Abstract

A valuable critical guide to The Great Gatsby and Fitzgerald's thematic preoccupations centering around the author's dialectic with the morality of the 1920s and that of what he described as "old America." Berman (literature, U. of California) skillfully discloses Fitzgerald's philosophical awareness, influences by William James, George Santayana, and Edmund Wilson, and the echoes of those influences voiced by characters such as Gatsby and Nick Carraway. The volume was the recipient of the 1995 Elizabeth Agee Prize in American Literature. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.