this Chapter, nick receives a “formal” invitation to a party at
gatsby’s house. imagine what the text of the invitation says, and
then write nick’s reply.
9 What kind of party do you think it will be at gatsby’s? Write down

some words and phrases and then check as you read.
NoUNS _________________________________________
ADJECTIVES _________________________________________
VERBS _________________________________________
PHRASES _________________________________________
37
Chapter Three
The First Party
4 I heard music from my neighbor’s house during the summer nights.

Men and girls came and went like moths* and there was champagne
and whispering under the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched
his guests swimming or sunning themselves on his beach, while his
two motor-boats travelled up and down the Sound.
On weekends his Rolls-Royce ferried groups of people to and from

the city, from nine in the morning to past midnight, while his station
wagon served those party guests travelling by train. Every Monday a
group of eight servants and an extra gardener cleaned up the mess of
the night before.
Every Friday five boxes of oranges and lemons arrived from New
York and every Monday the same fruit left Gatsby’s back door as a
pyramid of squeezed halves – thanks to a machine in the kitchen
which extracted the juice of two hundred oranges in just half an hour
by means of a button pressed two hundred times by a butler’s thumb.
At least once a fortnight an army of caterers* arrived with colored
lights and hundreds of feet of canvas to transform Gatsby’s enormous
garden. Buffet tables groaned with* hors-d’oeuvres, baked hams and
moths night insects (similar to butterflies) groaned with (here) were completely full with
caterers people who provide food for social events
38
The Great Gatsby
other sumptuous food. A bar in the main hall was well stocked with
gins, liquors and cordials*.
It’s seven o’clock: an impressive-sized orchestra has already arrived and

set up; the swimmers are dressing upstairs, the driveway is full of cars
from New York, and the rooms are now full of different hairstyles, vivid
colors and exotic clothes. The bar is buzzing and cocktails are all around
the garden. The air is alive with chatter and laughter and introductions
instantly forgotten, as well as enthusiastic meetings between women
who never knew each other’s names.
As dusk approaches, the lights become brighter, the orchestra is
playing and the voices grow louder. Confident girls move among the
faces and voices and color of different party groups. Suddenly one of
the guests drinks a cocktail and starts dancing on the platform. The
orchestra follows her rhythm and the news goes round that she is
understudy* to a Broadway star – the party has begun!
I believe that my first visit to Gatsby’s house was as an invited guest.

Usually people just went there, they didn’t have an invitation. They
found themselves at his Long Island mansion and then behaved as
if they were at an amusement park. Sometimes they left the party
without meeting Gatsby at all.
But I had actually been invited. One Saturday morning his chauffeur
had brought me a formal note asking if I would attend his ‘little party’.
Soon after seven o’clock, in my white flannels*, I was on his lawn,
moving uneasily around a sea of people I didn’t know – except for a
cordials concentrated drinks (to be diluted with water) flannels cloth trousers (wool-cotton)
understudy (here) actress who can be a substitute, if
necessary
39
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
few familiar faces from my commuting train.

I tried to find my host* but anyone I asked looked at me very
strangely, so I went to the safety of the cocktail table. I was nearly
hopelessly drunk from embarrassment when I noticed Jordan Baker
come out of the house.
“Hello!” I shouted, as I moved towards her, and she answered
calmly, “I thought you might be here.”
We moved around the garden arm in arm and then sat down at
a table with two girls dressed in yellow and three men, each one
introduced as Mr Mumble.
“Do you often come to these parties?” Jordan asked the girl beside her.
“Actually, I met you at the last one,” she answered.
Her friend Lucille added, “I always have a good time here. At the
last party, I tore my dress on a chair. He took my name and address
and a week later I received a new one. Two hundred and sixty-five
dollars!”
“Someone like that is strange,” said the other girl. “I think he
doesn’t want any trouble with ANYone.”
“Who doesn’t?” I asked.
“Gatsby. Somebody told me” – the two girls and Jordan leaned
together in secret – “they thought he killed a man.”
“He was a German spy during the war,” added Lucille.
One of the Mr Mumbles confirmed this. “I heard that from a man
who grew up with him in Germany.”
“Impossible,” said the first girl, “he was in the American army
during the war.”
host (here) Gatsby, provider of the party
40
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
All this romantic speculation made us look around for Gatsby, but
without success.
The first supper was now served and I joined Jordan’s group – her
escort* for the evening, an undergraduate* who specialized in innuendo*,
and three married couples. It was East Egg nobility observing the
kaleidoscope of West Egg gaiety*.
“Let’s escape,” whispered Jordan after we had wasted half an hour.
“This is too polite for me.”
We wanted to find Gatsby. He wasn’t at the bar or on the veranda,
so we went inside and found the library. As we went in, we saw a
stout, middle-aged man with enormous spectacles, drunkenly staring
at the shelves of book. He looked round and stared at Jordan.
“What do you think?” he demanded.
“About what?”
“The books – they’re real! Pages and everything. Let me show
you.” He picked up a book, put it in my hand and then snatched it
back again to return it to the shelf.
“Who brought you?” he asked. “Did you just come? I was brought,
like most people. I’ve been drunk for about a week and I thought that
I might sober up* if I sat in a library.”
Jordan smiled, we shook hands with him and went outside again.
5 People were dancing now in the garden. By midnight a famous

tenor had sung in Italian, a jazz singer had performed and there was
laughter everywhere. Champagne was served in gigantic glasses and
the moon continued to rise.
escort companion gaiety festivity

undergraduate student at university sober up (here) become more serious and less affected by
innuendo insinuation alcohol
42
The Great Gatsby
Jordan and I were still sitting together, now with a man of about
my age and a girl who laughed very loudly. The champagne was
beginning to have an enjoyable effect on me.
The man looked at me and smiled.
“I recognize you,” he said politely. “Weren’t you in the Third
Division in the war?”
“Yes, I was,” I replied. “I was in the Ninth Machine-gun Battalion.”
“I was in the Seventh Infantry until June 1918. I thought I’d seen
you before.”
We talked about grey French villages. Obviously he lived near
here, because he told me that he had bought a hydroplane and he was
going to test it tomorrow morning.
“Do you want to go with me, old sport? Near the shore, along the
Sound.”
“What time?” I asked.
“Whatever time is best for you.”
I was about to ask his name when Jordan smiled and asked me if I
was enjoying myself.
“Much better,” I told her. Then I turned again to the man. “This party
is unusual for me. I haven’t met the host. I live over there” – indicating
an invisible border in the distance – “and this man Gatsby sent me an
invitation with his chauffeur.”
The man looked at me incredulously and said suddenly, “I’m
Gatsby.”
“What!” I exclaimed. “Oh, I beg your pardon.”
“I thought you knew, old sport. I’m afraid I’m not a very good host.”
43
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
He smiled understandingly, a smile with a quality of eternal reassurance.

A butler approached him and said he was needed on the telephone.
Before disappearing, he said, “If you want anything, just ask for it, old
sport. I’ll be back later.”
I was surprised. I had expected Mr Gatsby to be red-faced, fat and
middle-aged. “Who is he?” I asked Jordan.
“He’s just a man named Gatsby.”
“But where’s he from? What does he do?” I continued.
“Well, he told me once that he was an Oxford man, but I don’t
believe it. I don’t think he went there. But he gives large parties, which
I like; they are so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”
6 The orchestra began playing a new composition. My eyes fell on

Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps of his house and looking
around at all the groups of people partying. I could see from his eyes
that he approved.
Gatsby’s butler appeared beside us. “Miss Baker? I beg your pardon,
but Mr Gatsby would like to speak to you alone.”
“With me?” Jordan exclaimed in surprise.
“Yes, madame.”
I watched her self-confident, golfer’s walk as she followed the
butler towards the house. I noticed that she wore her evening dress
like sports clothes.
It was almost two o’clock and I was alone. I went inside and watched
a tall, red-haired young lady, who had consumed a good quantity of
44
The Great Gatsby
champagne, singing sad songs and weeping. I looked around and saw
that most of the women were arguing with their husbands – even
Jordan’s group was in conflict.
As I waited in the hall, the library door opened and Jordan Baker and
Gatsby came out together. He started saying goodbye to some guests.
“How long were we in there?” Jordan whispered.
“About an hour.”
“I’ve just heard something amazing. But I can’t tell it.” As she
hurried away, Jordan talked to me – “Please come and see me…
Phone book… My aunt…” – and waved – and then she was gone.
I went up to Gatsby to apologize for not having known him in the
garden.
“Don’t mention it, old sport. And don’t forget our appointment
with the hydroplane tomorrow morning. Nine o’clock. Good night.”
“Good night.”
“Good night, old sport.” He smiled and seemed happy that I had
stayed so late.
As I walked down the steps of his house, I noticed that the evening
had not finished. Fifty feet away, one of the cars was in a ditch*,
having lost a wheel after hitting a wall. Chauffeurs from other cars
had stopped to look and were blocking the road. The scene was one
of violent confusion.
A man from the crashed car was standing in the middle of the
road. I recognized him as the man from Gatsby’s library.
“How did it happen?” I asked him.
ditch long, narrow hole in the ground
45
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
He shrugged his shoulders. “I know nothing about mechanics. I

know very little about driving. It happened, that’s all.”
“You shouldn’t drive at night, then.”
“But I wasn’t driving. There’s another man in the car.”
The crowd of onlookers cried “Ah-h-h!” as the car door opened
and a pale individual crawled out.
“What’s the matter?” he asked calmly, as he tried to stand. “Did
we run out of gas*?”
The crowd pointed to the amputated wheel; he stared at it and
then said, “Put the car in reverse gear and back it out of the ditch.”
The horns from the other cars got louder and louder. I turned
away and walked towards home. As I looked back, the moon was
shining over Gatsby’s house and I could see the host holding his hand
up to say goodbye.
Most of the summer I worked in lower New York. I even had a short
affair* with a girl who lived in Jersey City. I usually had dinner at
the Yale Club and then went upstairs to study in the library before a
relaxing walk back to Pennsylvania Station.
I began to like the adventurous nature of New York and I imagined
myself entering the lives of the romantic women I saw walking up
Fifth Avenue. Sometimes I saw loneliness in young clerks who waited
in the dusk by windows before having a solitary restaurant dinner and
wasting moments of night and life. And when I saw the eight o’clock
taxis travelling towards the theatre district, I felt my own loneliness.
I imagined myself sharing everyone’s excitement and wished
them well.
gas (American English) petrol

affair romantic relationship
46
The Great Gatsby
I didn’t see Jordan Baker for some time, and then in midsummer
I found her again. I was flattered* to go around with her – she was
a golf champion and everyone knew her name. I realized that I felt
a kind of tender curiosity for her; it wasn’t actually love. Her bored,
superior face hid something… and one day I discovered what it was.
At a house party, she left a borrowed car out in the rain with the roof
down, and then she lied about it. Suddenly I remembered a story
about Jordan cheating* at her first important golf tournament.
I now saw that she was incurably dishonest. This wasn’t important
to me; I was sorry about it in a casual way, and then I forgot. At that
same house party, we had a strange conversation about driving a car,
after she had nearly hit a workman.
“You’re a bad driver,” I protested. “You should be more careful or
not drive at all.”
“I am careful.”
“I disagree.”
“Well, other people are careful. They will avoid me – it takes two
to make an accident.”
“What happens if you meet somebody as careless as yourself ?”
“I hope I never will,” she said. “I hate careless people – that’s why
I like you.”
At that moment she had intentionally changed our relationship and
I thought I loved her. But I have many rules which control my desires
and I knew that I had to escape tactfully from a romantic entanglement*
back home. I am one of the few honest people that I know.
flattered gratified
cheating being dishonest
entanglement complicated situation
47
Gap-fill
1 Complete each gap in this text with a suitable word or phrase.
One day in summer a formal invitation (1) _________ from my (2)

_________ Mr Gatsby to (3) _________ a party of (4) _________.
Since I (5) _________ lots of people and (6) _________ plenty
of music at his (7) _________ over the summer, I decided to (8)
_________ on his offer. I (9) _________ to (10) _________ my
white flannels and I walked over to his house. Not (11) _________
anyone made me feel a little (12) _________ but soon I (13)
_________ Jordan Baker and I was (14) _________. We (15)
_________ around for a while and then (16) _________ a man
with (17) _________ spectacles in the library. It was only when
we (18) _________ with a group and (19) _________ champagne
(20) _________ a man of around my age (21) _________ to talk to
me. It (22) _________ to be my host, Mr Gatsby (23) _________.
Writing
2 What do we now know about Gatsby? Write a short text describing
everything that happens in this Chapter which involves him.
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Speaking
3 How does the relationship between Nick and Jordan develop in
Chapter 3? Make some notes and discuss them with a classmate.
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
48
Writing
4 Imagine you are the police. You have been called to Gatsby’s
house because a car has crashed. Write a report explaining what
you saw.
Long Island Police Incident Form
Date of Incident ____________________________________

Time of Incident ____________________________________
Location _ _________________________________________
Number of Vehicles Involved __________________________
Witness(es) ________________________________________
Details of Incident _ _________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Listening – CAE-type activity

5 5 Listen to Nick’s first encounter with Gatsby and decide if these
sentences are true (T) or false (F).
T F
1 It was shortly before midnight and people
were dancing in Gatsby’s garden. ■ ■
2 The only music Nick heard was jazz. ■ ■
3 Jordan and Nick sat in a very large group of people,
including a middle-aged man. ■ ■
4 Nick and the man started talking about experiences
in France during the Great War. ■ ■
5 The man told Nick that he had a special
hydrotherapy pool. ■ ■
6 Nick didn’t realise that the man he was talking
to was actually the party host. ■ ■
7 Jordan tells Nick that Gatsby used to give
parties in Oxford. ■ ■
8 Jordan prefers smaller parties because they are
more intimate. ■ ■
49
Note-taking
6 “I am one of the few honest people I know.” What does Nick
mean when he says this? Think about the characters you have
met so far in this book and identify something HONEST and
something DISHONEST about each of them. Make notes in the
chart below and then compare in pairs or groups.
CHARACTER HONEST? DISHONEST?

Nick
Tom
Jordan
Gatsby
Myrtle
Reading
7 Identify who is talking.
1 “I hate careless people – that’s why I like you.” ______________
2 “I know very little about driving.” ______________
3 “I’m afraid I’m not a very good host.” ______________
4 “I always have a good time here.” ______________
5 “I have many rules which control my desires…” ______________
6 “Did you just come? I was brought,
like most people.” ______________
50
Speaking
8 Read the beginning of this Chapter up to “All these people came
to Gatsby’s house in the summer.” Why does the author give
such a long list of guests? Discuss in pairs.
Reading
9 Look at these sentences and predict whether they will be true (T) or
false (F). Check your answers while you are reading.
T F
1 A lot of people came uninvited
to Gatsby’s parties. ■ ■
2 Nick decided to ask Gatsby about
his background. ■ ■
3 Gatsby came from a poor family. ■ ■
4 Nick wanted to invite Gatsby and Jordan
to tea at his house. ■ ■
5 Gatsby took Nick to lunch with
a business colleague. ■ ■
6 Jordan and Daisy were teenage friends
in Louisville. ■ ■
10 Look at these quotations and identify who is talking in this Chapter.

1 “I thought we could go up to New York for lunch today.”
_ ___________________________
2 “Are you in love with Miss Baker?”
_ ___________________________
3 “He’s a handsome man, isn’t he? And a perfect gentleman.”
_ ___________________________
4 “Daisy is very angry that you haven’t telephoned.”
_ ___________________________
5 “tell everybody Daisy’s changed her mind!”
_ ___________________________
6 “the world came back to Gatsby’s house to party on his lawn.”
_ ___________________________
51
Chapter Four
The Plan
On Sunday morning, while church bells rang in the villages along the
shore, the world came back to Gatsby’s house to party on his lawn.
“He’s a bootlegger*,” said some young ladies. “One time he killed
a man who had found out he was nephew to Von Hindenburg*.”
Once I wrote down on an empty timetable the names of all the
people who accepted Gatsby’s hospitality that summer and who paid
him the compliment of knowing absolutely nothing about him.
From East Egg came the Chester Beckers and Doctor Webster
Civet, who was drowned last summer up in Maine – and a whole clan*
named Blackbuck, who always stayed in a corner and turned up their
noses at anyone who came near, and Edgar Beaver, whose hair, they
say, turned cotton-white one winter afternoon for no reason at all.
Clarence Endive, from East Egg, came only once and had a fight
with a homeless person named Etty in the garden. From further away
on Long Island came the Fishguards and the Ripley Snells. Snell was
there three days before he went to the penitentiary, and he was so
drunk on the drive that Mrs. Ulysses Swett’s automobile ran over his
right hand. S. B. Whitebait, who was a lot more than sixty, came too,
and Beluga the tobacco importer, and Beluga’s girls.
bootlegger seller of illegal alcohol clan large group (of relatives)

Von Hindenburg German general in The Great War, later
president of the Weimar Republic
52
The Great Gatsby
From West Egg came the Poles and Gulick the state senator and
Newton Orchid, who controlled Films Par Excellence. And G. Earl
Muldoon, brother to that Muldoon who afterward strangled his wife.
Ed Legros and James B. (‘Rot-Gut’) Ferret came to gamble, and when
Ferret wandered into the garden, it meant he had no more money
and Associated Traction would need to register a profit the next day.
A man named Klipspringer was there so often and for so long that
he became known as ‘the boarder’. I doubt if he had any other home.
From New York came the Smirkes and the young Quinns, divorced
now, and Henry L. Palmetto, who killed himself by jumping in front
of a subway train in Times Square.
I can also remember young Brewer, who had his nose shot off
in the war; and Miss Claudia Hip, who came with a man who was
supposed to be her chauffeur.
All these people came to Gatsby’s house in the summer.
One morning late in July, at nine o’clock, Gatsby’s magnificent car

arrived at my door and sounded its three-note horn. It was his first
visit to my house, even though I had enjoyed two of his parties, gone
up with him in his hydroplane and used his beach frequently.
“Good morning, old sport. I thought we could go up to New York
for lunch today.”
He noticed that I was admiring his rich cream-colored car. “It’s
pretty, isn’t it, old sport?”
I had talked with him a few times in the past month and found that
unfortunately he had little to say. So my first impression that he was
53
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
a man of importance had changed; I now thought that he was simply

the owner of a splendid house next door.
The ride to the city was disconcerting*. We hadn’t reached West
Egg before Gatsby began to talk in unfinished sentences.
“What’s your opinion of me, old sport?” he asked me suddenly.
I started to give an evasive answer when he continued.
“Well, I’m going to tell you something about my life so that you
don’t get the wrong idea from all those stories you hear.”
So he was aware of* those strange accusations…
“I am the son of wealthy people in the Midwest. I was brought
up in America but educated at Oxford, just like my ancestors. It’s a
family tradition.”
I knew why Jordan Baker believed he was lying: he had said the
phrase “educated at Oxford” very quickly. I now felt that there was
something sinister about him.
“What part of the Midwest?” I asked casually.
“San Francisco. My family all died and I inherited a lot of money.”
He continued solemnly: “After that I lived in Paris, Venice and
Rome, collecting*, painting, and trying to forget something very sad
which happened to me a long time ago.
“Then came the war, old sport. It was a relief*, and I tried to die,
but I seemed to have a privileged life. I was promoted to major and
I received a decoration from every Allied* government – even little
Montenegro on the Adriatic Sea!”
He smiled at these words and reached into his pocket, pulling out
a piece of metal on a ribbon.
disconcerting emotionally disturbing, unsettling Allied (here) the UK, France, The Russian Empire and several
was aware of knew about other countries (fighting in The Great War against Germany,
collecting (here) buyng art objects Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire)
relief (here) diversion, positive change of circumstance
54
The Great Gatsby
‘Major Jay Gatsby,’ I read, ‘For Valour* Extraordinary’.

“Here’s something else I carry – a souvenir of my Oxford days.”
A photograph showed half a dozen young men in an archway,
including Gatsby holding a cricket bat.
So it was all true.
“I’m going to ask you a big favor today,” Gatsby said, “so I thought
you should know something about me. I didn’t want you to think I
was nobody. This afternoon you will hear about the sad thing that
happened to me.”
“At lunch?” I asked.
“No, this afternoon. You’re taking Miss Baker to tea, I believe.”
“Are you in love with Miss Baker?”
“No, old sport, I’m not. But Miss Baker has kindly agreed to talk
to you about this matter,” he explained.
I was more angry than interested at this; I hadn’t asked Jordan to
tea to discuss Mr Jay Gatsby.
He said no more. We drove through the valley of ashes – and
I quickly saw Mrs Wilson working at the garage pump – and flew
through Long Island City, until a policeman on a motorcycle told us
to slow down.
At noon we found ourselves in a Forty-second Street cellar for lunch

with a small man who had a large head, a flat Jewish nose and tiny eyes.
“Mr Carraway, this is my friend Mr Wolfsheim.”
He shook my hand and said, “So I looked at him and do you know
what I did?”
Valour courage (in battle)
55
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
“What?” I asked, politely.

But he wasn’t talking to me, it seemed, because he turned to
Gatsby, who moved both of us into the restaurant.
“What place is this?” I asked Gatsby.
“The old Metropole.”
Mr Wolfsheim considered these words gloomily*. “Filled with
faces dead and gone, filled with friends who are gone forever. I
understand you are looking for a business connection.”
I was confused. “Oh, no,” answered Gatsby for me, “that’s a different
man. We can talk about that another time. This is just a friend.”
“Sorry,” said Mr Wolfsheim, “wrong man.”
Food arrived and Gatsby’s friend started to eat enthusiastically.
“Look, old sport,” Gatsby turned to me, “I’m sorry that I made
you angry in the car this morning.” He smiled.
“I don’t like mysteries,” I answered. “I’d prefer you to be frank and
tell me what you want. Why is Miss Baker involved?”
“Oh, it’s nothing dishonest. Miss Baker’s a great sportswoman and
she would never do anything underhand.”
Suddenly he looked at his watch, got up and hurried out of the
room. I was alone with Mr Wolfsheim.
“He’s a handsome man, isn’t he? And a perfect gentleman.”
“Have you known Gatsby for a long time?”
“For several years,” Mr Wolfsheim answered in a satisfied way. “I
met him after the war. I knew after only an hour that he was a man
of fine breeding*. He’s very careful about women – he would never
look at a friend’s wife.”
gloomily pessimistically, sadly

of fine breeding (here) with excellent social behaviour
56
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
At that moment Gatsby returned to the table. Mr Wolfsheim

drank his coffee and got up. “I have enjoyed my lunch and now I’m
going to leave you two young men to discuss your sports, your ladies
and your---. I am from a different generation!”
“He is very sentimental sometimes,” explained Gatsby, after Mr
Wolfsheim had gone. “He’s a real character around New York.”
“What is he – an actor? A dentist?” I asked.
“Meyer Wolfsheim? No, he’s a gambler. He’s the man who saw an
opportunity and fixed the World’s Series* in 1919.”
“Why isn’t he in jail?”
“He’s a smart man.”
I insisted on paying for lunch. Then I saw Tom Buchanan across
the crowded room.
“Come with me,” I said, “I’ve got to say hello to somebody.”
Tom jumped up and came towards us. “Where have you been?
Daisy is very angry that you haven’t telephoned.”
“This is Mr Gatsby, Mr Buchanan.” They shook hands and Gatsby
looked embarrassed.
“So why did you come to the city to eat?” Tom demanded of me.
“I’ve been having lunch with Mr Gatsby,” I explained.
I turned towards Gatsby, but he was no longer there.
That afternoon Jordan Baker and I sat in the tea-garden at the Plaza
Hotel.
“One October day in 1917,” she recalled, “I was walking around
Louisville when I saw Daisy Fay sitting in her white dress in her white
the World’s Series famous professional baseball competition

played every year in the US and Canada; the 1919 scandal
involved illegal gambling on results
58
The Great Gatsby
car outside her house. Next to her was a lieutenant I had never seen
before. They were very engrossed in* each other!
“Daisy was eighteen, two years older than me, and she was easily
the most popular girl in town. I was flattered when she called to me
that day. She told me that she couldn’t come to the Red Cross to
make bandages – would I tell them? The officer looked at her very
romantically as she spoke. His name was Jay Gatsby. I didn’t see him
again for over four years, and when I met him on Long Island, I still
didn’t realize it was the same person.
“By 1918 I was playing in golf tournaments, so I didn’t see Daisy
very often. I heard a story that her mother found her packing her
bag to go to New York one night to say goodbye to a soldier who
was going overseas*. Her family stopped her and she stopped seeing
soldiers after that.
“By the autumn she was happy again and the following June she
married Tom Buchanan of Chicago. The day before the wedding he
came with a hundred people and gave her pearls valued at $350,000.
I was bridesmaid*, and half an hour before the bridal dinner, I found
her lying on her bed, drunk as a monkey, a bottle in one hand and
a letter in the other. ‘Here,’ she pulled the pearls out of the waste-
basket, ‘take them downstairs and tell everybody Daisy’s changed her
mind!’ She cried and cried.
“So we put her into a cold bath and she took the letter and
squeezed* it into a wet ball. It disintegrated in the soap-dish. We put
her back into her dress and half an hour later the pearls were around
her neck. The next day at five o’clock she married Tom Buchanan.
very engrossed in giving complete attention to bridesmaid female companion to the bride
overseas abroad; (here) across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe, squeezed compressed
to fight in The Great War
59
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
“When they came back from their honeymoon, Daisy seemed

mad about* her husband. That was in August in Santa Barbara. A
week after I left them, Tom had a car accident and his passenger broke
her arm. The story was in the newspapers – she was a chambermaid
in the Santa Barbara Hotel.
“In April of the following year Daisy had a daughter and they all went
to France for a year. When they returned to settle down in Chicago,
they started socializing with a fast crowd, young, rich and wild.
“Well, about six weeks ago, she heard the name Gatsby. The
evening you came to dinner at her house, she came into my room
afterwards and woke me up. ‘What Gatsby?’ she asked me, and when
I described him, she said in a strange voice that he must be the man
she knew. I then connected Gatsby with the officer in her white car
in Louisville.”
When Jordan Baker had finished telling me all this, we had left
the Plaza and were riding* through Central Park. The sun had gone
down behind the tall apartments of the movie stars.
“But it was no coincidence,” Jordan continued. “Gatsby bought
his house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.”
I now realized that when I had seen Gatsby that June night, he
wasn’t only looking up to the stars.
“He wants to know if you will invite Daisy to your house one
afternoon and then let him come.”
I was shaken*. “Did I have to know all these details before he could
ask me for such a small thing?” I asked.
“He’s afraid. He’s waited for such a long time. He thought that
you might be offended*.”
mad about (here) totally in love with shaken upset, shocked

riding (here) travelling by taxi offended insulted
60
The Great Gatsby
“Why not ask you to arrange a meeting?”

“He wants her to see his house,” she explained. “Your house is
next door.
“I think he expected her to come to one of his parties. But she
didn’t. So he asked some people casually if they knew her and I was
the first person he found. That was the night when we were talking in
the library for an hour. I immediately suggested a lunch in New York
but he insisted on doing something ‘right* next door’.
“I said that you were a friend of Tom Buchanan and he started to
abandon the whole idea.”
It was dark now, and as we went under a bridge, I put my arm around
Jordan’s shoulder and asked her to dinner. Suddenly I wasn’t thinking
of Daisy or Gatsby.
A question formed in my mind: “Does Daisy want to see Gatsby?”
“She mustn’t know about the meeting. Gatsby wants you to invite
her to tea, that’s all.”
We passed some trees and light shone down into Central Park.
I pulled my arm tighter around Jordan. She smiled and this time I
pulled her closer to my face.
‘right’ (here) just, exactly
61
Vocabulary
1 Look at these groups of words. Can you find the odd one out?
1 lawn – house – garden – subway – drive

2 old sport – wrong idea – brought up – bungalow – family tradition
3 lieutenant – officer – letter – chambermaid – wedding – bay
4 fast – engrossed – homeless – rich – young
Summary-writing
2 Focus on Gatsby’s story. Write a short text summarising his
education and background.
Grammar
3 Answer these questions, using complete sentences.
1 Who went to Gatsby’s parties most regularly and what did people
call him?
____________________________________________________
2 Why did Gatsby go to Nick’s house one July morning?
____________________________________________________
3 What impression did Nick get of Gatsby as they were driving?
____________________________________________________
4 What did Gatsby, Nick and Wolfsheim talk about over lunch?
____________________________________________________
5 What story did Jordan tell Nick in the tea-garden?
____________________________________________________
6 What does Gatsby want Nick to do?
____________________________________________________
62
Word-search
4 Find
10 words from Chapter 4 in this word grid and spell the
name of one of Gatsby’s guests.
S P T M M O C W Y S J A N A L
X A S W Q K I E F T L N M Y T
Q D F T R U Y N L R G C D E M
S W R T U Y G G A A G E D R O
O E M B F R B R T N E S T H P
G A M B L E R O T G U T R T V
C L F O R W E S E L N O G J N
R T U O J K E S R E D R H J R
G H D T F Y D E E D E S D S Z
V Y B L B F I D D U R E U Z T
R E F E G H N S F L H D R Y O
F G T G I L G L K X A G H L G
I T G G L S D I B V N O T B T
F C I E V N P I Y H D F D E F
O V E R S E A S I T L B E W C
Comprehension
5 Read these quotations and say what happened next.
1 “Here’s something else I carry – a souvenir of my Oxford days.”
2 “He’s very careful about women – he would never look at a friend’s
wife.”
3 “I’ve been having lunch with Mr Gatsby,” I explained.
4 “I found her lying on her bed, drunk as a monkey… “
5 “… about six weeks ago, she heard the name Gatsby.”
6 “Does Daisy want to see Gatsby?”
63
6 Use one of these “contrasters” to rewrite these sentences. (There
is one extra!)
even though • in spite of • as regards • whereas •

however • despite • while
1 I had been to two Gatsby parties and used his beach but this
was his first visit to my house.
2 I received an invitation to my first party at Gatsby’s, but most
people went there uninvited.
3 At first I thought that Gatsby was a man of importance. My
opinion changed while we were driving to New York together.
4 “I tried to die in the war, but I seemed to have a privileged life. I
was promoted to major,” Gatsby recalled.
5 I wanted to pay for lunch. Gatsby didn’t agree but I got my way
in the end.
6 I thought Meyer Wolfsheim was an actor or a dentist. Gatsby
told me that he was gambler.
Writing
7 Focus on Gatsby’s story. Write a short text summarising his
education and background.
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Speaking
8 Now think about the story of Gatsby and Daisy, as told by Jordan
Baker. How are the two lovers different now, five years later? Is
Gatsby right to have bought a house across the bay from Daisy?
What do you think of Gatsby’s plan to meet Daisy again, and why
at Nick’s house? Discuss in pairs.
64
Speaking
9 Think about the “difficult reunion” which is the title of this
chapter. Who does this meeting involve and what do you think
will happen? Discuss in pairs.
Vocabulary
10 Some of these words appear in Chapter 5, some are opposites.
Match the words in these two lists.
1 ■ wonderful
2 ■ rain
3 ■ relaxed
4 ■ whispered
5 ■ excited
6 ■ earn
7 ■ uncertain
8 ■ rude
9 ■ enormous
10 ■ reluctantly
11 ■ funny
a uneasy
b lose
c sunshine
d willingly
e shouted
f normal
g miserable
h polite
i bored
j confident
k tiny
65
Chapter Five
The Reunion
7 When I arrived home in West Egg that night, I thought for a moment
that my house was on fire. It was two o’clock and the whole area was
blazing* with light. I turned a corner and saw that it was Gatsby’s
house – lit from top to bottom.
Another party, I thought at first. But there was no sound at all,
except for the wind in the trees, which blew the wires and made the
lights go on and off. As my taxi drove away, I saw Gatsby walking
towards me across his lawn.
“Let’s go to Coney Island in my car, old sport.”
“It’s too late.”
“What about a swim in my pool?”
“I’ve got to go to bed.”
After a moment I said, “I talked with Miss Baker. I’ll call Daisy
tomorrow and invite her to tea. Which day would be good for you?
”Which day would suit YOU?” Gatsby said quickly. “I don’t want
to cause you any trouble.”
“How about the day after tomorrow?”
He considered for a moment. “I want to get the grass cut.” I looked
at my lawn and the border with his – and I suspected he meant my grass.
blazing shining very brightly
66
The Great Gatsby
“There’s another little thing,” he started to say.

“Shall I postpone it for a few days?”
“Oh, it’s something completely different. I mean--- look here, old
sport, you don’t make much money, do you?”
“No, not very much.”
“I thought not. You see, I have a little business on the side, so I
thought… You sell bonds, don’t you, old sport?”
“I try to.”
“Well, I think you’ll be interested in this. It wouldn’t take up much
of your time and you could earn a nice bit of money. It’s a rather
confidential thing.”
I became very suspicious and decided to stop there. “Thank you
for the offer, but I’ve got enough work at the moment.”
He told me it wasn’t connected to Wolfsheim and waited for me to
continue the conversation. But I didn’t, so he reluctantly went home.
Next morning I telephoned Daisy and invited her to tea.

“Don’t bring Tom,” I told her.
“Who’s Tom?” she asked innocently.
On the day appointed*, it poured with rain. At eleven o’clock a
man in a raincoat, pulling along a lawn-mower, knocked on my door
and said he had been sent by Mr Gatsby to cut my grass.
I remembered that my Finnish housekeeper was still out, so I drove
into West Egg Village to find her and to buy some cups and lemons
and flowers – although the flowers weren’t necessary. At two o’clock a
greenhouse-full of them arrived from Gatsby’s, as well as plenty of vases.
appointed arranged
67
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
An hour later, my front door opened nervously and Gatsby hurried

in. He was wearing a white flannel suit, a silver shirt and a gold-colored
tie. He looked pale, as if he hadn’t slept.
“Is everything all right?” he asked.
“The grass looks wonderful, if that’s what you mean.”
“What grass? Oh, the grass in the yard.” And he looked out of the
window, without seeing anything.
“One newspaper said the rain will stop around four o’clock,” he
remarked. “Have you got anything for tea?”
We looked at the twelve lemon cakes bought at the shop. “Are
they okay?”
“Yes, of course, they’re fine… old sport!”
8 At around half-past three the rain changed to a damp mist*. Gatsby
read, occasionally looking out of the window. Finally he got up and
announced in an uncertain voice that he was going home.
“Nobody’s coming to tea – it’s too late!” he exclaimed. “I can’t
wait all day.”
“Don’t be silly. It’s just before four o’clock.”
He sat down again, looking miserable, and at that moment we
heard a car coming up to the house. We both jumped up and I went
outside.
Daisy was wearing a three-cornered lavender hat. She looked at
me with a bright smile.
“Is this where you live, my dear?”
As I took her hand and helped her from the car, she said softly, “Are
you in love with me? Is that why I had to come alone?”
mist thin fog
68
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
“It’s a secret,” I replied. “Tell your chauffeur to go away for an hour.”

We went in. To my complete surprise, the living-room was empty.
“That’s funny*,” I exclaimed.
“What’s funny?”
Daisy turned her head as we heard someone knock on the
front door. I opened it to see Gatsby, pale as death, hands deep in
his pockets, standing in a puddle* of water. He walked past me and
disappeared into the living-room. For half a minute there wasn’t a
sound – then I heard a murmur and a short laugh, followed by Daisy
saying artificially: “I certainly am very glad to see you again.”
There was a pause, which ended horribly. Having nothing to do in
the hall, I went into the living-room.
Gatsby was leaning against the mantelpiece*, with his hands still
in his pockets, trying to seem relaxed but looking uneasy, even bored.
His head rested against an old clock and he stared down at Daisy, who
sat frightened but graceful on the edge of a chair.
“We’ve met before,” Gatsby muttered.
At that moment the clock fell off the mantelpiece. He caught it
with trembling fingers and put it back. “Sorry,” he said, sitting down
on the sofa and resting his chin* in his hand.
“It’s an old clock,” I commented.
Daisy said in a matter-of-fact* voice: “We haven’t met for many years.”
“Five years next November,” Gatsby pointed out, but his observation
only resulted in both of them standing up and desperately offering to
help me make tea. Then my housekeeper came in with a tray of tea,
cups and cakes, which created a welcome confusion.
funny (here) strange chin front part of the face (below the lips)
puddle small pool matter-of-fact (adj) unemotional
mantelpiece shelf above the fireplace
70
The Great Gatsby
Gatsby retreated unhappily into a shadow while Daisy and I talked.

As soon as I could, I got up.
“Where are you going?” he demanded. “I have to speak to you
about something before you go.”
In the kitchen, he whispered wildly, “Oh God! This is a terrible
mistake.”
“You’re both embarrassed, that’s all,” I said. “You’re acting like a
little boy – and you’re rude: Daisy’s sitting all alone in there.”
Gatsby put his hand up to stop me talking, then looked at me with
unforgettable reproach* and returned cautiously to the living-room.
9 I walked out of the back of the house and ran under the rain
towards a huge black tree. My irregular lawn was full of puddles. The
only view I had was Gatsby’s enormous house, so I stared at it.
The sun shone again after half an hour and Gatsby’s grocer arrived at
the mansion with the ingredients for his servants’ dinner. A housemaid
opened the upper windows of his house… and it was time for me to go
back inside my own. I had heard the murmur of their voices while the
rain had fallen, but now there seemed to be a new silence.
I made as much noise as possible in the kitchen and then I went into
the living-room. They were sitting at either end of the couch, looking at
each other as if there were some unanswered question in the air. Daisy
had been crying; when I came in, she jumped up and started wiping
away the tears in front of my mirror. Gatsby had changed unbelievably
– now he radiated well-being* which filled the little room.
“Oh, hello, old sport,” he said.
reproach criticism
well-being health and happiness
71
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
“It’s stopped raining,” I remarked.

“Has it? What do you think of that, Daisy?”
“I’m glad, Jay,” said my cousin, her voice full of aching* beauty
and unexpected joy.
“I want you and Daisy to come over to my house,” he said. “I want
to show her around.”
“You’re sure you want me to come, too?” I asked.
“Absolutely, old sport.”
While we waited outside for Daisy to wash her face, Gatsby talked
about his house.
“It took me only three years to earn the money to buy it.”
“I thought you inherited your money,” I said.
“Oh, I did, old sport, but I lost most of it in the big panic – the war.”
When I asked him what business he was in, he only said, “That’s
my affair.” Almost immediately he seemed to regret what he had said.
“Several things,” he corrected himself. “The drug business, then
the oil business, but neither of those now.”
Daisy appeared and cried, “That huge place THERE?”
“Do you like it?”
“I love it, but how can you live there all alone?”
“I keep it full of interesting people, night and day. Famous people.”
We went towards the grand main entrance, with Daisy admiring the
gardens, the flowers, the blossoms*. It was strange to reach the marble
steps and see no bright dresses, hear no sounds of partying. Inside,
we went through music-rooms and salons and upstairs bedrooms,
dressing-rooms and bathrooms.
aching (here) sad

blossoms full flowering of the plants
72
The Great Gatsby
We walked into one chamber and disturbed an untidy man in

pajamas, doing exercises on the floor. This was Mr Klipspringer, the
‘boarder’. Finally we arrived at Gatsby’s own apartment, where we
sat down for a drink.
He hadn’t once stopped looking at Daisy, waiting for her reaction
to everything in his house and revaluing it according to how she
responded. Sometimes he stared at his own possessions as if they
were no longer real. Once he nearly fell down some stairs.
His bedroom was simple, except for a toilet set of pure gold. Daisy
used his brush to smooth her hair and Gatsby started to laugh.
“It’s very strange, old sport,” he said. “I can’t---”
He stopped himself – and I realized that he was experiencing a
third emotional state this afternoon. After embarrassment and then
joy came an all-consuming wonder* at having Daisy in his house.
Now he was running down like an overwound clock*.
He opened two large cabinets and showed us suits, dressing-
gowns, ties and shirts. “I’ve got a man in England who buys clothes
for me and sends a selection at the beginning of each season.”
Daisy started crying into the pile of linen, silk and flannel. “They’re
so beautiful. I’ve never seen such wonderful shirts before; it makes
me sad.”
Outside, Gatsby showed us the grounds*, the swimming pool and
the hydroplane. It began to rain again.
“Without the mist, I can see your home across the bay. You always
have a green light burning all night at the end of your dock.”
Suddenly Daisy put her arm through his. But he didn’t notice the
wonder (noun) surprise, admiration the grounds the land around the house
he … an overwound clock Gatsby was losing energy, like a
clock whose key has been turned too often and which is slowly
stopping
73
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
gesture; he seemed absorbed in* what he had just said. Perhaps that
light had now disappeared for ever. It had seemed so near – almost
touching her – compared to the great distance that had separated
them both.
Back in Gatsby’s room, I noticed a large photograph above his desk
of an old man in yachting clothes.
“Who’s this?” I asked.
“It’s Dan Cody, old sport. He’s dead now. He used to be my best
friend.”
There was also a small picture of Gatsby, in yachting costume and
with his head thrown back confidently, taken apparently when he was
eighteen.
“I adore it,” exclaimed Daisy.
“Look at this,” said Gatsby quickly. “Here are a lot of newspaper
clippings* – about you.”
I tried to excuse myself, but they both refused to let me go. Perhaps
my presence made them feel more comfortable together.
“I know, we’ll get Klipspringer to play the piano,” said Gatsby, and
he went out of the room calling “Ewing!”.
The ‘boarder’ came back, embarrassed, now dressed in a ‘sport
shirt’, sneakers* and cotton trousers.
“I was asleep,” he cried.
“Klipspringer plays the piano, don’t you, Ewing, old sport?” said
Gatsby.
“Not well, I’m out of prac---”
“Let’s go downstairs,” interrupted Gatsby.
In the music-room, he turned on a lamp beside the piano and lit
absorbed in fascinated by, immersed in sneakers sports shoes

clippings articles (cut out with scissors)
74
The Great Gatsby
Daisy’s cigarette from a trembling match. He sat down with her on

a couch on the other side of the room, where there was hardly any
light. Klipspringer played The Love Nest, then turned and looked for
Gatsby in the near-darkness.
“I told you I couldn’t play. “I’m all out of prac---”
“Don’t talk so much, old sport. Play!” ordered Gatsby.
Outside, the wind was loud and there was thunder along the
Sound. The trains were bringing people home in the rain from New
York. It was the hour of change and excitement was in the air.
As I said goodbye, I saw that the expression of confusion had
returned to Gatsby’s face – was he unsure about the quality of his
present happiness, perhaps? Even on this perfect afternoon, there
must have been moments when Daisy fell short of* his dreams. It
wasn’t her fault, it was because his illusion was so enormous and
vital, full of creative passion.
Gatsby’s hand took hold of Daisy’s, she whispered something in
his ear and he turned towards her with a rush of emotion. I think
it was Daisy’s voice that captured him most – its intense warmth, a
never-ending song.
He and Daisy had forgotten me, but she looked up and held out
her hand; Gatsby didn’t know me at all now. I looked once more at
them and they looked back at me, from a distance, possessed. So I left
them there together and went outside, down the marble steps and
into the rain.
fell short of did not fulfil, did not meet the expectations of
75

1a How does Gatsby’s behaviour change before and after Daisy’s
arrival? Have you seen Gatsby like this before?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
1b Now that Gatsby and Daisy have been reunited, do you think their
relationship will resume, or not? If so, how will it be possible?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
1c What function does Nick serve in the reunion?

______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Note-taking
2 What importance does the weather have in the events of this
Chapter? Make notes in this chart and then discuss in pairs or
small groups.
WEATHER EVENT
76
3 Complete these sentences, using the modal verbs in the box
below in a past-tense construction and the verbs in CAPITALS.
may • must • might • can • need • ought to • will • should
1 When Nick arrived home, he thought that a fire _____________

at his house. START
2 Nick _________________ flowers in West Egg because Gatsby
sent a greenhouse-full of them at two o’clock. BUY
3 Gatsby _____________ more patience when they were waiting
for Daisy to arrive. SHOWN
4 If Gatsby hadn’t been so uneasy, Daisy ______________ more
relaxed. FEEL
5 Seeing Gatsby unexpectedly again after five years ___________
easy for Daisy. BE
6 Gatsby’s house certainly __________________ Daisy. IMPRESS
7 Nick _______________ with them to Gatsby’s house since, by
the end of the tour, they had forgotten that he was there. GO
8 Gatsby wanted to see Daisy again but unintentionally he
_____________ his own dream. DESTROY
Listening
8 4 Listen to this extract from Chapter 5 and put these events into
the correct order.
A ■ Gatsby told Nick that he was going home.

B ■ Gatsby kept looking out of the window.
C ■ Daisy asked Nick if he was in love with her.
D ■ Gatsby disappeared.
E ■ Nick opened the front door and Gatsby hurried into the
living-room.
F ■ Gatsby knocked the clock off the mantelpiece but caught it in
time.
G ■ Daisy said she was glad to see Gatsby.
H ■ The weather changed from rain to mist at around half-past three.
I ■ Gatsby told Nick that the meeting was a mistake.
J ■ Nick’s housekeeper brought tea and cakes in.
77
5 Answer the following questions.
1 Why does Nick refuse Gatsby’s business proposition?
2 What preparations do Nick and Gatsby organise for the reunion?
3 When Nick goes back inside his house, how does Daisy behave,
and why?
4 Nick talks about “a third emotional state” in Gatsby. When does
he notice this state and what does it imply?
5 Can you think of a connection between Gatsby’s collection of
shirts and something else in his house, which you read about in
Chapter 3?
6 As he leaves them, what does Nick think has happened to Gatsby
and Daisy?
6 Read Chapter 5 again and note all the adjectives which are linked
to Gatsby and Daisy. What picture do they give of their characters
and how they react to the situation of “The Reunion”?
GATSBY ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
DAISY ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Reading
7 Read these quotations and say what happened next. (Use your own
words.)
1 I turned a corner and saw that it was Gatsby’s house – lit from top
to bottom.
2 On the day appointed, it poured with rain.
3 We both jumped up and I went outside.
4 “We’ve met before,” Gatsby muttered.
5 I tried to excuse myself, but they both refused to let me go.
6 It was the hour of change and excitement was in the air.
78
Speaking
8 Here is the beginning of the Chapter:
One morning an ambitious young reporter from New York arrived
at Gatsby’s door and asked him if he had anything to say.
What do you think the journalist wanted to know? Discuss in pairs.
9 In Chapter 4, Jordan said that Gatsby had expected Daisy to

come to one of his parties. Why do you think she didn’t? How
would she feel if she did? Make some notes and then compare
them with what happens in this Chapter.
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Writing
10 Here are some definitions of words in this Chapter. Can you find
them while you are reading? Write a sentence of your own using
each word.
1 wanting success (adjective) __________________

2 disturbed (adjective) __________________
3 discouraging (adjective) __________________
4 someone selling alcohol illegally __________________
5 dedication, loyalty to someone or something _______________
6 mental images __________________
79
Chapter Six
Important Meetings
One morning an ambitious young reporter from New York arrived at

Gatsby’s door and asked him if he had anything to say.
“About what?” asked Gatsby politely.
“Don’t you want to make a statement*?”
After five minutes of confusion, the man revealed that he had
heard Gatsby’s name around his office in connection with something
– he didn’t want to say, or he didn’t really understand. Today was his
day off and he had decided to investigate.
It was just a feeling, but in fact the reporter’s instinct was correct.
The hundreds of party guests had spread the word about Gatsby’s
hospitality and had become experts on his past, so that over the
summer he almost became headline news*. Among the many stories
being circulated was that James Gatz of North Dakota didn’t live in a
house, but in a boat which looked like a house and which was moved
secretly up and down the Long Island shore.
James Gatz – that was his legal name. He had changed it at the
age of seventeen and that was the beginning of his career. It was also
the moment when he saw Dan Cody’s yacht arrive on Lake Superior.
That afternoon James Gatz had been wandering along the beach –
statement comment, declaration

headline news the most important news item
80
The Great Gatsby
but the young man who borrowed a boat and rowed out to Cody’s
yacht Tuolomee to tell him about the bad weather and how his yacht
was at risk – that was already Jay Gatsby.
I suppose he had already thought a long time about the name –
Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island. His parents were unsuccessful
farm people who had always stayed in the same place; in fact, in his
imagination, they weren’t his parents at all. For over a year he had
done various jobs along the south shore of Lake Superior – clam-
digger*, salmon-fisher, anything that would bring him food and a
bed. He worked hard and played hard and soon he had experience of
women: they spoiled him and so he developed a low opinion of them,
partly because of their ignorance and partly because they worried
about things which he just accepted.
His heart was in constant turmoil*, however, and the wildest
thoughts filled his sleepless head at night – while his bedside clock
continued ticking and the moon illuminated the untidy pile of clothes
on the floor.
After two weeks as a porter in a Lutheran college in Minnesota, the

young Gatz was still seaching for something to do in life on the day
that Dan Cody’s yacht arrived on Lake Superior. Cody was fifty years
old, a multi-millionaire who had completed five years at sea escaping
from colorful* newspaper stories and a series of women who had tried
to separate him from his money. His yacht represented beauty and
glamour* to James Gatz. Cody asked him a few questions, discovered
that he was extremely ambitious, took him to Duluth and bought
clam-digger person who looks for molluscs by excavating colorful (here) controversial
in the sand glamour (here) magic, excitement
turmoil chaos, agitation
81
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
him some yachting clothes. When the Tuolomee sailed for the West
Indies and the Barbary Coast*, Gatsby was on board, too, serving as
secretary, ship’s mate, steward*, skipper and even guardian when Dan
Cody was drunk on board. (The sober Dan Cody knew what crazy
things his alter ego* was capable of and he trusted Gatsby more and
more.) I thought of Cody’s portrait in Gatsby’s bedroom: a grey man
with a hard face and a flushed complexion*. In fact, it was indirectly
thanks to Cody that Gatsby consumed so little liquor. Sometimes, at
lively parties, women would rub champagne into his hair, but he left
alcohol strictly alone.
The arrangement lasted five years and might have continued, if
Cody hadn’t died one week after his mistress* Ella Kaye came on board
in Boston. Cody left Gatsby $25,000, but he never received it. What
remained of Cody’s millions went to Kaye and all Gatsby was left with
was an appropriate education. But he was also a ‘substantial’ man* now.
For several weeks I didn’t see Gatsby or hear his voice on the phone.
I was in New York mostly, spending time with Jordan. Finally I
went over to his house one Sunday afternoon. After only two minutes,
Tom Buchanan appeared; I was startled, of course… but what really
surprised me was that it hadn’t happened before.
Tom was part of a trio with horses – there was a man named Sloane
and a pretty woman in brown riding clothes. Gatsby greeted them
with “I’m delighted to see you. Thanks for coming---” and he walked
around the room quickly, offering them drinks. Tom’s presence made
him very uneasy.
the Barbary Coast the North African coast (Morocco, Algeria, a flushed complexion red skin
Tunisia and Libya) mistress lover (female)
steward officer on a ship who is responsible for provisions a ‘substantial’ man a man of strong character
alter ego other self
82
The Great Gatsby
“I believe we’ve met somewhere before, Mr Buchanan.”

“Oh yes, I remember very well,” Tom lied.
“I know your wife,” Gatsby continued, with a hint of aggression
in his voice.
“Really?”
Tom turned to me.
“Do you live near here, Nick?”
“Next door.”
“Really?”
The woman in riding clothes said, “We’ll come to your next party,
Mr Gatsby. Is that all right?”
“Certainly. I’d be delighted.”
“Well,” said Mr Sloane, “I think we should go.”
“Please don’t hurry,” Gatsby insisted. He wanted to see more of
Tom. “Why don’t you stay for supper?”
“Both of you should come to supper with ME,” the lady said, and I
realized that she was including me. “I’ve got lots of room and I would
love to have you.”
Gatsby looked at me – it was obvious that he wanted to go – but
Mr Sloane said nothing. He seemed unhappy at this possibility.
“I’m afraid I can’t,” I said.
“Well, you come,” she insisted, focusing on Gatsby. Mr Sloane
muttered something in her ear.
“If we go now, we won’t be late,” the lady insisted. Gatsby said
that he would follow them in his car – “I’ve never bought a horse” –
and excused himself. The rest of us walked outside onto the porch.
83
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
“Doesn’t Gatsby realize that she doesn’t want him to come?” said
Tom incredulously. “He won’t know anyone at her dinner party. I
wonder where he met Daisy.”
Mr Sloane and the lady mounted their horses and Mr Sloane said
to Tom: “Let’s go, we’re late.” And then to me: “Tell him we couldn’t
wait.”
As the three of them disappeared on their horses, Gatsby arrived
with a hat and a light coat in his hand.
Tom was obviously agitated at the idea of Daisy running around
alone, because he came with her to Gatsby’s party the following
Saturday. Of all Gatsby’s summer parties, I remember that one
as being strangely oppressive. The same kind of people, the same
quantity of champagne, the same commotion* – but there was an
unpleasantness in the air, a sharpness which had not been there
before. Perhaps I had simply grown accustomed to the self-sufficient
world of West Egg, with its own standards and its notable people, and
now I was looking at it again, this time through Daisy’s eyes.
She and Tom arrived as it was getting dark. “I am so excited,” she
whispered to me, as we started walking through all the groups of
people, “and if you want to kiss me during the evening, Nick, just let
me know. I can arrange it. I’m giving out cards---”
“Look around,” interrupted Gatsby. “You must recognize a lot of
people.”
“We don’t socialize much,” said Tom, arrogantly. “Actually I was
thinking that I don’t know anyone here.”
“Perhaps you know that lady.” Gatsby indicated a beautiful woman
commotion disorder, noisy activity
84
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
under a white plum tree, and Tom and Daisy stared in disbelief as
they recognized a movie celebrity.
“She’s lovely,” said Daisy.
“And the man with her is her director.”
Gatsby continued to introduce them to groups of guests and Tom
became “Mr Buchanan… the polo player”.
“Oh, no, not me. I’d rather look at all these famous people in
obscurity,” Tom protested.
Daisy and Gatsby danced a fox-trot; he was graceful and conservative.
I was surprised because I had never seen him dance before. Then they
went casually over to my house and sat on my steps for half an hour,
while I stayed in my garden at Daisy’s request – “in case of fire or flood*,
or an act of God,” she explained.
As we sat down to supper, Tom re-appeared from somewhere and

asked if he could join us. Daisy seemed happy for him to stay – “If
you want to write down some addresses, here’s my gold pencil” – and
then she looked around and told me that the girl was “common but
pretty”. I realized that, apart from the half-hour when she had been
alone with Gatsby, she was not enjoying the evening.
Our table consisted of particularly tipsy* people. Gatsby was
absent, having been called away to the phone. Two weeks ago, I had
enjoyed the company of some of these guests, but tonight the air
was poisonous*. A girl named Miss Baedeker tried unsuccessfully to
collapse on my shoulder, another was trying to convince Daisy to
play golf with her tomorrow, and there was talk of cocktails, sticking
flood overflowing with water

tipsy intoxicated
poisonous (here) sharp, malicious
86
The Great Gatsby
someone’s head in the swimming pool and whether a doctor with a

shaking hand should be performing operations.
The last thing I remember was standing with Daisy and watching
the movie director and his star, their faces touching under the white
plum tree. Eventually he kissed her.
“I like her. I think she’s lovely,” Daisy remarked.
I sat on the front steps with her and Tom while they waited for their
car. “Who is this Gatsby anyway?” he demanded. “A big bootlegger, I
imagine – like a lot of these newly rich people?”
“Not Gatsby,” I said.
“Well, he must have worked hard to put this menagerie* together,”
Tom continued, observing the guests.
“Lots of people come uninvited and he’s too polite to turn them
away,” said Daisy. “At least they’re more interesting than the people
we know.”
“You didn’t look that interested.”
“Well, I was.”
“I think I want to find out who he is and what he does,” Tom insisted.
“I can tell you now,” said Daisy. “He owned a lot of drug-stores,
which he built up himself.”
The limousine arrived. “Goodnight, Nick,” said Daisy, glancing
at the steps of Gatsby’s house, from which the sound of a popular,
sad waltz was floating. Was it calling her back inside? What would
happen now – would a radiantly beautiful young girl arrive as one of
Gatsby’s party guests, take one look at him in one magical encounter,
thus canceling out his five years of unchanging devotion?
menagerie (here) wide variety of people
87
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
I stayed late that night. Gatsby asked me to wait until he was free,
so I stayed in the garden until the swimming party had finished and
all the lights in the guest-rooms had gone out. When he appeared at
last, his eyes were bright but he looked tired.
“She didn’t like it,” he said. “She didn’t have a good time.”
“Of course she did.”
“I feel far away from her,” he continued. “I can’t make her understand.”
“Do you mean about the dance?”
He snapped his fingers to dismiss all thoughts of all the dances
which he had given. “Old sport, the dance is unimportant.”
I realized what he really wanted: for Daisy to go to Tom and say “I
never loved you” and destroy four years with a single sentence. Then,
with Daisy free, they could go back to Louisville and be married from
her house – exactly as if it were five years ago.
“She used to understand,” he went on. “We used to sit for hours---”
He stopped and then he began to walk restlessly up and down a path
of flowers and fruit.
“Don’t ask too much of her,” I suggested. “You can’t repeat the past.”
“Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why, of course
you can!”
He looked around wildly*. “I’m going to make everything as it
was before. She’ll see.” And he talked about how confused his life had
been since then. I understood that he wanted to recover* something,
an idea of himself which had fallen in love with Daisy. If only he could
return to a certain starting place and analyze everything carefully, to
find out exactly what that something was…
wildly with uncontrolled emotion

recover recapture, get back
88
The Great Gatsby
One autumn night, five years before, he and Daisy had been
walking down the street, with the leaves falling. Under the moonlight,
they came to a place without trees, stopped and turned to each other.
It was a cool night, there was excitement in the air and movement
among the stars. Gatsby’s heart beat faster and faster and as Daisy’s
face came up to his and he prepared to kiss her, he knew that his wild
imaginings would never again torment him. So he waited a moment
longer – and when he did kiss her, she blossomed for him like a flower.
The vision was complete.
Everything he said was shockingly sentimental, but it reminded
me of something I had heard a long time ago – a fragment of lost
words, some kind of unreachable rhythm. My lips parted as I opened
my mouth to construct some kind of phrase, but no sound came out,
and what I had remembered was now lost forever.
89
1 Look back at the events in this Chapter and decide whether these
sentences are true (T) or false (F).
T F
1 Jay Gatsby was very close to his parents. ■ ■
2 He changed his name when he was
a teenager. ■ ■
3 When Gatsby worked for Dan Cody,
he started drinking alone. ■ ■
4 Tom invited himself to Gatsby’s house
because he wanted to meet him. ■ ■
5 Daisy was excited when she and Tom went
to Gatsby’s party for the first time. ■ ■
6 Gatsby told Nick that he now felt close to Daisy. ■ ■
Speaking / Writing
2 Imagine the first meeting between the young Gatsby and Dan
Cody. Work with a partner to write a short dialogue between the
two men after Gatsby has come aboard Cody’s yacht on Lake
Superior.
Gap-fill
3 Complete this text by filling in the gaps.
When Tom and Daisy (1) _________ at Gatsby’s party, the host (2)
___________ them and told them to look around at the guests.
“I’m sure you (3) ______ a lot of people here,” he said. But Tom
(4) ________ Gatsby, saying that they (5) __________ very much.
After Gatsby had (6) ____________ them to some of the other
partygoers, he and Daisy (7) _________ a fox-trot and then they
(8) ________ for half an hour, escaping to Nick’s house for some
time (9) ___________ on his (10) ______. Nick (11) ________ in
90
his garden all that time – “in case of (12) ________ or (13) ______,”
Daisy said afterwards. Much later, after Nick had (14) _____ to
(15) ______ late at Gatsby’s request, Gatsby told him of his (16)
_____________. “Daisy didn’t (17) ________ herself, old sport,”
he said, “but I’ll (18) _______ it all like it used to be.” Nick said that
Gatsby was (19) ______________ too much (20) _____ Daisy –
“it’s time you (21) ________ trying to repeat the past,” he told
him. But Gatsby just (22) ________, “Why, (23) ____________
you can!”
Comprehension
4 Who said these words?
1 “Do you have anything to say, Mr Gatsby?” ________________
2 “I’m afraid I’ve never bought a horse, so I’ll follow you in my car.”
________________
3 “Would it be all right if I joined you all?” ________________
4 “You can’t repeat the past.” ________________
5 “I am so excited!” ________________
6 “We’ll come to your next party, Mr Gatsby.” ________________
Grammar
5 Put these sentences into reported speech.
1 “Don’t you want to make a statement?” the reporter asked

Gatsby.
2 “You must recognize a lot of people,” Gatsby said to Tom and
Daisy.
3 “I think I want to find out who he is and what he does,” Tom
insisted.
4 “I feel far away from her. I can’t make her understand.”
5 “I’m going to make everything as it was before.”
91
Speaking / Writing
6 Do you think Gatsby behaved in an appropriate way while Tom
and Daisy were at his party? Consider what happened after they
arrived, up to the time they left, and write a short paragraph
analysing Gatsby’s actions. Is his dream still alive?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Vocabulary
7 Find the correct definition for these words.
1 ■ day off
2 ■ wandering
3 ■ spoiled
4 ■ untidy
5 ■ lively
6 ■ greeted
7 ■ casually
8 ■ startled
a disorderly
b very surprised
c full of energy, exciting
d moving without a definite purpose or destination
e free day
f indulged excessively
g said ‘hello’ to
h in a relaxed way
Writing
8 Imagine you are the young reporter who visits Gatsby’s house
to investigate the stories about him. Write a short newspaper
report about the information you managed to get.
92
Speaking / Writing
9 Here are the first and the last sentences of this Chapter. Can you
predict what happens in between? Discuss in pairs or small groups
and write a short paragraph to describe the events.
One Saturday night, just when curiosity about Gatsby was at its
highest, the lights in his house stayed dark.
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
In the twilight we continued to drive – towards death.
Note-taking
10 Tom’s car and Gatsby’s car play important roles in this Chapter.
As you read, make notes on the connection between the
characters and the two cars.
WHICH CAR? WHICH CHARACTER(S)?
WHAT HAPPENS?
________________________ ________________________
________________________ ________________________
________________________ ________________________
Grammar
11 Find words and phrases in this Chapter to fit these definitions.
1 being able to behave in a reasonable way (noun) ___________
2 very surprised (adjective) ___________
3 very direct, almost rude (adjective) ___________
4 tell somebody that their job has finished (2 verbs) ________ /
___________
5 do or say something stupid (verb phrase) ___________
6 the feeling of being alone (noun) ___________
93
Chapter Seven
Confrontation
10 One Saturday night, just when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest,
the lights in his house stayed dark. I wondered if he was ill, so I went over
to find out. An unfamiliar butler looked at me suspiciously at the door.
“Is Mr Gatsby sick?” I asked.
“Nope – sir,” he replied, disrespectfully.
“Please tell him Mr Carraway called.”
“All right.” He slammed the door shut*.
My Finnish housekeeper later told me that Gatsby had dismissed
every servant in his house.
The next day, Gatsby called me on the phone. “Are you going away?”
I asked him. “I hear you fired your servants.”
“No, old sport. I needed people who wouldn’t gossip. Daisy visits
me quite often – in the afternoons.”
“I understand.”
He told me that he was phoning at Daisy’s request – would I come to
lunch at her house tomorrow? Miss Baker would be there. Then Daisy called
me half an hour later and seemed happy that I had accepted her invitation. I
was suspicious; surely they wouldn’t choose this occasion for a scene*?
slammed … shut closed (the door) with force, making a a scene (here) confrontation
loud noise
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The Great Gatsby
The next day was the hottest of the summer but the Buchanans’
salon was in shadow and was cool. Daisy and Jordan lay on an
enormous couch. I heard Tom’s voice, sounding brusque, at the hall
telephone.
As Gatsby looked around the room, Daisy watched him and
laughed excitedly.
Jordan whispered to me: “The rumor* is that it’s Tom’s girl on the
phone.”
We were silent. Tom’s voice rose with anger. “Okay, I won’t sell
you the car. I’m under no obligation. And don’t disturb me again at
lunchtime!”
He flew into the room and offered his hand reluctantly*. “Glad to
see you, Mr Gatsby, sir… Nick…”
“Make us a cold drink, Tom,” said Daisy.
He left the room and she got up, went over to Gatsby and kissed
him on the mouth. “You know I love you,” she murmured.
“Don’t forget there’s a lady present,” said Jordan.
“Why don’t you kiss Nick, too?”
“What a vulgar girl!”
“I don’t care!”
Tom came back, followed by four gin-and-ice drinks. “Come
outside and have a look at my place,” he suggested.
I went with them. Gatsby pointed across the bay. “I live directly
opposite.”
“Yes, you do.”
We had lunch in the cool dining-room, the atmosphere filled with
nervous enthusiasm.
rumor gossip, unverified information

reluctantly unwillingly
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F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
“What shall we do this afternoon?” cried Daisy. “Let’s go to town!

It’s so hot!”
Gatsby, who had been talking to Tom, looked towards her.
“Ah, you look so cool,” she said. Their eyes met and they stared at
each other, alone in space. “You always look so cool.”
She had told him that she loved him – and Tom Buchanan saw. He
was shocked. He looked at Gatsby, then back at Daisy.
“Come on – we’re all going to town,” he said quickly. “I’ll go and
find some whiskey.”
Daisy and Jordan went off to get ready. Gatsby turned to me and
said, “I can’t say anything in his house, old sport.”
“Her voice is indiscreet,” I remarked. “It’s full of---”
“Money,” he said suddenly, and I realized that he was right.
Tom came back with a bottle wrapped in a towel, and Daisy and
Jordan re-appeared.
“Shall we all go in my car?” Gatsby suggested.
“No, you take my coupe* and I’ll take your car to town,” replied Tom.
“I don’t think there’s much gas,” Gatsby objected.
“There’s plenty,” said Tom. “If I need to, I can stop at a drug-store.
Come with me, Daisy.”
But Daisy moved away from him and said, “No, you take Nick and
Jordan. We’ll follow you in the coupe.”
She walked close to Gatsby. Jordan, Tom and I got into the front seat
of Gatsby’s car and we shot off* ahead of them into the oppressive heat.
“Did you see that?” demanded Tom, looking at me searchingly*.
“You think I’m stupid, don’t you?” But I’ve investigated this fellow.”
“And you found that he was an Oxford man,” said Jordan.
coupe two-door automobile searchingly (here) wanting to understand (why Nick said
shot off moved away as fast as a bullet “See what?”)
96
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F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
“Of course not! Oxford, New Mexico, perhaps!”

Jordan was angry now. “Listen, Tom, if you’re such a snob, why
did you invite him to lunch?”
“I didn’t – it was Daisy. She knew him before we were married,
God knows where!”
We drove in silence for a while. When the eyes of Doctor T. J.
Eckleburg appeared, Jordan remembered Gatsby’s caution about the
level of gas in the car.
“There’s a garage here,” she protested. “I don’t want to run out of
fuel in this heat.”
Tom stopped the car abruptly at Wilson’s garage. Wilson came
outside and stared at the car.
“Let’s have some gas!” shouted Tom.
As Wilson began filling the tank, he said, “I’m sorry I interrupted
your lunch, but I was desperate. I need money badly – what are you
going to do with your old car?”
“Do you want this one?” asked Tom. “I bought it last week.”
“It’s nice,” said Wilson, “but no thanks. I can make some money
with the other one.”
“Why do you want money?” asked Tom.
“My wife and I want to get away. We want to go West,” Wilson
explained.
“Your wife does?!” exclaimed Tom.
“She’s been talking about it for ten years. I’m going to take her.”
Tom’s coupe went by at high speed, creating a cloud of dust. A
waving hand was seen briefly*.
“How much for the gas?” asked Tom sharply.
A waving … briefly (here) as she and Gatsby drove past,

Daisy said hello with a hand gesture
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The Great Gatsby
“A dollar twenty,” said Wilson. Then he continued: “I noticed

something strange a couple of days ago – that’s why I want to get away.”
I realized that he had discovered Myrtle’s secret other life – but he
didn’t suspect Tom yet. I stared at him and then at Tom, and I had a
sudden thought: Tom had made the same discovery nearly an hour ago
about Daisy. Now there was no difference between Tom and Wilson.
“I’ll send you the car tomorrow,” Tom told Wilson.
As I turned to look at the giant, protective eyes of Doctor T. J.
Eckleburg, I noticed that – less than 20 feet away – another pair of
eyes was watching us with peculiar* intensity.
In one of the windows over Wilson’s garage, the curtains were open
a little, and Myrtle Wilson was peering* down at the car. She didn’t know
that I could see her. I realized that her wildly jealous eyes were fixed not
on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she assumed to be his wife.
We left Wilson and Tom was panicking. Both his wife and his mistress
were no longer under his control. He went faster and faster, until we
could see his blue coupe ahead of us.
“I love New York on summer afternoons, when everybody’s away,”
commented Jordan.
Suddenly the coupe stopped and Daisy shouted to us. “Where are
we going?”
“What about the movies?”
“It’s so hot. You go. We can ride around in the car and meet you
afterwards.”
“We can’t discuss it here,” said Tom, impatiently. “Meet me in front
of the Plaza, on the south side of Central Park.”
peculiar (here) unexpected

peering staring, looking intently
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F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
By the time we were opening windows in a large, hot suite at the

Plaza Hotel, it was already four o’clock. “It’s lovely here,” whispered
Jordan, and everybody laughed.
“Just forget about the heat,” said Tom impatiently. He put the
whiskey on the table.
“Why don’t you leave her alone, old sport?” remarked Gatsby.
“You’re the one who wanted to come to town.”
“Where did you get that expression of yours, anyway?” asked Tom
sharply.
Daisy reacted. “Tom! I won’t stay if you’re going to make personal
remarks. Order some ice for our mint julep*.”
Tom looked at Gatsby suddenly. “I understand you’re an Oxford
man, by the way.”
“Yes.”
A waiter came in with crushed mint and ice. “I’d like to know when
you went there,” Tom continued.
“It was in 1919, but I only stayed five months. So I guess I’m not
really ‘an Oxford man’.”
Daisy got up and went to the table. “Open the whiskey, Tom, and
I’ll make you a drink. Then you won’t seem so stupid to yourself.”
“Wait a minute,” Tom snapped back. “I want to ask Mr Gatsby
one more question.”
“Please do,” Gatsby said politely.
“What kind of argument are you trying to start in my house?”
At last everything was out in the open* – and Gatsby was content.
“You’re the one starting something, Tom. Have some self-control,
please,” said Daisy desperately.
julep sweet syrup

out in the open no longer secret
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“Self-control!” cried Tom. “So now the fashionable thing to do is

let Mr Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, I don’t
approve of that.”
“Actually, old sport, I’ve got something to tell YOU,” started
Gatsby, but Daisy guessed what he was going to say.
“Please don’t! Oh, let’s all go home.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said. “Come on, Tom. Nobody here wants a drink.”
“I want to know what Mr Gatsby wants to say to me.”
“Your wife doesn’t love you. She’s never loved you. She loves me.”
“You must be crazy!” cried Tom.
Gatsby jumped to his feet with excitement. “She only married you
because I was poor and she didn’t want to wait any more. It was a
terrible mistake. In her heart she never loved anybody except me.”
Jordan and I tried to leave but Tom and Gatsby insisted that we stay.
“What’s been going on, Daisy? I want to hear all about it.” Tom
tried to sound paternal.
“I’ve told you already,” said Gatsby. “Going on for five years – and
you didn’t know.”
Tom turned to Daisy. “Have you been seeing him for five years?!”
“Not seeing,” explained Gatsby. “We couldn’t meet. But we both
loved each other all that time, old sport. And you didn’t know.”
“You’re crazy!” exploded Tom. “I can’t say what happened five years
ago, because I didn’t know Daisy then. But Daisy loved me when she
married me and she loves me now!”
Gatsby shook his head. “No.”
“Oh, yes, she does,” Tom insisted. “And I love her, too. Sometimes
I make a fool of myself, but in my heart I love her all the time.”
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F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
“You’re disgusting.” The voice was Daisy’s.

Daisy hesitated. She looked at Jordan and me. “I never loved him,”
she said, with obvious reluctance.
“Not that day I carried you to keep your shoes dry… Daisy?” said
Tom, now with tenderness.
“Please don’t.” Daisy’s voice was cold. She looked at Gatsby. “Oh,
Jay, you want too much! I love you NOW – isn’t that enough? I can’t
do anything about the past. I did love Tom once – but I loved you too.”
Gatsby was incredulous. “You loved me TOO?”
“That’s not true, either,” Tom interrupted. “She didn’t know if
you were alive or dead.”
“I want to speak to Daisy alone,” Gatsby insisted.
“Even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom,” Daisy admitted. “That
wouldn’t be true.”
“Exactly,” agreed Tom.
Daisy turned sharply to Tom. “Don’t pretend it’s important to you.”
“It is important. I’m going to take better care of you from now on*.”
Gatsby panicked. “You don’t understand. You’re not going to take
care of her at all any more.”
“Oh, really?” Tom laughed.
“Daisy’s leaving you.”
“Ridiculous!”
“Actually, I am,” Daisy said, with visible effort*.
“She’s NOT leaving me,” Tom cried, “and certainly not for a
common trickster* who would have to steal the ring for her finger!”
“Stop this, please!” cried Daisy. “Let’s get out.”
“Who are you, anyway? A friend of Meyer Wolfsheim, I know that
from now on from this moment trickster charlatan

effort verbal (and, here, psychological) energy
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The Great Gatsby
much. I’ve investigated you a little – and I’m going to continue.”

“Go ahead if you want to, old sport,” said Gatsby calmly.
Tom turned to us. “I know what his ‘drug-stores’ were. He and
Wolfsheim bought a lot of them here and in Chicago, for selling grain
alcohol. I knew he was a bootlegger, the first time I saw him.”
“So what*, old sport?”
“Don’t call me ‘old sport’!”
Daisy was looking terrified. She stared at Gatsby and her husband,
then at Jordan. I looked at Gatsby and I was startled; at that moment
he really looked as if he had ‘killed a man’. He began to defend himself
against all accusations. But with every word, Daisy was slipping further
away* from him, so he stopped. The dream was dead, and all that was
left in that afternoon was unhappiness, despair and Daisy’s lost voice,
begging.
“PLEASE, Tom! I can’t stand any more of this.”
“Go home, Daisy,” he said. “In Mr Gatsby’s car.”
She looked at Tom with alarm.
“Do it,” Tom insisted. “I think he realizes his little flirtation is over.”
I remembered it was my birthday. I was thirty. Stretching before
me was a new decade of loneliness.
It was seven o’clock when Jordan and I got into the coupe with
Tom and started for Long Island. Tom talked and laughed without
stopping, but I hardly heard him. Jordan sat beside me; at one point
her face fell against my shoulder and I felt the comfort of her hand.
In the twilight* we continued to drive – towards death.
So what (colloquial) “What is the importance of that?” twilight almost darkness at the end of the day
slipping further away (figurative) disappearing, becoming
more distant
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Note-taking
1 Imagine you are Nick. Compare lunch at Tom and Daisy’s house
with their dinner party in Chapter 1. What is the same and what
is different this time? Make notes in the chart below.
THE SAME DIFFERENT
Comprehension
2 What does Gatsby mean when he tells Nick that Daisy’s voice is
“full of money”?
Speaking
3 The character of Tom seems to change dramatically in this
Chapter. Why? Does his relationship to any of the other characters
change, too? Discuss in pairs or small groups.
Comprehension
4 Put these sentences into the right order to describe the
“confrontation”.
A ■ Tom demands to know about Daisy’s acquaintance with Gatsby.

B ■ Gatsby tells Tom that Daisy has never loved him.
C ■ Gatsby tells Tom to calm down.
D ■ Tom tells Daisy to go home with Gatsby in his car.
104
E ■ Daisy tries to persuade everyone to go home.
F ■ Tom asks Gatsby about his time at Oxford.
G ■ Tom insists that he and Daisy love each other.
H ■ Gatsby tells Tom that Daisy is going to leave him.
I ■ Daisy admits that she loves Gatsby but that she also loved
Tom once.
J ■ Gatsby makes Daisy say that she never loved Tom.
K ■ Tom says that he has investigated Gatsby and found out that
he is a bootlegger.
L ■ Gatsby explains why he and Daisy didn’t get married five
years before.

5 Useappropriate forms of the verbs in CAPITALS to complete
these sentences.
1 Tom __________________ the opportunity to ask Gatsby about

his past. WAIT
2 Tom ______________ Gatsby when Daisy _____________ to
New York. TALK, SUGGEST, GO
3 The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg ___________ (already)
______________ when Tom _________ at Wilson’s garage.
APPEAR, STOP
4 Wilson said his wife _____________________ ten years about
___________ from life at the garage. TALK, GET AWAY
5 Myrtle had been ________________ Jordan in the car while
Wilson ___________ Tom about his plans. STARE, TELL
6 By the time everybody ____________ in the hotel suite, the
tension within the group (already) ___________. ARRIVE,
INCREASE
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Grammar
6 Use these key words to make complete sentences.
1 Tom – Gatsby – Oxford education – confront
2 Daisy – bottle – Tom – order – whiskey – drink – make
3 Gatsby – Tom – Daisy - marry – tell – poor – wait
4 Nick – Jordan – leave – Tom – want – Gatsby – insist on
5 Daisy – Gatsby – make – love – say – never – Tom
6 promise – carry on – Tom – Gatsby – investigate
Reading
7 Read these quotations and identify who is talking.
1 “I hear you fired your servants.”
2 “And don’t disturb me again at lunchtime!”
3 “You know I love you.”
4 “What a vulgar girl!”
5 “I noticed something strange a couple of days ago – that’s why I
want to get away.”
6 “Going on for five years – and you didn’t know.”
7 “I’m going to take better care of you from now on.”
8 “I can’t stand any more of this.”
Vocabulary
8 Find the correct definition for these words.
1 ■ unfamiliar a have no more supply of
2 ■ fired b hear, believe
3 ■ run out of c imploring
4 ■ understand d dismissed from work
5 ■ terrified e very frightened
6 ■ begging f not recognised
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Speaking/Writing
9 You know from the end of Chapter 7 that there will be “death” in
this Chapter. Whose death will occur, do you think – one person
or more? Look at the title of Chapter 8 and then discuss in pairs
or small groups.
Vocabulary
10 Asyou read, make a list of adjectives connected to these
characters:
Michaelis ______________________________________
Tom Buchanan ______________________________________
George Wilson ______________________________________
Gatsby ______________________________________
Nick ______________________________________
Daisy ______________________________________
Jordan ______________________________________
Myrtle ______________________________________
Comprehension
11 Look at this list of events and put them into the correct sequence
while you read this Chapter.
A ■ Myrtle challenged her husband to hit her.

B ■ Tom was in his car with Jordan and Nick when he arrived at
Wilson’s garage.
C ■ Michaelis had been sleeping before he walked over to see
Wilson.
D ■ Nick saw Tom and Daisy talking in the kitchen.
E ■ Gatsby was waiting for Nick in the darkness.
F ■ Jordan rang Nick while he was at work.
G ■ Nick didn’t sleep well all night.
H ■ Wilson showed Michaelis something suspicious.
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Chapter Eight
Chaos
11 Michaelis, the young Greek restaurant manager in the valley of ashes,

was the principal witness* at the inquest*.
He had slept until after 5pm, because of the heat. Afterwards he
walked over to Wilson’s garage and found George Wilson looking ill.
Michaelis told him to go to bed, but he refused. Suddenly there was
a lot of noise upstairs.
“My wife is locked in up there,” said Wilson calmly. “She’s going to
stay there until the day after tomorrow. That’s when we’re moving away.”
Michaelis was astonished. Then Wilson started asking what Michaelis
had been doing at certain times on certain days. The Greek became
suspicious – and then luckily he had to go back to the restaurant to serve
some customers. When he finally returned to Wilson’s, just after seven
o’clock, he heard Mrs Wilson’s loud voice, downstairs in the garage.
“Beat* me,” she was crying, “knock me down and beat me, you dirty
coward*!”
Suddenly she rushed out into the semi-darkness, waving her hands
and shouting. And before Michaelis could do anything, the ‘business’
was over.
witness person giving evidence Beat hit repeatedly

inquest investigation into a cause of death coward fearful person (without courage)
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The Great Gatsby
The newspapers called it ‘the death car’. It came out of the darkness…
swerved* for a moment… and didn’t stop. Michaelis thought the color
was light green, but he wasn’t sure. The car going in the opposite
direction, towards New York, stopped a hundred yards further on and the
driver hurried back. But Myrtle Wilson was already dead and her thick
dark blood was mixed with the dust on the road. There was no need to
listen for a heartbeat.
We saw three or four cars and the crowd as we approached Wilson’s garage.
“A crash!” said Tom. “That’ll be good for Wilson’s business.”
He slowed down – and then stopped when he saw the faces at the
garage door. “We’ll take a look.”
As we walked towards the door, I heard an empty cry and understood
the words “Oh, my God!” being repeated again and again.
Tom stood on tiptoes* to see into the garage. Then he made a violent
sound and pushed powerfully through the crowd.
Myrtle Wilson’s body was wrapped in two blankets on a work-table.
Tom was bending over it, not moving, next to a policeman writing in a
book. Wilson stood at the door to his office, his body moving backwards
and forwards. “Oh, my God!” he was moaning.
Tom lifted his head and demanded: “What happened? I want to know.”
“She ran outside into the road,” someone said. “Auto hit her. Killed
instantly. Son-of-a-bitch* didn’t stop.”
“The car was travellin’ 30, 40 miles an hour,” Michaelis told the
policeman.
“It was a big yellow car,” said a well-dressed negro. “New. And it was
goin’ 50 or 60, not 40.”
swerved moved suddenly to one side (to avoid something) Son-of-a-bitch (vulgar) bastard
on tiptoes on the front part of the feet (to see at a higher
level)
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F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Suddenly Wilson changed his cries of “Oh, my God!” to “I know

what type of car it was!”
Tom was tense. He went over to Wilson. “Pull yourself together.
Listen to me. I just arrived here from New York. That yellow car I was
driving wasn’t mine. Do you hear me?”
“What color is your car?” the policeman asked Tom, suspiciously.
“It’s a blue coupe.”
Tom carried Wilson into his office and sat him in a chair. Then he
came back and whispered to me: “Let’s get out.”
We drove away slowly at first, then we raced ahead* through the
night. I could hear Tom crying quietly and tears ran down his face.
“The coward!” he muttered. “He didn’t even stop.”
Tom and Daisy’s house appeared. On the second floor, the lights
in two windows were on. “Daisy’s home,” he said.
He offered to call a taxi for me and then he offered me supper.
But I didn’t want food – I wanted to be alone, even from Jordan.
She realized that and went quickly inside. I walked away from the
Buchanans’ house.
Then I heard my name and Gatsby appeared from the bushes* in
the darkness.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“Just standing here, old sport. Did you see any trouble on the road?”
“Yes.”
“Was she killed?”
“Yes.”
“I told Daisy I thought so. She reacted quite well, in the circumstances.
raced ahead (here) drove very fast

bushes small trees
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The Great Gatsby
I arrived at West Egg by a side road. I don’t think anyone saw us. Who
was the woman?”
“Her name was Myrtle Wilson. Her husband owns the garage.
How did it happen?”
“Well, I tried to take the steering wheel, but---”
Suddenly I guessed the truth. “Was Daisy driving?”
He hesitated. “Yes – but of course I will say that I was driving. You
see, she was very nervous in New York and I thought that driving
would calm her. Then this woman came out in front of us, it seemed
that she wanted to speak to us, like she knew us. I tried to make Daisy
stop, but she couldn’t.
“I’m going to wait and see if he tries to do anything to her,” Gatsby
went on. “She’s locked herself in her room.”
I saw lights on downstairs and in Daisy’s room on the second floor.
“Wait here,” I told him. “I’ll go and see.”
I went quietly around the lawn. Through the kitchen window I
saw Daisy and Tom, sitting at a table, talking. They didn’t look happy,
but they didn’t look unhappy, either. It was actually a picture of
natural intimacy.
My taxi arrived. I went back to Gatsby, waiting in the driveway.

“It’s all quiet,” I reassured him. “Come home and get some sleep.”
“No. I want to wait here until Daisy goes to bed. Good night, old sport.”
I left him standing in the moonlight – watching over nothing.
I was awake all night – disturbed by a fog-horn on Long Island
Sound and tormented by frightening dreams. At dawn I heard a taxi
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F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
at Gatsby’s and I got dressed immediately. I needed to warn him

about something.
He was in his hall, looking heavy with depression or sleep.
“Nothing happened,” he said. “I waited, and at four o’clock she came
to the window, stood there and then turned out the light.”
“You should go away,” I said. “The police will certainly trace* your car.”
“Go away NOW, old sport?” He wouldn’t even consider leaving
Daisy until he knew what she intended to do. And now he wanted to
talk about Daisy.
She was the first ‘nice’ girl he had even known – exciting, too, and
desirable. Her house was the most beautiful and romantic he had
even been in. He liked the idea that many men already loved Daisy
and he felt their presence in that house.
But he knew that he was with Daisy purely by chance. He was
a man without money, without a past, with just a uniform to mask
the truth. So he used his time in the best way possible… and one still
October night he and Daisy made love. He let her believe that he was
on the same social level as she was.
Two days later, on her porch, when she turned to him and he
kissed her lovely mouth, he realized that he loved her. “I can’t describe
to you how surprised I was, old sport. I thought that she would refuse
me, but she didn’t. She loved me, too.”
On their last afternoon before the soldier Gatsby went abroad, he
held Daisy in his arms. He kissed her dark shining hair. In their month
of love, they had never been closer.
trace (here) investigate and find
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F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
He was very successful in the war. Afterwards, he tried desperately

to get home, but by mistake he was sent to Oxford. Daisy’s letters were
desperate – why couldn’t he come home? She needed him beside her.
Then Daisy’s social life became hectic again – she was desperate to
find direction in life, through love, money or something else. Change
came in the spring, when Tom Buchanan arrived. He was big – in
body and in social standing*, and Daisy was flattered. Gatsby received
her letter while he was still at Oxford.
It was dawn* on Long Island now and we finished opening the

downstairs windows. A golden light filled the house.
Gatsby turned to me. “I don’t think she ever loved him. You must
remember, old sport, she was very excited this afternoon. What he
told her frightened her. She didn’t know what she was saying.
“Of course, she might have loved him for a minute, when they
were first married. In any case, it was just personal.”
Gatsby came back from France while Tom and Daisy were still on their
honeymoon. He stayed in Louisville for a week, miserable, walking the
streets and re-visiting the places he and she had driven to in her white
car. Daisy’s house had been mysterious and gay; now the city was filled
with melancholy beauty. When he left, he felt that he was leaving Daisy
behind, that he could have found her if only he had searched harder.
It was nine o’clock. We finished breakfast and went out on the porch.
The air felt autumnal. The gardener – the last of Gatsby’s original
servants – announced that he was going to drain* the swimming pool.
standing (here) position, reputation

dawn first light of the day
drain (verb) take the water out of
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The Great Gatsby
“Don’t do it today,” Gatsby said. Then he turned to me. “You

know, old sport, I’ve never used the pool all summer.”
I didn’t want to leave Gatsby and go to work in the city, so I
intentionally missed two trains before finally leaving.
“I’ll phone you.”
“Do that, old sport. I suppose Daisy will call too.”
“Yes, probably.”
We shook hands and I walked across the lawn. Then I turned back to him.
“They’re a rotten* crowd, “I shouted. “You’re worth all of them
put together.”
That was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved
of him – but I’ve always been glad I said that. He nodded, then he
smiled radiantly.
“Goodbye. I enjoyed breakfast, Gatsby,” I called.
At work I fell asleep in my chair. At noon, the telephone woke me. It

was Jordan Baker; usually her voice was fresh and cool, but today it
seemed dry and hard.
“You were not very nice to me last night, but I want to see you.
How about this afternoon?”
“No, I don’t think so. Various---”
We talked like that for a while and then suddenly the conversation
ended. I don’t know which one of us ended it, but I didn’t care. I
decided to take the three-fifty train home, so I sat back in my chair
and thought about what had happened at Wilson’s garage after we
left there the night before.
rotten morally corrupt
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F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
An ever-changing crowd of people stayed until after midnight,

while George Wilson sat on the couch and rocked back and forth.
Michaelis stayed with him until dawn. At about three o’clock, Wilson
started talking about the yellow car, and the fact that a couple of
months ago, his wife had come back from New York with her face
bruised* and a swollen* nose. Michaelis tried to distract him.
“How long have you been married, George?”
“Twelve years.”
“Have you got a church, George? Maybe I can call a priest to come
and talk to you.”
“Don’t belong to any church.”
For a moment Wilson sat still. Then he pointed at his desk.
“Look in the drawer.”
Michaelis opened it and pulled out a new leather dog-leash*.
“I found it yesterday afternoon,” explained Wilson. “She tried to tell
me about it, but I knew there was something strange. It was wrapped
in tissue* paper.”
Michaelis didn’t think there was anything unusual about that – but
Wilson thought differently.
“Then he killed her,” he said, his mouth dropping open suddenly.
“Who?”
“I can find out.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying, George. It was an accident.”
“It was the man in that car. She ran outside to speak to him and
he didn’t stop.”
bruised discoloured (from being hit) dog-leash strap (usually made of leather) attached to a
swollen expanded (from being hit) dog’s collar
tissue thin, decorative (fabric)
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The Great Gatsby
It was around five o’clock. Michaelis turned off the light. Wilson
looked outside towards the ashheaps.
“I told her that she could fool* me but she couldn’t fool God.” He
got up and went to the back of the office. “I took her to the window
and said, ‘God knows everything. God sees everything!’.”
Michaelis was shocked. Wilson was looking out of the window
towards the enormous eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.
By six o‘clock Michaelis was exhausted. After cooking some
breakfast, he went home to sleep. When he returned four hours later,
he hurried back to the garage but Wilson was gone.
Afterwards, the police traced most of Wilson’s movements. He
was on foot, he bought a sandwich and a cup of coffee, some boys
saw him ‘acting a bit crazy’, then he disappeared for three hours.
Perhaps he was asking about the yellow car at all the garages. By half-
past two, he was in West Egg, and he asked someone for directions to
Gatsby’s house. So he knew Gatsby’s name by that time.
At two o’clock, Gatsby changed into his bathing-suit and told his
butler that any phone calls should be brought to the pool. He took a
mattress with him. The butler stayed awake but by four o’clock there
was no telephone message.
Gatsby’s chauffeur heard the gunshots* but at the time he didn’t
think it was anything serious. I drove directly to his house from the
station and we all hurried to the pool. The water hardly moved,
there was a small circle of red and the mattress with the body moved
irregularly around. As we were returning to the house with Gatsby, the
gardener saw Wilson’s body in the grass. The tragedy was complete.
fool (verb) play a trick on, deceive

gunshots sounds of a gun being fired
117
Comprehension
1 Look at these quotations and identify who is talking and about
what / whom?
1 “He didn’t even stop.” _____________

2 “a picture of natural intimacy” _____________
3 “She reacted quite well, in the circumstances.” _____________
4 “They’re a rotten crowd.” _____________
5 “God sees everything!” _____________
6 “That’ll be good for Wilson’s business.” _____________
7 “You don’t know what you’re saying, George.
It was an accident.” _____________
Listening
11 2 Imagine that you are a newspaper reporter at the inquest into
Myrtle Wilson’s death. Listen to the details of the witness
Michaelis about what happened and fill in the document below.
Name of witness _______________________________________

Name of dead person _ _________________________________
Time of accident _______________________________________
Exact location of accident _______________________________
Details of car involved (colour, speed travelling) _____________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
Sequence of events (according to witness) _________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
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Speaking
3 Why do you think Myrtle Wilson ran out of the garage “waving
her hands and shouting”? Was it only because she had been
arguing with her husband, or was it for another reason? Discuss
in pairs or small groups.
Comprehension
4 Match the words and phrases on the left with those on the right.
1 ■ Michaelis a social standing

2 ■ Gatsby b “you dirty coward!”
3 ■ ‘the death car’ c restaurant manager
4 ■ Myrtle Wilson d “They’re a rotten crowd”
5 ■ Louisville e mysterious
6 ■ God f melancholy
7 ■ George Wilson g mattress
8 ■ Daisy’s house h the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg
9 ■ Tom i yellow
10 ■ Nick j “Oh, my God!”

5 Read this text about Daisy and Gatsby’s past and decide on the
most appropriate answer for each gap. You can use facts from
the book to help you.
Example:
0 A determined B realized C announced D was thinking
When the most popular girl in Louisville (0) ____ that she was in
love with a young lieutenant (1) ____ to go overseas to fight in
the Great War, she had actually fallen for an (2) ____. Jay Gatsby
was a (3) ____ soldier, a man without a past, who decided that
the way to Daisy’s heart was (4) ____ his uniform and (5) ____
that he was (6) ____ the same social class. When the successful
soldier was sent unintentionally to Oxford after the war was over,
119
Daisy became increasingly desperate – but only for a short while.
Her social life (7) ____ again and she found herself the centre
of attention again when Tom Buchanan of Chicago appeared (8)
____ the social scene. Despite a last-minute drama involving a
letter from Gatsby and Jordan Baker putting Daisy into a cold bath,
the wedding went (9) ____ and two more (10) ____ lives collided.
Now, five years later, another illusion was (11) ____ created across
the (12) ____ from West Egg.
1 A who was B sent C about D thinking
2 A illusion B delusion C impression D illustration
3 A rich B successful C young D penniless
4 A by B through C about D from
5 A supposing B also C pretending D intending
6 A in B of C about D enjoyng
7 A settled down B stopped C picked up D took up
8 A in B on C at D within
9 A away B out C over D ahead
10 A incomparable B incompatible C unforgettable D successful
11 A been B just C almost D being
12 A bay B beach C river D sea
Speaking / Writing
6 By the end of this Chapter, a number of changes have occurred,
affecting the main characters’ situations. List the events which
have definitely resulted in change and those which perhaps have
changed things.
DEFINITELY PERHAPS…
________________________ ________________________
________________________ ________________________
________________________ ________________________
________________________ ________________________
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Speaking
7 How do you think the story will end, after the triple tragedy of
Chapter 8?
What will happen to Nick and Jordan and to Tom and Daisy? What
does the title of this Chapter – “Seeing the Light” – refer to?
Comprehension
8 Read Chapter 9, then decide whether these statements are true
(T) or false (F).
T F
1 Nick is looking back on events which happened
over five years ago. ■ ■
2 Nick tried to contact Tom and Daisy on the day
of Gatsby’s murder. ■ ■
3 Gatsby’s father sent a telegram from Milwaukee. ■ ■
4 Mr Gatz was very proud of his son’s achievements. ■ ■
5 Klipspringer ‘the boarder’ telephoned Nick
to say how shocked he was. ■ ■
6 Meyer Wolfsheim saw Nick immediately after
Gatsby’s death. ■ ■
7 Nick telephoned Jordan Baker to ask her
to go back East with him. ■ ■
8 Tom saw Nick one afternoon in New York. ■ ■
Vocabulary / Note-Taking
9 As you read this Chapter, find the words to fit these definitions.
1 return (verb) _________________________
2 very serious _________________________
3 concentrated on ______________________
4 well-mannered _______________________
5 said in a very low voice ________________
6 made … believe ______________________
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Chapter Nine
Seeing the Light
12 Two years later I remember the rest of that day, and that night and the
next day: policemen, photographers and newspapermen in and out
of Gatsby’s house. Somebody – possibly a police detective – described
Wilson as a ‘madman’, which was the way the newspapers focused on
the incident the next morning.
Most of the reports were untrue. Michaelis told the inquest that
Wilson was suspicious of his wife, and I expected Myrtle’s sister to
provide exaggerated details; but Catherine said nothing. She told the
inquest she was convinced that Myrtle had never seen Gatsby and that
she was perfectly happy with her husband. Wilson was categorized as
a man ‘deranged* by grief*’.
I found myself alone, and on Gatsby’s side. As I started to tell West
Egg village, I had to deal with every question, every assumption about
him. At first I was surprised and confused, then I realized that no one
was really interested and that, in the end, I would be responsible for
all the practicalities.
Half an hour after we found Gatsby, I instinctively telephoned
Daisy. But she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon, with
their baggage.
deranged mentally disturbed

grief intense sadness (because of a death)
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The Great Gatsby
“Did they leave an address or say when they would be back?” I asked.
“No.”
“Where are they? How can I contact them?”
“I don’t know.”
I tried to reach Meyer Wolfsheim, but I only managed to leave
messages. I sent the butler to New York with a letter, insisting he
come on the next possible train. I felt sure that he would, and I was
convinced that Daisy would send a telegram. But neither came. Only
more police and photographers and newspapermen.
Then the butler brought back Wolfsheim’s answer, and I felt that
it was Gatsby and me against the world.
Dear Mr Carraway,
This is a terrible shock to me. I cannot believe that this man carried out
such a mad act. I cannot come because I have some very important business
here and I can’t get involved. If I can do anything later, please let me know
by letter. I am completely knocked down and out*.
Yours truly
MEYER WOLFSHEIM
Under the signature, he had quickly written:

I don’t know his family. Let me know about the funeral, etc.
That afternoon the phone rang from Chicago and I was convinced
that it was Daisy at last. But a man’s voice announced the name
‘Slagle’ and said, “Did you get my telegram? There’s trouble---” and
knocked down and out shocked and unable to think

coherently
123
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
when I interrupted and said, “Look here – I’m not Mr Gatsby. He’s
dead!”, there was a long silence and then the connection was broken.
Three days after the terrible event, a telegram signed Henry C. Gatz
arrived from Minnesota. It said the sender was leaving immediately and
the funeral should be postponed until he arrived.
When Gatsby’s father arrived, on a warm September day, I met
a solemn old man who seemed lost. He was almost crying with
excitement, he pulled at his grey beard and when he looked like he
would collapse, I took him into the music room and ordered a glass of
milk. But he refused to sit down.
“I saw it in the Chicago newspaper. I came immediately. It must
have been a madman.”
“Wouldn’t you like some coffee?” I insisted.
“I’m all right, thank you, Mr---”
“Carraway.”
“Where is Jimmy?”
I took him into the drawing-room where Gatsby lay and I left him there.
After a while Mr Gatz opened the door and came out crying, his
mouth open. At his age, death was no longer a surprise and when he
looked around at his son’s splendid house, his grief was soon mixed
with pride.
I took him upstairs into one of the bedrooms and then I told him
that all ‘arrangements’ had been postponed until his arrival.
“I didn’t know what you wanted, Mr Gatsby – whether you wanted
to take the body back home.”
“Gatz is my name,” he said. “Were you a friend of my boy’s?”
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The Great Gatsby
“We were close friends.”

“He had a big future ahead of him, you know. He was very
intelligent. He would have been a great man if he’d lived – a country-
builder.”
“That’s true,” I said uncomfortably.
Mr Gatz tried to take the cover off the bed and then he lay down
and instantly fell asleep.
That night a frightened person telephoned and asked who I was.
When I told him, he sounded relieved*. “This is Klipspringer.”
I was happy, too. There would be another friend at Gatsby’s grave*.
“The funeral’s tomorrow at three o’clock, here at the house,” I said.
“Please tell anyone who would be interested.”
“Oh, I will… if I see anyone.”
“You will be there yourself, won’t you?” I asked suspiciously.
“I’ll certainly try. Actually, I called because---”
“Wait a minute,” I interrupted. “Why don’t you just say you’ll
come?”
“Well, I’m staying in Greenwich and the people here want me
to go for a picnic with them tomorrow. Of course I’ll try to come.
Actually, I called about a pair of tennis shoes I left there. Could you
send---?”
I hung up*.
On the morning of the funeral, I went to New York to see Meyer
Wolfsheim. I pushed open his door and the place seemed deserted. A
beautiful Jewish woman appeared and said “Mr Wolfsheim’s gone to
Chicago.”
relieved free from anxiety hung up put down the telephone suddenly (to end the
grave tomb conversation)
125
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
She was lying – I could hear someone whistling.

“Please say that Mr Carraway wants to see him. It’s about Gatsby.”
“Oh! Will you please wait here? What was your name?” And then
she vanished*.
In a moment, Wolfsheim was standing in the doorway, welcoming
me. We went into his office and he remarked that it was a sad time for
all of us. He offered me a cigar.
“When I first met him, he was a young major with a lot of medals. He
had no money to buy any clothes so he lived in his uniform. The first time I
saw him, he came into a pool-room* on Forty-third Street and asked me for
a job. I offered him lunch because he hadn’t eaten for two days.”
“Did you start him in business?”
“I made him in business! I saw that he was a gentlemanly young
man and I knew that I could use him well. We worked closely together
in everything.”
“And now he’s dead,” I added. “You were his closest friend so I
know you’ll want to come to his funeral.”
“I’d like to – but I can’t get involved. If a man gets killed, I keep my
distance.”
I could see that he did not want to come, so I stood up.
“Let us show our friendship for a man when he is alive, and then
leave everything alone after he is dead,” Wolfsheim pronounced.
It was drizzling* when I arrived back in West Egg. I found Mr Gatz
walking up and down the hall. He was excited and proud of his son
and he had something to show me.
“Jimmy sent me this pretty picture – look,” he said. With trembling
vanished disappeared drizzling raining very lightly

pool-room public hall for playing pool (similar to billiards)
126
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
fingers, he opened his wallet and pulled out a dirty photograph of

Gatsby’s house.
“Had you seen him recently?” I asked.
“He came to see me two years ago and bought the house I live in
now. Of course we were devastated* when he ran away from home
but I realize now that it was for a reason. He had a big future ahead
of him and he knew it. And after he was successful, he was very
generous with me.”
Mr Gatz then pulled an old book from his pocket. “He had this
when he was a boy.”
In the back, the word SCHEDULE was written, and the date:
September 12, 1906.
Underneath:
Rise from bed 6:00am

Exercise 6:15-6:30
Study electricity 7:15-8:15
Work 8:30-4:30pm
Baseball and sports 4:30-5:00
Elocution* 5:00-6:00
Study of necessary inventions 7:00-9:00
GENERAL INTENTIONS – No wasting time, no more smoking or
chewing*, bathe every other day, read one improving book or magazine a
week, be better to parents.
“I found this book by chance,” said the old man. “It was obvious that
devastated shocked chewing (here) moving tobacco around in the mouth

Elocution Public speaking
128
The Great Gatsby
Jimmy would be successful. He was determined*.”

He didn’t want to close the book – I think he wanted me to copy
down his son’s list and use it myself.
13 Just before three o’clock, the minister* arrived and Gatsby’s father
and I began to expect other cars. The servants waited in the hall, the
rain continued. I asked the minister to wait another half an hour, but
nobody came.
At five o’clock our procession of three cars arrived at the cemetery
– the hearse*, the limousine carrying Mr Gatz, the minister and me,
and then the servants and the West Egg postman in Gatsby’s station
wagon. I heard another car stop and the sound of someone walking
on very wet ground. I saw the man with owl-eyed glasses whom I had
met in Gatsby’s library three months before.
I don’t know how he knew about the funeral, I didn’t even know
his name. He took off his thick glasses and wiped the rain away, so
that he could see the grave.
I tried to think about Gatsby but I could only remember that Daisy
hadn’t sent a message or any flowers. Somebody muttered “Blessed are
the dead that the rain falls on” and the owl-eyed man said “Amen to that”.
We all walked quickly back to the cars. ‘Owl-eyes’ spoke to me by
the gate. “I couldn’t get to the house.”
“Nobody could,” I said.
“You’re joking! My God, hundreds of people used to go to Gatsby’s!”
Then he wiped his glasses again. “The poor son-of-a-bitch,” he said.
14 After Gatsby’s death the East haunted* me and I decided to come
back home. But I needed to do one more thing before I left – something
determined tenacious hearse vehicle to carry a dead body

minister church representative haunted obsessed
129
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
unpleasant and not very easy. I saw Jordan Baker and talked to her about
what had happened to us and then what had happened afterwards to
me. Sitting in her golf clothes, she listened to me without speaking
and then casually she told me that she was engaged to another man. I
pretended to be surprised and then I got up to say goodbye.
“You did finish with* me,” Jordan said suddenly. “On the telephone.
I don’t care about you now, but it was a new experience for me then
and I was a little confused.”
We shook hands.
“You told me once that a bad driver was only safe until she met
another bad driver,” Jordan added. “Well, that’s what happened to
me, didn’t it? I actually thought you were an honest person.”
Half in love with her, and extremely sorry, I turned away.
One afternoon late in October I saw Tom Buchanan. He was
walking aggressively along Fifth Avenue, ahead of me. Suddenly he
stopped, turned and saw me and walked back.
I refused his hand.
“What’s the matter, Nick?”
“You know what I think of you.”
“You’re crazy,” he said.
“Tom, what did you say to Wilson that afternoon?” I demanded.
Tom stared at me and I knew that I had guessed correctly. I turned
away, but he took me by the arm.
“I told him the truth,” he said. “Daisy and I were about to leave
and he came to the door. His hand was on a revolver* in his pocket
and he was crazy enough to kill me. I told him whose car it was.
finish with (here) stop your romantic relationship with

revolver handgun
130
The Great Gatsby
Gatsby ran over* Myrtle the same way you would run over a dog.
And he didn’t even stop.”
I couldn’t say anything – not even tell the truth, that Gatsby hadn’t
been the driver.
“I suffered too, Nick,” Tom went on, “when I went to that flat in
New York. I saw the dog biscuits and I cried like a baby.”
I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but he believed that what he
had done was right. It was careless and confused – just like the kind
of people Tom and Daisy were.
I shook hands with Tom and he disappeared into a jewelry store.
When I left West Egg, Gatsby’s house was still empty. The grass
on his lawn was as long as mine. One Saturday night a car went up his
drive and its lights stopped at Gatsby’s front steps. I didn’t investigate
– perhaps it was a final guest who had been away and didn’t know that
the party was over.
On my last night, I went to look again at Gatsby’s house. Then I
went down to the beach and lay on the sand. Most of the places along
the shore were closed now and there weren’t many lights. A ferryboat
moved across the Sound; the moon rose higher.
As I sat there, I thought of Gatsby’s excitement when he first
saw the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. His dream must have
seemed so close, but he did not realize that it was already behind him.
Gatsby believed in that green light, the bright future which disappears
year after year before our eyes. Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch
our arms out farther and maybe one morning…
Until that day, we carry on, against the flow*, carried back constantly
into the past.
ran over passed over (in the car) and killed

flow current
131
Comprehension
1 Who is being described in these phrases?
1 “deranged by grief” _________

2 “she was perfectly happy with her husband” _________
3 “completely knocked down and out” _________
4 “Did you get my telegram? There’s trouble---” _________
5 “his grief was soon mixed with pride” _________
6 “… read one improving book or magazine a week…” _________
7 “Blessed are the dead that the rain falls on” _________
8 “careless and confused” _________
9 “half in love … and extremely sorry” _________
10 “I saw the dog biscuits and I cried like a baby.” _________

2 Rewrite these sentences, using the verbs in brackets in an
appropriate tense.
a It would have been impossible for Nick to imagine that hardly
anyone would help him to organise Gatsby’s funeral.
Nick (not realize) how little help he would get in (organize)
Gatsby’s funeral.
b Tom told Wilson that Gatsby’s car ran over Myrtle; perhaps that
is why Gatsby is dead.
If Tom (tell) Wilson whose car (run over) Myrtle, then Gatsby
still (might) (be) alive.
c Wilson was described as “deranged by grief” because of
Catherine’s evidence at the inquest.
It (be) Catherine’s evidence at the inquest which (result) in
Wilson (be labelled) as “deranged by grief”.
d To Nick’s surprise, when the day of the funeral arrived, Daisy
hadn’t rung or sent a message.
Nick (expect) a telephone call or message from Daisy but
nothing (arrive) by the day of the funeral.
132
e Both Meyer Wolfsheim and Henry Gatz were convinced that a
madman had murdered Gatsby.
Both Meyer Wolfsheim and Henry Gatz (comment) that Gatsby’s
murder (must) (be) the work of a madman.
f When Tom said “Gatsby ran over Myrtle”, Nick wasn’t able to
reveal the true driver that day.
Not even when Tom said “Gatsby ran over Myrtle” Nick (tell)
him the truth that Daisy (drive) that day.
Listening – CAE-type activity

13 3a Listen to this short extract describing Gatsby’s funeral and answer
these questions.
1 What was the weather like before the funeral? Did it change
when everybody was at the cemetery?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
2 How many cars in total were at the funeral service for Gatsby?
Who was in them?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
3 Why was ‘Owl-eyes’ surprised when he talked to Nick

afterwards?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
3b Now listen again. If necessary, correct these sentences and give

more information.
The funeral procession of four cars left Gatsby’s house at five o’clock.
Nick remembered that his first Gatsby party had been six months
before.
Nick was only thinking about Daisy during the funeral service.
‘Owl-eyes’ took his glasses off to talk to Nick.
‘Owl-eyes’ didn’t like Gatsby.
133
FOCUS ON...
Scott and Zelda – a romance

“beautiful and damned”
Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, 1920
First meeting
When Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre first met and danced together at a country club in
Alabama in July 1918, Scott was a 22-year-old, smartly dressed lieutenant who “smelled like new
goods” and the 18-year-old Zelda was the most popular girl in her home city of Montgomery.
Beautiful, flirtatious and from a wealthy family, Zelda could have had any of the numerous
college boys and soldiers who were trying to win her hand. Instead, it was the penniless soldier
who captured Zelda’s heart; Fitzgerald wrote in his personal journal that he fell in love with her
on 7 September, and an informal engagement began.
134
Job frustration mother’s; but three months later, by mistake
Zelda sent Scott a note which she had written
Scott expected to go overseas to fight in the
when returning a present to another boy.
Great War but the conflict ended in November
Scott rushed to Montgomery; he begged Zelda
1918 and the following February, he was
to marry him but was shocked when she
discharged from the military. He went to New
turned him down. The engagement was over.
York to look for work and earn his fortune;
however, he managed only to find a low-paid
job in an advertising firm. He wrote nineteen Reunited
short stories and tried to get them published Scott returned to his parents’ home in St Paul,
in magazines but was successful with only Minnesota, to continue writing – he revised
one. “I was a failure,” Fitzgerald wrote in his material which he had started in the army –
essay My Lost City, “mediocre at advertising and he and Zelda no longer exchanged letters.
work and unable to get started as a writer”. “It was one of those tragic loves doomed for
lack of money,” he wrote in his 1936 essay
Rejection The Crack-Up. “During a long summer of
despair I wrote a novel instead of letters, so
Meanwhile Zelda continued her busy social
it came out all right.” That novel, This Side
life in Montgomery and her letters to Scott
of Paradise, was finally accepted by the
– despite his depression about work and
publishers Scribner’s in September 1919 and
lack of success and its pressure on their
Scott immediately contacted Zelda again.
relationship – gave details of parties, dances
Both realised that they were still deeply
and the many boys she was dating. In March
in love and they quickly resumed their
1919, she was overjoyed when Scott sent her
engagement.
an engagement ring which had been his
And so began…
Scott’s novel was published in March 1920, selling out on its first printing. He and Zelda were
married in St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York the following month. The struggling writer had
become a literary celebrity and now had a beautiful, rich wife at his side. Two months before
the wedding, with all his friends warning him about marrying the “wild, pleasure-loving” Zelda,
Scott had offered a simple explanation in one of his letters: “I love her and that’s the beginning
and end of everything”. And so began a whirlwind life of parties, poverty, jealousy, alcoholism,
mental illness and, finally, separation… with deep mutual love running throughout. “We ruined
ourselves,“ Scott wrote to Zelda in 1930, when she was first hospitalized, “I have never honestly
thought that we ruined each other.”
135
FOCUS ON...
The Genesis of a Classic

Aspiration
In October 1922, a year after their child “Scottie” was born, the Fitzgerald family decided to
move from Scott’s home town of St Paul, Minnesota, to Great Neck, Long Island.
Scott’s second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, had been published earlier that year and
over the summer he had been writing and re-writing a play, “The Vegetable”. Scott wanted
to be near Broadway, hoping that he would find a theatrical producer to stage the play, so
Great Neck – a town where many important people from journalism and entertainment lived
– seemed an ideal choice.
Inspiration
Great Neck lay across the bay from Manhasset Neck, which was home to a number of
wealthy, well-established families. In The Great Gatsby, Great Neck became West Egg,
where the “nouveau riche” lived, and Manhasset Neck served as the inspiration for the
“old wealth” of East Egg, home of Daisy and Tom Buchanan.
Distraction
The Fitzgeralds rented a house in Great Neck for six months, but writing progressed slowly for
Scott. He became a close friend of the sportswriter and humorist Ring Lardner, who also lived
in Great Neck and who, like Scott, was an alcoholic. Fitzgerald even introduced Lardner to his
publishing editor at Scribner’s, Maxwell Perkins. But life was expensive in this Long Island
town, and Fitzgerald drank heavily, although he was always sober when he wrote.
Zelda’s drinking also increased, and she and Scott had frequent domestic rows.
Task
1 What’s your opinion of the various ‘working titles’ for this book?
(Perhaps you need to look up online who Trimalchio was and the
connection for Fitzgerald!) What do you think Fitzgerald’s final
choice Under the Red White and Blue refers to?
2 Despite Fitzgerald’s comment about “greatness”, what do you

think the word “great” refers to in the title The Great Gatsby?
Discuss in pairs or small groups.
136
Scott Fitzgerald
writing at his desk, 1920
Decisions!
While he was writing his third novel,
Scott Fitzgerald considered a number of titles, including
Gatsby, Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires,
Trimalchio, Trimalchio in West Egg, On the Road to West
Egg, Gold-hatted Gatsby and The High-bouncing Lover.
Relocation and Survival When Fitzgerald sent material to his editor in October
It was only towards the end of the Fitzgeralds’ stay in 1924, the title was The Great Gatsby; but one month
Great Neck that Scott began the draft version of what later he wanted Trimalchio in West Egg. The publishers
was to become The Great Gatsby. In May 1923, the didn’t like this title and Fitzgerald suggested Gold-hatted
family relocated to Europe and settled on the French Gatsby at the same time as instructing them to call it
Riviera, where Scott was able to finish the novel. The Great Gatsby! In January 1925, he wrote to his editor
Meanwhile, news arrived from America of the failure Maxwell Perkins: “The Great Gatsby is weak because
of his play “The Vegetable” after only one week of there’s no emphasis even ironically on his greatness or
performances in Atlantic City. This put Fitzgerald lack of it.” Less than a month before publication in April
further into debt and forced him to write short stories 1925, Fitzgerald sent a telegram from the island of Capri:
to survive. By the end of the year, the family had “CRAZY ABOUT TITLE UNDER THE RED WHITE AND BLUE
moved again, this time to Rome, and Scott spent 1924 – WHAT WOULD DELAY BE?”. But it was too late; Perkins
revising his material several times. He also wrote a told him that the novel had already been marketed as
humorous article for the magazine Saturday Evening The Great Gatsby, so the title couldn’t be changed.
Post called “How to Live on $36,000 a Year”, detailing Fitzgerald later remarked that the published title was
his and Zelda’s lifestyle in Great Neck. "only fair, rather bad than good".
137
FOCUS ON...
The Jazz Age Charles Martin, The Tango, 1920
One Long Party “Listen in!”

The Jazz Age was a ten-year period between After the war, radio became the first form
two “Greats”: the end of The Great War (see of mass-market entertainment. Everybody
page 140) and the beginning of the Great wanted one, even though a radio was an
Depression which followed expensive luxury at that
the stock-market crash on time. By 1922, the variety
Wall Street of October 1929. of radio broadcasts had
Scott Fitzgerald coined expanded greatly and
the phrase “The Jazz Age” people heard all kinds of
in his 1931 essay Echoes music, including jazz – from
of The Jazz Age. America the comfort of their own
experienced, he said, “the living-room.
greatest, gaudiest spree in
history”.
138
Style The Great Gatsby. Dance was also popular, in
particular the provocative Charleston, which
Jazz was an Afro-American style of music –
was first seen in a Broadway show in 1923.
mixing blues, ragtime and marching
The Great Gatsby deals with such themes as
band – which had started in New Orleans
glamour, beauty and material success but
around 1895. Jazz’s main characteristic was
through its characters and the events which
improvisation from a simple, well-known
unfold, it also hints at the rougher side of
melody – spontaneous music-making which
this period – superficiality, frustration and,
gave a feeling of joyful free spirit… and the
ultimately, disillusionment.
musicians involved often couldn’t read a
note of music! So the Jazz Age didn’t simply
mean that people were enjoying jazz music;
it also signified that they had decided on a
The Party’s Over
By the late 1920s, the sense of adventure
particular lifestyle. had disappeared. Fitzgerald observed that
“in 1926 we looked down and noticed we
Social Mix had flabby arms and a fat pot”, while a
year later “a widespread neurosis began
It may have been started by Afro-Americans,
to be evident”. He described the deaths of
but throughout the 1920s jazz was expanded
some of his friends as a way of illustrating
and its traditions adopted by white middle-
this social decline: “contemporaries of
class Americans. Even the jazz performers
mine had begun to disappear into the
were mainly white, so black musicians didn’t
dark maw of violence. A classmate killed
get much ‘airtime’ on the radio! The Jazz Age
himself and his wife on Long Island, another
witnessed a unique social ‘marriage’ between
tumbled “accidentally” from a skyscraper
the poor person’s music and the wealthy
in Philadelphia, another purposefully from
social classes who went crazy about it – the
a skyscraper in New York. One was killed
ones who liked to appear at Gatsby’s parties!
in a speak-easy in Chicago; another was
beaten to death in a speak-easy in New York
On the Surface and and crawled home to the Princeton Club to
die… these things happened not during the
Underneath depression, but during the boom.”
Classic images of the Jazz Age include The financial crash and the lean years were
showgirls, flappers, speak-easies and the not far off.
kind of lavish entertainment described in
Task
Research online the following terms from this Dossier:
showgirl, flapper, speak-easy, the Charleston, radio, jazz.
139
FOCUS ON...
How America joined The Great War

“Out of War”
When the First World War – known as
“The Great War” until World War Two –
broke out in August 1914, America’s President
Woodrow Wilson immediately declared that
the country was neutral. Although some
people thought that the United States would
eventually be drawn into the conflict, the
majority supported the country’s position of
neutrality – in fact, when Wilson campaigned
for his successful re-election in 1916, his slogan
was “He kept us out of war”.
President Woodrow Wilson
Task
ONLINE RESEARCH
Find some online information about America’s campaign in
The Great War, from the time she joined the war (April 1917) until
the end of hostilities in November 1918. How many American
soldiers fought in Europe and did they suffer heavy casualties?
American soldiers,
First World War
140
A European Matter talking of “a peace of reconciliation, peace
without victory”. Re-elected the following
The First World War was the result of tension
November, the President asked both sides
throughout Europe and was fought between
what would make them willing to end the
two rival European alliances, the Triple
war? Germany’s answer was unclear, while
Alliance of Austria-Hungary, Germany and
for Britain and France military victory was
Italy and the Triple Entente of Russia, France
the only option. Wilson continued to insist on
and Britain. Americans viewed this war as a
mediation, based on the idea of a League of
complicated European matter and when they
Nations (eventually set up after the Treaty of
heard about the barbaric conditions of the
Versailles in 1919).
trenches, they were convinced that the right
decision had been made.
Nothing Safe
President Wilson even adopted the policy of
‘fairness’, which meant that America could lend
money to both the Alliance and the Entente
and also would trade with the two sides.
But when Britain imposed a naval blockade
along the German coastline, it became almost
impossible for America to do business with
Germany. As a result, the Germans decided to
use submarines (“U-boats”) to attack ships,
including merchant vessels and those flying a
neutral flag. A goodbye kiss, First World War
What Price Peace? America Joins Up

In May 1915, the passenger ship Lusitania was In January 1917, Germany announced that
sunk by a German U-boat and 128 Americans she was starting “unrestricted submarine
died. Germany said the ship was not warfare”, using her fleet of U-boats.
American (it belonged to the British Cunard President Wilson broke off diplomatic
Line) and, after much diplomacy, President relations with Germany, to try to make her
Wilson accepted a German change of policy: change her mind. But by late March, seven
from now on, U-boats would come to the American merchant ships had been sunk
surface to attack ships with guns, rather than by the Germans. On 2 April, Wilson called
firing torpedoes from under the water. By the Congress together and four days later,
end of 1915, Wilson had suggested a peace America joined The Great War. It would be
initiative between Britain and Germany, with nearly two years before Americans could
America acting as intermediary. In February forget about the miseries of this very
1916, a memorandum was signed, with Wilson European war.
141
test yourself
1_ Imagine you are Jay Gatsby the soldier or Daisy Fay from
Louisville. You have just had your first evening out together.
Access your personal e-mail account and write to your best
friend, describing the meeting and how you feel about her/him.
2_ Jay Gatsby became rich and bought a house across the bay
from Daisy’s as part of his plan to win her back. Would you have
done the same thing? Consider everything that happened in the
five years between their first meeting and the time when Nick
moves to West Egg.
3_ Write an obituary for Jay Gatsby. Which aspects of his character

and life would you include?
4_ Imagine you are Nick Carraway. You have returned to your

home town in the Midwest and you are describing to a friend
your experiences of the last six months in West Egg.
5_ In 1934 Scott Fitzgerald wrote: “It is sadder to find the past
again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have
it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of
memory.”
Is this what happens to Jay Gatsby in the story? Write a short
paragraph about Gatsby’s plan and whether or not he succeeds.
6_ In May 1940, seven months before his death, Scott Fitzgerald
wrote to his publisher, Maxwell Perkins: “… to die, so completely
and unjustly after having given so much … in a small way I was
an original”. Do you think there is any link between what Gatsby
represents and the real-life experiences of Scott and Zelda
Fitzgerald?
142
Syllabus
Level B2
This reader contains the items listed below, as well as those listed in
Levels A1, A2, B1 and B2.
Verbs: Other:
Present perfect simple and Gerund/What clause as subject
continuous as sentence subject
Past perfect simple and Inversion
continuous with time clause by Free indirect question
Future tenses
Phrasal verbs What as subject pronoun (in
clause)
Modal verbs
although, even though
Could/could have (probability/
past ability)
be about to … when
Should
As (= when) time clause
Will
Would/would have (future in
It was (+ time word/phrase) …
the past)
that
Might/might have (present/past
If only…
possibility)
If clauses (‘zero’, etc.)
Must/must have (present/past
deduction)
So (+ adjective) that...
Must not (prohibition)
Time clauses Before…/By…/As…
Reporting verbs the first (time) … ever
(eg. ask, reply, interrupt, repeat, the only…
suggest, comment, react, suppose, By the time… clause
answer, explain) So result clause
YOUNG ADULT READERS
STAGE 1 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound
of the Baskervilles
STAGE 2 William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
STAGE 3 William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

STAGE 4 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
STAGE 5 F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Great Gatsby

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Great Gatsby

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YOUNG ADULT READERS STAGE 5

Eli Readers is a beautifully illustrated series of timeless classics and

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD THE GREAT GATSBY

In this reader you will find:

STAGE 1 Elementary 600 headwords A1

with with free

ELT YOUNG ADULT READERS

The ELI Readers collection is a complete

YOUNG ADULT READERS

© 2011 ELI s.r.l.

Typeset in 11,5 / 15 pt Monotype Dante

Printed in Italy by Tecnostampa Recanati – ERA503.01

First edition: March 2011

Jordan Baker Tom Buchanan Henry Gatz

Nick Carraway Jay Gatsby

NOUNS ADJECTIVES VERBS

Dinner at the Buchanans’

2 When I was younger and more vulnerable, my father gave me some

In this Midwestern city my family has been important for three

After graduating from Yale* in 1915, I served in The Great War.

My acquaintance with the fashionable white palaces of East Egg

porch covered entrance

I was about to say that he was my neighbor when dinner was

Then the telephone rang again, startling* everybody, and Daisy

startling making … very surprised

After a few minutes I got up to go home. Tom and Daisy came to

Writing – CAE-type activity

Speaking – CAE-type activity

suggest • agree • apologise • insist • complain •

Daisy / dinner / Nick / East Egg

1 sensitive – younger – successful – vulnerable – reserved

1 How often was dinner at the Buchanans interrupted and by what?

3 Listening – CAE-type activity

East Egg • railway • four miles • desolate • West Egg •

A ■ Nick gets drunk.

A Trip to New York

desolate deserted, lifeless dumped emptied, got rid of

ashheaps piles/hills of ash

We waited for her down the road.

stout large in body

“How much is it?” she asked the man.

bonnet hat made of cloth or straw, with a ribbon to tie under

languid slow-moving, having no energy

photographed her a hundred and twenty-seven times since they had

“Really? I was at a party there about a month ago. Man named

which the late afternoon sky had brought.

below me on a socially inferior level to me

moaning complaining (by making a crying sound)

When the train (1) (halt) _____________ at the drawbridge,

1 “Quick! Get up – we’re getting off the train!” ____________

valley of ashes • George Wilson’s garage • Myrtle • New York •

Speaking – CAE-type activity

Grammar – CAE-type activity

a look at something or someone for a long time

9 What kind of party do you think it will be at gatsby’s? Write down

The First Party

4 I heard music from my neighbor’s house during the summer nights.

On weekends his Rolls-Royce ferried groups of people to and from

It’s seven o’clock: an impressive-sized orchestra has already arrived and

I believe that my first visit to Gatsby’s house was as an invited guest.

few familiar faces from my commuting train.

host (here) Gatsby, provider of the party

5 People were dancing now in the garden. By midnight a famous

10 Look at these quotations and identify who is talking in this Chapter.

1c What function does Nick serve in the reunion?

1 When Nick arrived home, he thought that a fire _____________

9 In Chapter 4, Jordan said that Gatsby had expected Daisy to

1 “Don’t you want to make a statement?” the reporter asked