The Great Gatsby CD
by F Scott Fitzgerald
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Book Summary Information
Author: F Scott FitzgeraldReader: Tim Robbins
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Published: 2002-10-01
ISBN: 0060098910
Publisher: Caedmon
Book Reviews of The Great Gatsby CD
Book Review: Yes!
Summary: 5 Stars
The quality of F. Scott Fitzgerald's immortal masterpiece is so self-evident that it would be almost hubris for me to comment on it--those of you who had it imposed on you during high-school owe it to yourselves to taste it again as free-willing adults.
Still, here are a couple words on The Great Gatsby (the book) for the benefit of those who have not read it. This work has become one of the literary symbols of the Jazz Age: it deals with the friendship between the narrator, honest and prudent Mr. Carraway, and Jay Gatsby, the young millionaire whose mansion on the New York sound is the theater of dazzling and fashionable parties.
But who is Gatsby? How does he make his money? What in his mysterious past links him to Mr. Carraway's circle? And what shape will Gatsby's future take once his quest to revive ghosts of the past succeeds? The story unfolds on a powerfully dramatic stage--one that now breathes fashionable inanities on a young flapper's golden hair, now heaves with powerful omens that carry the story forward with inexorable force.
Indeed, trying to describe this book and what makes it so magnetic is a monumental task, surely not the province of a review on its audio-CD version. So I will confine the next part of the review to Robbins' performance and the set as a whole.
I find that Fitzgerald's prose possesses a particular melodic quality; this is why it is very effective when it's read aloud--especially by a professional actor. I am not a great consumer of audiobooks, but I find that Tim Robbins' interpretation of this classic is superb. You never have the feeling that you are being "read to" - he acts the novel out in a manner reminiscent of the radio-drama performers of the olden days.
The point-of-view character of Mr. Carraway is interpreted in Robbins' normal voice (as it should be), while the other personae are colored by the tasteful addition of well-chosen idiosyncrasies. For instance, the voices of the two main female characters (both from Kentucky in the story) are rendered with a pleasing Southern inflexion. Furthermore, the reading is never rushed, and a judicious use of pauses, hesitations and other acting devices make the words come alive in what is in my opinion a very successful edition.
Also a nice touch are the glimmers of 1920's dance-music played at the beginning and at the end of each CD, as well as the informative background on the novel's history (in Fitzgerald's own words) at the very end.
Recording quality is very good, and chapters are easily found by choosing between tracks. Overall, I found this edition to be very well put together, and I am extremely happy to have it in my CD collecion.
...There was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights...
Summary of The Great Gatsby CD
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's portrait of the Jazz Age in all its decadence and excess, is, as editor Maxwell Perkins praised it in 1924, "a wonder." It remains one of the most widely read, translated, admired, imitated and studied twentieth-century works of American fiction.
This deceptively simple work, Fitzgerald's best known, was hailed by critics as capturing the spirit of the generation. In Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald embodies some of America's strongest obsessions: wealth, power, greed, and the promise of new beginnings.
The recording includes a selection of letters written by Fitzgerald to his editor, Maxwell Perkins, his agent, Harold Ober, and friends and associates, including Willa Cather, H.L. Mencken, John Peale Bishop and Gertrude Stein.
Performed by Tim Robbins
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