The Great Gatsby: Ignatius Critical Edition

The Great Gatsby is not only one of the greatest American novels but also one of the most perplexing. Is its theme a peculiar and simplified view of the American Dream as the masculine drive to pursue status, material wealth, and sensual gratification--and the consequences of that pursuit? Fitzgerald's masterwork certainly presents the pains of amorous loss and seems to suggest that wealth does not make for enduring happiness. But is there more to this modern literary classic? Something deeper? Are there elements of what C. S. Lewis called "the dialectic of desire"? Does the failure of all worldly desires to satisfy our deepest needs suggest a desire and a need for something the world can't provide? Is The Great Gatsby a cautionary tale? If so, about what is it cautioning the reader? These great questions asked by the novel are in need of answers. Such answers are offered or at least suggested by the critics whose essays accompany this edition of Fitzgerald's beguiling novel.

Stephen Mirarchi is chair of the English Department at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. He received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Brandeis University. He is the editor of five annotated volumes of the works of Myles Connolly, including Mr. Blue. He has also published scholarly articles on Raymond Carver, Louise Glück, Robert Pinsky, Edgar Allan Poe, and William Gilmore Simms, as well as a host of popular articles on Catholicism and literature. Most recently, he authored the entry for Robert Pinsky in the Oxford Bibliographies in American Literature.

Joseph Pearce is the acclaimed author of numerous literary studies, including Literary Converts (Ignatius Press, 2006), The Quest for Shakespeare (Ignatius Press, 2008), and Shakespeare on Love (Ignatius Press, 2013), as well as popular biographies of Oscar Wilde, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He is the series editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions.