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The Great Gatsby, Chapter 1

In my younger, more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, he told me, just remember that all the people in the world haven't had the same advantages that you've had.

He didn't say any more, but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way,

and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that.

In consequence, I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me,

and also made me the victim of not a few veteran boars.

The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person,

and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician,

because I was privy to the secret griefs of the wild, unknown men.

Most of the confidences were unsought.

Frequently, I feigned sleep, preoccupation, or hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon.

For the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions.

Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope.

I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested and I snobbishly repeat,

a sense of the fundamental decencies is puzzled out unequally at birth.

And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit.

Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes, but after a certain point, I don't care what it's founded on.

When I came back from the East last autumn,

I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever.

I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart.

Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction.

Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.

If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life,

as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes 10 ,000 miles away.

This responsiveness had nothing to do with the flabby impressionability that is dignified under the name of creative temperament.

It was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person,

and which is not likely I shall ever find again.

No, Gatsby turned out I'll write in the end.

It is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams

that temporarily closed out my interest in the absorptive sorrows and short -winded elations of men.

My family have been prominent and well -to -do people in this middle western city for three generations.

The Carraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Dukes of Bukaloo.

But the actual founder of my land was my grandfather's brother who came here in 51, sent a substitute to the Civil War,

and started a wholesale hardware business that my father carries on today.

I never saw this great -uncle, but I'm supposed to look like him,

with special reference to the rather hard -boiled painting that hangs in father's office.

I graduated from New Haven in 1915, just a quarter of a century after my father,

and a little later I participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War.

I enjoyed the counter -raid so thoroughly that I came back restless.

Instead of being the warm center of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe.

So I decided to go east, and learned the bond business.

Everybody I knew was in the bond business, so I supposed it could support one more single man.

All my aunts and uncles talked it over as if they were choosing a prep school for me, and finally said, Why, yes,

with very grave, hesitant faces.

father agreed to finance me for a year

and after various delays i came east permanently

i thought in the spring of 22 the practical thing was to find rooms in the city

but it was a warm season

and i had just left a country of wide lawns

and friendly trees so when a young man at the office suggested

that we take a house together in a commuting town

it sounded like a great idea he found the house a weather -beaten cardboard bungalow at 80 a month

but at the last minute the firm ordered him to Washington, and I went out to the country, alone.

I had a dog, at least I had him for a few days until he ran away, and an old

Dodge and a Finnish woman, who made my bed and cooked breakfast, and muttered Finnish wisdom to herself over the electric stove.

It was lonely for a day or so, until one morning, some man, more recently arrived than I, stopped me on the road.

How do you get to West Egg Village? he asked helplessly.

I told him.

And as I walked on, I was lonely no longer.

I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler.

He had casually conferred on me the freedom of the neighborhood.

And so, with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies,

I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.

There was so much to read for one thing, and so much fine health to be pulled down out of the young breath -giving air.

I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities,

and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the Mint,

promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maconess knew.

And I had the high intention of reading many other books besides.

I was rather literary in college.

One year, I wrote a very solemn and obvious editorial from the Yale News,

and now I was going to bring back all such things into my life, and become again that most limited of all specialists.

the well -rounded man

this isn't just an epigram life is more successfully looked at from a single window after all

it was a matter of chance

that i should have rented a house in one of the strangest communities in north america it was on

that slender riotous island which extends itself due east of new york

and where there are among other natural curiosities two unusual formations of land.

Twenty miles from the city, a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay,

jut out onto the most domesticated body of salt water in the western hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound.

They are not perfect ovals.

Like the eggs in the Columbus story, they are both crushed flat at the contact end,

but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual confusion to the gulls that fly overhead.

To the wingless, a more arresting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular, except shape and size.

I lived a west egg, the well, the less fashionable of the two,

though this is the most superficial flag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them.

My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifteen yards from the sound,

and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season.

The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard.

It was some factual imitation of some

Hotel de Villa in Normandy, spanking under a new thin beard of raw ivy, and the marble swimming pool,

and more than forty acres of lawn and garden.

It was Gatsby's Mansion.

Or rather, as I didn't know Mr. Gatsby, it was a mansion inhabited by a gentleman of that name.

My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked.

So I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor's lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires, all for $80 a month.

Across the courtesy bay, the white palaces of fashionable

East Egg glittered across the water,

and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans.

100

Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and I'd known

101

Tom in college.

102

And just after the war, I spent two days with them in Chicago.

103

Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, has been one of our most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven.

104

A national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at 21 that everything afterwards savors an anti -climax.

105

His family were enormously wealthy.

106

Even in college, his freedom with money was a matter for reproach.

107

But now he'd left Chicago and come east in a fashion that rather took your breath away.

108

For instance, he'd brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest.

109

It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that.

110

Why they came east, I don't know.

111

They'd spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.

112

This was a permanent move, said Daisy over the telephone, but I didn't believe it.

113

I had no sight into Daisy's heart, but I felt

114

Tom would drift on forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game.

115

And so it happened, that on a warm,

116

windy evening, I drove over to the east deck to see two friends whom I scarcely knew at all.

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Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red -and -white

118

Georgian colonial mansion overlooking the bay.

119

The lawn started at the beach, and ran toward the front door for a quarter mile, jumping over sundials and brick walls and burning gardens,

120

finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run.

121

The front was broken by a line of French windows, glowing now with the reflected gold and wide open with the warm, windy afternoon.

122

And Tom Buchanan, in riding clothes, was standing with his legs apart on the front porch.

123

He had changed since his New Haven years.

124

Now he was a sturdy, straw -haired man of thirty, with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner.

125

Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face, and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward.

126

Not even the effeminate swank of his writing clothes could hide the enormous power of that body.

127

He seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained at the top leasing,

128

and he could see a great pack of muscles shifting when his shoulder moved under its thin coat.

129

It was the body capable of enormous leverage.

130

A cruel body.

131

His speaking voice, a gruff tenor, added to the impression of fractitiousness that he conveyed.

132

There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even towards people he liked.

133

And there were men at New Haven who hated his guts.

134

Now, don't think my opinion on these matters is final,

135

he seemed to say, just because I am stronger and more of a man than you are.

136

We were in the same senior society, and while we were never intimate,

137

I always had the impression that he approved of me and wanted me to like him with some harsh, defiant wistfulness of his own.

138

We talked for a few minutes on the sunny porch.

139

I've got a nice place here, he said, his eyes flashing about restlessly.

140

Turning me around by one arm, he moved a broad, flat hand along the front vista, including in its sweep a sunken Italian garden,

141

a half -acre of deep, pungent roses, and a snub -nosed motorboat that bumped in the tide offshore.

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It belongs to Domaine, the oil man.

143

He turned me around again, politely and abruptly.

144

Well, go inside.

145

We walked through a hallway into a bright, rosy -colored space, fragilely bound into the house by French windows at either end.

146

The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house.

147

A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags,

148

twisting them up towards the frosted wedding cake in the ceiling, and then rippling over the wine -colored rug,

149

making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.

150

The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on

151

which two young women were buoyed up as though on an anchored balloon.

152

They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as

153

if they had just been blown back in after a short flight round the house.

154

I must have stood for a few moments,

155

listening to the whip and the snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall.

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Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear window and the caught wind died out about the room,

157

and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.

158

The younger of the two was a stranger to me.

159

She was extended at full length at the end of the dive -in, completely motionless, and with her chin raised a little as

160

if she were balancing something on it which was quite likely to fall.

161

If she saw me out of the corner of her eyes, she gave no hint of it.

162

Indeed, I was almost surprised into murmuring an apology for having disturbed her by coming in.

163

The other girl, Daisy, made an attempt to rise.

164

She leaned slightly forward with a conscientious expression.

165

Then she laughed, an absurd, charming little laugh.

166

And I left too, and came forward into the room.

167

I'm paralyzed with happiness.

168

She laughed again, as if she'd said something very witty, and held my hand for a moment, looking up into my face,

169

promising that there was no one in the world that she so much wanted to see.

170

That was the way she had.

171

She hinted in a murmur that the surname of the balancing girl was Baker.

172

I've heard it said that

173

Daisy's murmur was only a way to make people lean towards her, an irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming.

174

At any rate, Miss Baker's lips fluttered.

175

She nodded at me, almost imperceptibly, and then quickly tipped her head back again.

176

The object she was balancing had obviously tottered a little, and given her something of a fright.

177

Again, a sort of apology rose to my lips.

178

Almost any exhibition of complete self -sufficiency draws a stunned tribute from me.

179

I looked back at my cousin, who began to ask me questions in her low, thrilling voice.

180

It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down,

181

as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.

182

Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and bright passionate mouth.

183

But there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget.

184

A singing compulsion, a whispered listen, a promise that she had done gay exciting things just a

185

while since and that there were gay exciting things hovering in the next hour.

186

I told her how I had stopped off in Chicago for a day on my way east

187

and how a dozen people had sent their love through me.

188

Did they miss me?

189

She cried ecstatically.

190

The whole town is desolate.

191

All the cars have the left rear wheel painted black as a morning wreath, and this persistent wail all night along the North Shore.

192

How gorgeous!

193

Let's go back, Tom.

194

Tomorrow.

195

Then she added irrelevantly, You ought to see the baby.

196

I'd like to.

197

She's asleep.

198

Two years old.

199

Haven't you ever seen her?

200

Never.

201

Well, you ought to see her.

202

She's...

203

Tom Buchanan, who had been hovering restlessly about the room, stopped and rested his hand on my shoulder.

204

What you doing, Nick?

205

I'm a bondman. Who with?

206

I told him.

207

Never heard of them, he remarked decisively.

208

This annoyed me.

209

You will, I answered shortly.

210

You will if you stay in the East.

211

Oh, I'll stay in the East, don't you worry, he said,

212

glancing at Daisy and then back at me as if he were alert for something more.

213

I'd be a goddamn fool to live anywhere else.

214

At this point, Mrs. Baker said, Absolutely, with such a suddenness that I started.

215

It was the first word she uttered since I came into the room.

216

Evidently, it surprised her as much as it did me, for she yawned, and with a series of rapid death movements, stood up into the room.

217

I'm stiff, she complained.

218

I've been lying on that sofa for as long as I can remember.

219

Don't look at me, Daisy retorted.

220

I've been trying to get you to New York all afternoon.

221

No thanks, said Mrs. Baker to the four cocktails just in from the pantry.

222

I'm absolutely in training.

223

Her host looked at her incredulously.

224

You are?

225

He took down his drink as if it were a drop in the bottom of a glass.

226

How you ever get anything done is beyond me.

227

I looked at Miss Baker, wondering what it was she got done.

228

I enjoyed looking at her.

229

She was a slender, small -breasted girl with an erect carriage

230

which she extenuated by throwing her body backwards at the shoulders like a youth cadet.

231

Her gray, sun -strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming, discontented face.

232

It occurred to me now that I had seen her, or a picture of her somewhere before.

233

You live in West Egg, she remarked contemptuously.

234

I know somebody there.

235

I don't know a single— You must know Gatsby.

236

Gatsby? demanded Daisy.

237

What Gatsby?

238

Before I could reply that he was my neighbor, dinner was announced.

239

Wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.

240

Slenderly, languidly, their hands set lightly on their hips, the two young women preceded us out into a rosy -colored porch,

241

open towards the sunset, where four candles flickered on the table in the diminished wind.

242

Why candles?

243

objected Daisy, frowning.

244

She snapped them out with her finger.

245

In two weeks it'll be the longest day in the year.

246

She looked at us all, radiantly.

247

Do you always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it?

248

I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it.

249

We ought to plan something, yawned Miss Baker, sitting down at the table as if she were getting into bed.

250

All right, said Daisy.

251

What do we plan?

252

She turned to me helplessly.

253

What do people plan?

254

Before I could answer, her eyes fastened with an odd expression on her little finger.

255

Look, she complained.

256

I heard it.

257

We all looked.

258

The knuckle was black and blue.

259

You did it, Tom, she said, accusingly.

260

I know you didn't mean to, but you did do it.

261

That's what I get for marrying a brood of a man.

262

A great, big, hulking, physical specimen of a...

263

I hate that word, hulking, objected Tom, crossly.

264

Even in kidding.

265

Hulking, insisted Daisy.

266

Sometimes, she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively, with bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter,

267

that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire.

268

They were here, and they accepted

269

Tom and me, making only polite, pleasant effort to entertain or to be entertained.

270

They knew that presently dinner would be over, and a little later, the evening too would be over and casually put away.

271

It was sharply different from the West, where an evening was hurried from face to face towards its close in a continually disappointed anticipation,

272

or else in sheer nervous dread of the moment itself.

273

You make me feel uncivilized, Daisy, I confess on my second glass of Corky but rather impressive claret.

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Can't you talk about crops or something?

275

I meant nothing in particular by this remark, but it was taken up in an unexpected way.

276

Civilization's going to pieces, broke out Tom violently.

277

I've gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things.

278

Have you read

279

The Rise of the Colored Empires by this man, Goddard?

280

Why no, I answered, rather surprised by his tone.

281

Well, it's a fine book, and everybody ought to read it.

282

The idea is, if we don't look out, the white waste will be.. will be utterly submerged.

283

It's all scientific stuff.

284

It's been proved.

285

Tom is getting very profound, said Daisy, with an expression of unthoughtful sadness.

286

He reads deep books with long words in them.

287

What was that word we...

288

Well, these books are all scientific, insisted Tom, glancing at her impatiently.

289

This fellow has worked out the whole thing.

290

It's up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.

291

We've got to beat them down, whispered Daisy, winking ferociously towards the fervent son.

292

You ought to live in California.

293

began Miss Baker, but Tom interrupted her by shifting heavily in his chair.

294

This idea is that we're Nordics.

295

I am, and you are, and you are, and...

296

After an infinitesimal hesitation, he cluttered

297

Daisy with a slight nod, and she winked at me again.

298

And we've produced all the things that make civilization.

299

Oh, science and art and all that, do you see?

300

There was something pathetic in his concentration, as if his complacency, more acute than of old, was not enough to him anymore,

301

when, almost immediately, the telephone rang inside and the butler left the porch.

302

Daisy seized upon the momentary interruption and leaned towards me.

303

I'll tell you a family secret, she whispered enthusiastically.

304

It's about the butler's nose.

305

Do you want to hear about the butler's nose?

306

That's why I came tonight.

307

Well, he wasn't always a butler.

308

He used to be the silver polisher for some people in New York that had a silver service for two hundred people.

309

He had to polish it from morning till night, until finally it began to affect his nose.

310

Things went from bad to worse, suggested Miss Baker.

311

Yes, things went from bad to worse until he finally had to give up his position.

312

For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic effect upon her glowing face.

313

Her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened.

314

Then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk.

315

The butler came back and murmured something close to Tom's ear, whereupon Tom frowned, pushed back his chair, and without a word, went inside.

316

As if his absence quickened something within her, Daisy leaned forward again, her voice glowing and singing.

317

I love to see you at my table, Nick.

318

You remind me of a rose, an absolute rose, doesn't he?

319

She turns to Miss Baker for confirmation.

320

An absolute rose.

321

This was untrue.

322

I am not even faintly like a rose.

323

She was only exemplarizing, but a stirring warmth flowed from her,

324

as if her heart was trying to come out to you concealed in one of those breathless, thrilling words.

325

Then, suddenly, she threw her napkin on the table, and excused herself, and went into the home.

326

Miss Baker and I exchanged a short glance, consciously devoid of meaning.

327

I was about to speak when she sat up alertly and said, Shhh, in a warning voice.

328

A subdued, impassioned murmur was audible in the room beyond, and Miss Baker leaned forward, unashamed, trying to hear.

329

The murmur trembled on the verge of coherence, sank down, mounted excitedly, and then ceased altogether.

330

This Mr. Gatsby you spoke of is my neighbor?

331

I said.

332

Don't talk, I want to hear what happens.

333

Is something happening?

334

I inquired innocently.

335

You mean to say you don't know?

336

said Miss Baker, honestly surprised.

337

I thought everybody knew.

338

I don't.

339

Why?

340

she said hesitantly.

341

Tom's got some woman in New York.

342

Got some woman?

343

I repeated blankly.

344

Miss Baker nodded.

345

She might have the decency not to telephone him at dinner time, don't you think?

346

Almost before I had grasped her meaning, there was a flutter of a dress and the crunch of leather boots,

347

and Tom and Daisy were back at the table.

348

It couldn't be helped, cried

349

Daisy with intense gaiety.

350

She sat down, glanced searchingly at Miss Baker, and then at me, and continued.

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I looked outdoors for a minute, and it's very romantic outdoors.

352

There's a bird on the lawn.

353

I think it must be a nightingale.

354

Come over on the cunard, the white star line.

355

He's singing away.

356

Her voice sang.

357

It's romantic, isn't it, Tom?

358

Very romantic, he said, and then miserably to me.

359

If it's light enough after dinner, I want to take you down to the stables.

360

The telephone rang inside, startlingly, and as Daisy shook her head decisively at Tom, the subject of the stables, in fact, all subjects, vanished into air.

361

Among the broken fragments of the last five minutes of the table, I remember the candles being lit again,

362

pointlessly, and I was conscious of wanting to look squarely at everyone, and yet to avoid all eyes.

363

I couldn't guess what

364

Daisy and Tom were thinking, but I doubt even

365

Miss Baker, who seemed to have mastered a certain hearty skepticism, was able utterly to put this fifth guest's shrill metallic urgency out of her mind.

366

To her certain temperament, the situation might have seemed intriguing.

367

My own instinct was to telephone immediately for the police.

368

The horses, needless to say, were not mentioned again.

369

Tom and Miss Baker, with several feet of twilight between them, strolled back into the library, as if to a vigil besides a perfectly tangible body.

370

While trying to look pleasantly interested and a little deaf, I followed Daisy around a chain of connecting verandas to the porch in front.

371

In its gloom, we sat down side by side on a wicker settee.

372

Daisy took her face in her hands, as if feeling its lovely shape, and her eyes moved gradually out to the velvet dusk.

373

I saw that turbulent emotions possessed her, so I asked what I thought would be some sedative questions about her little girl.

374

We don't...

375

Know each other very well, Nick, she said suddenly.

376

Even if we are cousins, you didn't come to my wedding.

377

I wasn't back from the war.

378

That's true, she hesitated.

379

Well, I've had a pretty bad time, Nick, and I'm pretty cynical about everything.

380

Evidently, she had reason to be.

381

I waited, but she didn't say any more.

382

And, after a moment, I returned rather feebly to the subject of her daughter.

383

I suppose she talks and eats and everything.

384

Oh, yes, she looked at me absently.

385

Listen, Nick, let me tell you what I said when she was born.

386

Would you like to hear?

387

Very much.

388

It'll show you how I've gotten to feel about things.

389

Well, she was less than an hour old, and Tom was God knows where.

390

I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling

391

and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl.

392

She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept.

393

All right, I said.

394

I'm glad it's a girl, and I hope she'll be a fool.

395

That's the best thing a girl can be in this world.

396

A beautiful little fool.

397

You see, I think everything's terrible anyhow, she went on in a convinced way.

398

Everybody thinks so.

399

The most advanced people.

400

And I know I've been everywhere and seen everything and done everything.

401

Her eyes flashed round in a deviant way, rather like Tom's, and she laughed with a thrilling scorn.

402

Sophisticated?

403

God, I'm sophisticated!

404

The instant her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said.

405

It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me.

406

I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face,

407

as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.

408

Inside, the crimson room bloomed with light.

409

Tom

410

and Miss Baker sat at either end of the long couch as she read aloud to him from the Saturday evening post,

411

the words murmurous and uninflected, running together in a soothing tone.

412

The lamplight, bright on his boots

413

and dull on the autumn leaf yellow of her hair glinted

414

along the paper as she turned a page with a flutter of slender muscle in her arms.

415

When we came in, she held us silent for a moment with a lifted hand.

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To be continued, she said, tossing the magazine on the table, in our very next issue.

417

Her body asserted itself with a relentless movement of her knee, and she stood up.

418

Ten o 'clock, she remarked, apparently finding the time on the ceiling.

419

Time for this good girl to go to bed.

420

Jordan's going to play in the tournament tomorrow, explained Daisy, over at Westchester.

421

Oh, you're Jordan Baker.

422

I knew now why her face was familiar.

423

It's pleasing, contemptuous expression

424

that looked out at me from many retrogravir pictures of the sporting life at Asheville and Hot Springs and Palm Beach.

425

I had heard some story of her too, a critical, unpleasant story, but what it was I had forgotten long ago.

426

Good night, she said softly.

427

Wake me at eight, won't you?

428

If you'll get up.

429

I will.

430

Good night, Mr. Carraway.

431

See you anon.

432

Of course you will, confirmed Daisy.

433

In fact, I think I'll arrange a marriage.

434

Come often, Nick, and I'll sort of, oh, fling you together.

435

You know, lock you up accidentally in linen closets and push you out to sea in a boat, and all that sort of thing.

436

Good night, called Mrs. Baker from the stairs.

437

I haven't heard a word.

438

She's a nice girl, said

439

Tom after a moment.

440

They oughtn't let her run around the country this way.

441

Who oughtn't to, inquired Daisy coldly.

442

Her family.

443

Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old.

444

Besides, Nick's going to look after her, aren't you, Nick?

445

She's going to spend lots of weekends out here this summer.

446

I think the home influence will be good for her.

447

Daisy and Tom looked at each other for a moment in silence.

448

Is she from New York?

449

I asked quickly. From Louisville.

450

Our white girlhood was passed together there.

451

Our beautiful white...

452

Did you give

453

Nick a little heart -to -heart talk on the veranda?

454

demanded Tom suddenly. Did I?

455

She looked at me.

456

I can't seem to remember, but I think we talked about the Nordic race.

457

Yes, I'm sure we did.

458

It sort of crept up on us, and first thing you know...

459

Don't believe everything you hear, Nick, he advised me.

460

I said lightly that I had heard nothing at all, and a few minutes later, I got up to go home.

461

They came to the door with me, and stood side by side in a cheerful square of light.

462

As I started my motor, Daisy preemptively called...

463

Wait, I've got to ask you something, and it's important.

464

We heard you were engaged to a girl out west.

465

That's right, corroborated Tom kindly.

466

We heard that you were engaged.

467

It's libel.

468

I'm too poor.

469

But we heard it, insisted

470

Daisy, surprising me by opening up again in a flower -light way.

471

We heard it from three people, so it must be true.

472

Of course, I knew what they were referring to, but I wasn't even vaguely engaged.

473

The fact that

474

Gossip had published the bands was one of the reasons I had come east.

475

You can't stop going with an old friend on account of rumors, and on the other hand, I had no intention of being rumored into marriage.

476

Their interest rather touched me, and made them less remotely rich.

477

Nevertheless, I was confused and a little disgusted as I drove away.

478

It seemed to me that the thing for Daisy to do was to rush out of the house,

479

child in arms, but apparently there was no such intention in her head.

480

As for Tom, the fact that he had some woman in New York was really less surprising than

481

that he had been depressed by a book.

482

Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas, as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his preemptory heart.

483

Already, it was deep summer on roadhouse roofs and in front of wayside garages, where new red gas pumps sat out in pools of light,

484

and when I reached my estate at West Egg,

485

I ran the car under its shed and sat for a while on an abandoned grass roller in the yard.

486

The wind had blown off, leaving a loud, bright night with wings beating in the trees,

487

and a persistent organ sounded as the full bellows of the earth blew the frogs full of life.

488

The silhouette of a moving cat wavered across the moonlight, and turning my head to watch it, I saw it was not alone.

489

Fifty feet away, a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbor's mansion

490

and was standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper off the stairs.

491

"'Something in his leisurely movement and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn "'suggested

492

that it was Mr. Gatsby himself "'come out to determine what share was his of our local heavens.

493

"'I decided to call to him.

494

"'Miss Baker had mentioned him at dinner, and that would do for an introduction.

495

"'But I didn't call to him, for he gave me a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone.

496

"'He stretched his arms out towards the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him,

497

I could have sworn he was trembling.

498

Involuntarily, I glanced seaward and distinguished nothing except for a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.

499

When I looked once more for Gatsby, he had vanished and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness.

500

Thank you so much for listening.

501

If you enjoyed, please like, comment, subscribe, share, all that jazz.

502

The next chapter shall be coming out on the following Wednesday.

503

Yeah, thank you very, very much.

504

And until next time, bye -bye.

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Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon

Cette leçon d’expression orale s’appuie sur la vidéo « The Great Gatsby Chapter 1 ». Cette vidéo contient 504 phrases et 5978 mots à répéter en shadowing. La partie parlée dure 33:01. Le locuteur parle vite, environ 181 mots par minute : attendez-vous à des liaisons et à des sons réduits. Seuls 76 % des mots font partie des 3 000 mots les plus courants en anglais, le vocabulaire est donc exigeant.

Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo

15 mots de la vidéo à retenir, avec leur prononciation et leur sens :

Mot	Prononciation	Sens
romantic adjectif	/ɹoʊˈmæn(t)ɪk/	romantique
telephone nom	/ˈtɛləˌfoʊn/	téléphone
lawn nom	/lɔːn/	gazon, pelouse
porch nom	/pɔɹt͡ʃ/	porche, véranda
enormous adjectif	/ɪˈnɔː.məs/	énorme
lean verbe	/ˈliːn/	pencher
mansion nom	/ˈmæn.ʃən/	manoir, grande demeure
glance verbe	/ɡlæns/	lancer un regard
intention nom	/ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/	intention
boot nom	/but/	botte, bottine
charm nom	/t͡ʃɑɹm/	fétiche, charme
butler nom	/ˈbʌt.lɚ/	sommelier
intimate adjectif	/ˈɪn.tɪ.mət/	intime
insist verbe	/ɪnˈsɪst/	insister
glow verbe	/ɡloʊ/	briller, luire

Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez

Mot	Prononciation	Sens
come back verbe		revenir
open up verbe		ouvrir
sit down verbe		s'asseoir
break out verbe		s'échapper, s’évader
bring back verbe	/ˈbɹɪŋ bæk/	ramener, rapporter
drive away verbe		repousser
get up verbe		se lever
get up to verbe		commettre

Des phrases à répéter

Des phrases courtes et complètes de la vidéo, à réutiliser dans la conversation de tous les jours :

Haven't you ever seen her?
Can't you talk about crops or something?
Do you want to hear about the butler's nose?
You mean to say you don't know?
Wake me at eight, won't you?

La grammaire de cette vidéo

Les structures que le locuteur utilise le plus, avec les mots exacts de la vidéo :

Structure	Dans la vidéo
Present perfect continu have/has been + -ing — une action commencée avant et toujours en cours	I've been turning · I've been lying · I've been trying
Present perfect have/has + participe passé — une action passée qui compte encore maintenant	haven't had · we've always been · has opened
Voix passive be + participe passé — l’accent est mis sur ce qui arrive, pas sur qui le fait	was unjustly accused · is puzzled · may be founded
Propositions relatives who / which + proposition — une précision sur une personne ou une chose	man who gives · men who reach · men who had

Prononciation à surveiller

Le locuteur utilise 82 contractions et formes réduites, comme don't, I'm, I've. Prononcez-les sous leur forme courte, telles que vous les entendez.

Les sons « th »: thrill /θɹɪl/, thin /ˈθɪn/, wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/, thirty /ˈθɝti/, leather /ˈlɛðɚ/
Les sons « sh » et « zh »: mansion /ˈmæn.ʃən/, intention /ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, impression /ɪmˈpɹɛʃn̩/, shine /ʃaɪn/
Mots longs — placez bien l’accent: apology /əˈpɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, evidently /ˈɛvɪdəntli/, successfully /səkˈsɛs.fə.li/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, disappointed /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/

Les sons difficiles pour les francophones :

/h/ — il se souffle, il n’est pas muet: whisper /ˈ(h)wɪspɚ/, hulk /hʌlk/, happiness /ˈhæpinɪs/, hardware /ˈhɑɹdˌwɛɹ/, wherever /(h)wɛɹˈɛvɚ/
/tʃ/ et /dʒ/ — à ne pas adoucir en « ch » et « j »: porch /pɔɹt͡ʃ/, charm /t͡ʃɑɹm/, gorgeous /ˈɡoɹd͡ʒəs/, judgment /ˈd͡ʒʌd͡ʒ.mənt/, couch /ˈkaʊ̯t͡ʃ/
/r/ anglais — langue recourbée, sans frotter la gorge: romantic /ɹoʊˈmæn(t)ɪk/, porch /pɔɹt͡ʃ/, charm /t͡ʃɑɹm/, curtain /ˈkɜɹt(ə)n/, thrill /θɹɪl/

Comment s’entraîner avec cette vidéo

Écoutez la vidéo en entier une fois sans parler et notez les mots que vous ne connaissez pas.
Commencez à la vitesse 0,75×, répétez phrase par phrase, puis revenez à la vitesse normale quand cela devient facile.
Enregistrez-vous et comparez avec l’original, en faisant attention à des mots comme romantic, telephone, lawn.

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.

Technique du shadowing : lire le guide complet étape par étape →

Pratique du Shadowing: The Great Gatsby Chapter 1 | Audiobook - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

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