How does a 100-year-old novel feel fresher than ever? F. Scott Fitzgerald\u2019s\u00a0The Great Gatsby<\/i>\u00a0was first published in April of 1925. Though it initially sold poorly in comparison to Fitzgerald\u2019s previous novels, it has since come to be considered his masterpiece. Not only is the novel frequently cited as a cornerstone of American literature, but it also continues to appear on best-seller lists in the 21st century. It is also regularly adapted for stage and screen and has been one of the most assigned novels in American high schools for decades. How did a Jazz Age novel become such a lasting work of literature? What is it about Fitzgerald\u2019s tragic story of lost love and the dark side of the American Dream that has kept the novel so relevant to generations of readers?<\/p>\n
In the six lectures of\u00a0The Great Gatsby at 100,<\/b>\u00a0you will join Sheila Liming of Champlain College to revisit the context and culture of the Roaring \u201820s, which inspired the story of the mysterious Jay Gatsby and his disastrous pursuit of Daisy Buchanan. As you\u2019ll discover, while\u00a0Gatsby<\/i>\u00a0is framed as a love story, it\u2019s also a story of the American experience, revealing the unspoken rules of wealth and class and the false promises of self-made success in a world of Old Money privilege.<\/p>\n
As you explore\u00a0Gatsby<\/i>\u2019s complex view of money and class, you\u2019ll also dive into the way the novel interrogates gender and sexuality and the popular culture of its day\u2014a time that, much like our own, was rapidly changing thanks to technological innovation and social movements. While the trappings of jazz music, bobbed hair, and bootleg gin may set\u00a0The Great Gatsby\u00a0<\/i>firmly in the past, you\u2019ll find that many of its themes and ideas remain as relevant today as they were a century ago.<\/p>\n