The Great Gatsby

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us."

Orgastic is the 583rd of 664 words footnoted in this edition. Nick Carraway writes it on the last page of The Great Gatsby, looking across the water toward the green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan's dock. F. Scott Fitzgerald published the novel in 1925: one summer on Long Island, a self-made millionaire, the woman he lost, and the parties he throws in the hope that she will wander in. This edition pairs it with "Winter Dreams" (1922), the story in which Fitzgerald first imagined a young man remaking himself for the sake of a rich girl, and defines every vocabulary word on the page where it first appears.

What's inside. The complete novel, all nine chapters, and the complete short story "Winter Dreams," unabridged. Every vocabulary word is bolded and footnoted the first time it appears, from reserve on the first page through supercilious, vigil, inexhaustible, and recede, to plaintive in the closing pages of "Winter Dreams." Each is defined succinctly, as a vocabulary word rather than an exhaustive dictionary entry. All 664 are gathered again in an alphabetical Vocabulary list at the back.

What's also inside. A Foreword by Stephen Flachsbart, drawing on forty years of teaching high school English. And, as an Expanded Student Vocabulary Edition, an Academic Supplement: how to build and retain vocabulary, the historical and cultural context of the novel (bootlegging and organized crime, social expectations for women, courtship in the 1920s, and race in The Great Gatsby), Fitzgerald's use of narration, creative writing exercises inspired by his style, and a lesson on "Winter Dreams."

What's not inside. No plot summary. No page-cluttering commentary.

Who it's for. High school students reading The Great Gatsby in class, especially in AP English Literature. Honors English students and first-year college readers. SAT and ACT candidates building a working vocabulary from real reading. ESL and EFL learners, and anyone preparing for TOEFL or IELTS. Teachers and homeschooling families who want the novel, the story, and their vocabulary in one book. And every reader who knows Gatsby from the screen and wants Fitzgerald's own words.

Part of the Student Vocabulary Editions series: the vocabulary of the classics. Start here, with a green light at the end of a dock.