AQB: The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is generally considered a literary classic. However, you may also remember it, from several years ago, when it was mentioned in the newspapers because Amitabh Bachchan had a cameo in the 2013 movie. (Although the movie starred Leonardo DiCaprio as the eponymous character, I only knew of the movie because of Big B. Leo fans, please don't get mad...)

 I was interested in The Great Gatsby because it was cited in a few sample SAT essays I read a couple of years ago. From those essays, I learned some things about the novel, and therefore when I picked it up to read it, I naturally had some... "preconceived notions".

Now, I had preconceived notions about The Hunger Games, which were dispelled the moment I realised the kids were thrown into an arena- I'd thought the Games were, like, televised gladiator-style fights, but no, it was cavepeople stuff, survive and kill. I was disturbed, yes, but I was expecting action, and that's what I got.

Where am I going with this? See, I was expecting this third-person account of the underworld of a Jazz Age New York City, and how Jay Gatsby fit into that world- so I was anticipating crime and mobster stuff, kind of a 1920s version of The Godfather. Instead I got a narrative by Gatsby's neighbour Nick Carraway about how Gatsby reconnected with Daisy (Carraway's cousin) years after they first met.

Yeah. If you're planning to read it, do not, and I repeat, DO NOT start it with the expectations I had.
Maybe I'm biased. Maybe, since I got something completely different from what I was expecting, I was disappointed. Maybe I just don't have the maturity to appreciate good literature.

Frankly, I didn't really think much of The Great Gatsby.
Set in in the fictional villages of East Egg and West Egg on Long Island, it tells the story of the mysterious Jay Gatsby, a war veteran who rose to riches in the hopes of winning the attention and, by extension, love of his ex-flame, Daisy Fay.

Nick Carraway, also a former soldier in WWI from the same division as Gatsby, moves to West Egg for his job in NYC. Invited by Daisy, his cousin, for lunch, he meets a young golfer, Jordan Baker, whom he starts dating.
Daisy is now married, to Nick's college senior Tom Buchanan, and apparently it isn't a happy marriage. Tom, in fact, has a mistress, Myrtle Wilson, and Daisy is aware of this. So when she meets Gatsby, who is obviously in love with her, again, she falls for him.

And it ends pretty quickly after that. I obviously can't tell you more without "spoiling" the plot, but let's say, with a premise like that, you'd expect an epic smackdown, or a horrifying revelation. Both happen, but nowhere near as dramatic as one would expect.

By the end of the novel, three characters are dead, and Nick quickly wraps up things and goes home, like, I am so done with this place.

To sum up my opinions of The Great Gatsby: it had far less drama than anticipated, it is not light reading, and isn't particularly absorbing.

I would recommend that anyone who reads this is a) in a philosophical state of mind, b) ready to handle the slightly confusing prose, and c) someone who harbours no delusions about the level of drama and action to be found in the novel.

AQB: The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo is the first book I've read in my reading quest (which I explained in A Quest Begins). First written as a serialized story in the Journal des Débats between 1844 and 1846, it was later compiled into a novel and is considered a literary classic that remains in print even today. I read the unabridged English translation of the original French (titled Le Comte de Monte Cristo), trying not to blitz through the 1100-odd pages in the small but fat edition I'd borrowed.

I'll try to avoid too many spoilers.

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, follows the story of a young sailor, Edmond Dantes. At nineteen, Dantes is happy with his life. He has a caring father, he is engaged to the woman he loves, and he is about to be made captain of his benefactor's ship, the Pharaon.
But two men are jealous of him- Danglars, his shipmate who wants Dantes' imminent position on the Pharaon, and Fernand Mondego, his fiancée Mercédès' cousin, who is in love with her.

Together they plot to get Dantes out of the way. They do this by framing Dantes as a Bonapartist. The late captain of the Pharaon (a known Bonapartist) charged the innocent Dantes to do two things: one, to deliver a packet to a general on Elba with the exiled Napoleon; and two, to hand over a letter to an unknown man in Paris. Dantes has no idea of the political importance of the packet and letter, and only does it to honour the last wishes of his superior- but Danglars and Fernand imply in an anonymous letter that he is fully aware of the contents of his deliveries, and is a fervent, violent Bonapartist.

Dantes is arrested an hour before his wedding.

The deputy procureur de roi at Marseilles, M. de Villefort, realises that Dantes is innocent and plans to acquit him. Then he finds out who the letter is addressed to- M. de Noirtier, a known Bonapartist, and Villefort's father.
Villefort, a royalist, has worked hard to reach his position and still dreams of becoming the procureur de roi of France. In order to safeguard his own career, he pretends that Dantes is, in fact, a Bonapartist, takes the information that there is a Bonapartist uprising stirring to the king, and throws Dantes in the Chateau d'If, a notorious prison, without a trial.

Mere days after Dantes' incarceration, Napoleon Bonaparte returns to France and the Hundred Days begin. M. Morrel, Dantes' patron, tries to petition for his release. Villefort stalls until Napoleon is finally exiled to St. Helena and the petition never goes through. Dantes is given up for dead.

Dantes, languishing in jail, meets the Abbé Faria, a supposedly mad Italian priest who is actually a genius. Together the two plot to escape the Chateau d'If. Faria tells him the secret of a great treasure, but dies before they can escape.
Dantes makes a daring escape after Faria's death. He has been in prison for fourteen years.
He claims the treasure Faria told him about, and proceeds to reinvent himself, as the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, and search for his enemies.
Danglars is now a respected banker, who has been granted the title of a baron. Fernand is married to Mercédès, and having risen through the ranks of the army, is now called le Comte de Morcerf. Villefort has achieved his ambition and is the procureur de roi.
With his nearly unlimited new wealth and the knowledge Faria had imparted to him, Dantes proceeds to take his revenge on the men responsible for throwing him in prison.

Edmond Dantes' transformation from a cheerful, carefree young merchant sailor, to an enigmatic, bitter man who considers himself an instrument of divine justice is impressive to read. He is a master manipulator, pulling and slicing strings no one can see until a puppet falls and one realises what it was all about. His plans are so convoluted, even Albus Dumbledore (who, let's face it, is a majorly manipulative leader whose plans are far from straightforward) would be impressed.

I'd recommend this to anyone interested in a period thriller, who doesn't mind thick books, or wading through occasionally flowery language. If you want just the story (which is pretty awesome) and would prefer to skip the hundreds of pages and the elaborate prose, I would recommend an abridged version. Either way, it's worth it!