The Great Gatsby

Meet the voices

• Narrator · 旁白 — Tells Fitzgerald's story, starting in the summer of 1922, when a young man rents a little house on Long Island.
• Nick Carraway · 尼克 — Daisy's quiet, honest cousin, twenty-nine, from the Middle West, who works in New York and is slow to judge anyone.
• Jay Gatsby · 盖茨比 — Nick's rich neighbor, about thirty-two, who gives huge parties in his mansion but whom nobody really knows.
• Daisy Buchanan · 黛西 — Nick's charming cousin, twenty-three, who lives in East Egg with her husband, Tom, and their little girl.
• Tom Buchanan · 汤姆 — Daisy's husband and Nick's old college classmate, thirty, enormously rich, huge and rough.
• Jordan Baker · 乔丹 — Daisy's friend, a famous young golfer of twenty-one who is cool, bored and a little careless.
• Myrtle Wilson · 茉特尔 — George Wilson's wife, in her mid-thirties, loud and full of life, who lives over his garage in the valley of ashes.
• George Wilson · 乔治 — Myrtle's husband, a pale, tired man who runs a poor garage in the valley of ashes.
• Catherine · 凯瑟琳 — Myrtle's sister, about thirty, who loves to gossip.
• Meyer Wolfsheim · 沃尔夫山姆 — A small, soft-spoken man of about fifty with sad eyes, a friend of Gatsby's in New York.
• Owl Eyes · 大眼镜先生 — A stout, tipsy party guest in huge round glasses, amazed by Gatsby's library.
• Klipspringer · 克利普斯普林格 — A thin, sleepy young man who stays on and on as a guest in Gatsby's house.
• Michaelis · 米凯利斯 — A kind young man who runs the coffee shop next to Wilson's garage.
• Dan Cody · 丹·科迪 — A rich, loud, hard-drinking miner of fifty, with a big white boat on Lake Superior.
• Mrs. Sloane · 斯隆太太 — A cool, rich friend of Tom's who goes riding with him.
• Mr. Sloane · 斯隆先生 — Mrs. Sloane's proud, silent husband.
• Lucille · 露西尔 — A young guest in a yellow dress at Gatsby's party, who has heard every rumor about him.
• Pammy · 帕米 — Daisy and Tom's little daughter, three years old.
• The Policeman · 骑摩托车的警察 — A motorcycle policeman who stops Gatsby's car on the road to New York.
• Gatsby's Butler · 盖茨比的管家 — Gatsby's grave, gray-haired English butler.
• A Man in the Crowd · 人群里的男人 — A pale, well-dressed man in a crowd at dusk.
• Gatsby's father · 盖茨比的父亲 — A solemn, plain old farmer from a small town far away.
• The Gardener · 管花园的人 — An old gardener who works at Gatsby's house.
• Myrtle's Little Dog · 小狗 — The small puppy Myrtle buys in New York.

20 chapters in 4 parts

Part 1: The Man Across the Bay 海那边的人

Part 2: Repeat the Past 回到过去

Part 3: The Hottest Day 最热的一天

Part 4: The End of Summer 夏天结束了

Key words in The Great Gatsby

• 晚会 wǎn huì: party
• 开车 kāi chē: to drive
• 照片 zhào piàn: photograph
• 结婚 jié hūn: to marry
• 衬衫 chèn shān: shirt
• 游泳池 yóu yǒng chí: swimming pool
• 草地 cǎo dì: lawn
• 撞 zhuàng: to hit
• 电话 diàn huà: telephone
• 码头 mǎ tou: dock

Behind the story

F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby in 1925. It is a short novel in nine chapters, and Nick Carraway tells it himself. He is a young man from the Middle West who works in New York, and he looks back on the summer he spent next door to Gatsby.

This book retells the novel in simple Mandarin, from Fitzgerald's own English. His nine chapters become twenty, one scene each, in his order. A storyteller tells it here, and Nick speaks in his own voice in the first lines. The long lists of party guests and a few small scenes are left out.

The story is set in the summer of 1922 on Long Island, near New York City. Nick's little house is in West Egg, 西卵 (Xīluǎn), next to Gatsby's mansion. Across the bay is fashionable East Egg, 东卵 (Dōngluǎn), where Daisy and Tom live. Halfway to the city, the railroad runs through the valley of ashes, 灰谷 (Huīgǔ), where everything is gray with dust.

Did you know?

• The Chinese title, 了不起的盖茨比 (Liǎobuqǐ de Gàicíbǐ), means “the great Gatsby”. 了不起 (liǎobuqǐ) is an everyday word for great or amazing.
• Gatsby calls Nick “old sport”, a friendly way for one man to speak to another. In this book it is 老兄 (lǎoxiōng), and it is Gatsby's word.
• Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, 埃克尔堡医生 (Āikè'ěrbǎo yīshēng), is only an old advertisement over the valley of ashes: huge blue eyes behind yellow glasses, with no face.