MANGO JANE PUBLISHING PRESENTS MANGO JANE BOOKS FIRST IMPRINT PAPERBACK
The timeless Classic, THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
DEAREST READER,
I hope you enjoy this treasured classic, THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In deciding to publish this literary classic, I researched the author’s personal life. I must say after reading about his life and learning of so much sorrow, I can see how this book emerged and where it sprang forth from this gifted writer that found a place in the hearts of millions of readers around the world.
Who hasn’t seen that clip from the motion picture of THE GREAT GATSBY with Leonardo DiCaprio toasting Daisy at the party?
It’s become part of our culture, our past, our studies in high school. This book also feels like part of our own inner yearning for what once was, written with precise characters that emerge larger than life in our imagination, making it easy to fall in love with THE GREAT GATSBY.
I remember the very first time I read this book in my twenties. The saddest moment for me wasn’t when Gatsby dies by the gunshot wound while floating face down in the opulent pool.
My heart grieved when Nick found the goals written and numbered down inside the journal of Jay Gatsby after he had died. I could feel the loss of his life in between the spaces of those goals written out on the page.
I remember how these goals completely stood out from the rest of the text. The empty spaces in between the lines could add up to the losses that led him to his false illusions regarding his lost love…only if he could attain that first love again, wouldn’t life be worth living?
In those spaces we know that his goals to improve his character were those lost dreams from his youth that resonated deeply with the narrator, Nick Carraway.
I think, dearest reader, that this is one of those fine points woven inside those blank spaces of THE GOALS OF THE GREAT GATSBY. Inside those spaces are those missed opportunities, those chances that were not taken that lead him to rent the house across the lake from his lost love. Those opportunities that lead him away from his true SELF to yearning more Daisy.
I loved the character of Nick and how he loved Gatsby in the end when Daisy really never did. Sometimes those closest to us can comprehend the realities we cannot see when we are too close to a wish or a dream. Nick was this person in THE GREAT GATSBY. He was able to share with just enough distance, like living in the guest house on Gatsby’s property, the story of one man’s great love that was found only to be lost. Nick became the person that watched, recorded with some judgment but not too much as a person in the crowd, however still standing on the outside of the Tom and Daisy Buchannan’s of the world.
When the green light beckons us like a beacon from the past across the lake in the dark night, can you feel the pang across your chest? Can you feel that piercing of what once was that was also lost from your own memories of childhood dreams? I hope that you take time to consider these questions and find the answers for yourself.
Inside each book we read, we can find slivers of our soul or pieces of our lives woven inside words of a fictional character. We can recognize something we once lost or a feeling that we lost along the way and find great joy when we can seize upon that recognition, that yes! We are alive. Yes, we hurt! Yes, life can slip away like it did for Gatsby…
In the end, it was a friend that lived in the guesthouse that understood the beating heart inside Gatsby. Nick recognized the longing that filled the dark night sky beyond the greenlight, beyond the money, the fancy clothes and the careless actions of his beloved Daisy.
Nick understood what it was to want to belong somewhere or to someone. He cared about Gatsby in a way one good friend can only do. He had one person that genuinely cared for his wellbeing. And in the end, I would like to think that Gatsby would have been happy at least about that. Those spaces between his goals on the page inside this novel always tear my heart out.
At least Gatsby had a friend in Nick.
Thank you for buying this special edition of THE GREAT GATSBY.
I had intended to write about the author’s life, however after researching all that I found, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life echoes that of THE GREAT GATSBY. I found such sadness in my heart for two days reading about his death and the death of his wife Zelda and how F. Scott Fitzgerald died at the age of only 44.
Maybe THE GREAT GATSBY is enough. Maybe F. Scott Fitzgerald’s real story as a writer from beginning to the end of his life helped immortalize this novel as a book we can’t forget, a story we cling to and why our hearts will feel that sudden pull to the past as we remember the greenlight that exists inside all of us.
Stay kind and have an inspired mind,
Machel Shull
Publisher
Mango Jane Publishing
Thank you for buying a Mango Jane Book.
Stay Kind and Have an Inspired Mind.
Mango Jane Publishing
MangoJane.Co
This special edition of
THE GREAT GATSBY is part of The Inspired Mind Literary Series by Mango Jane Publishing’s imprint – MANGO JANE BOOKS.