The Great Gatsby (Annotated)

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Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive.” Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy , moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house , had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder. He wouldn’t say another word. His correctness grew on him as we neared the city. We passed Port Roosevelt , where there was a glimpse of red-belted ocean-goi The Airedale— undoubtedly there was an Airedale concerned in it somewhere, though its feet were startlingly white —changed hands and settled down into Mrs. Wilson’s lap, where she fondled the weather-proof coat with rapture.

Mrs. Wilson had changed her costume some time before, and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream-colored chiffon, which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room . With the influence of the dress her personality had also underg one a change. The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur . Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment, and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her, until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy, creaking pivot through the smoky air. Then came the war, old sport. It was a great relief, and I tried very hard to die, but I seemed to bear an enchanted life. I accepted a commission as first lieutenant when it began . In the Argonne Forest I took two machine-gun detachments so far forward that there was a half mile gap on either side of us where the infantry couldn’t advance. We stayed there two days and two nights, a hundred and thirty men with sixteen Lewis guns , and when the infantry came up at last they found the insignia of three German divisions among the piles of dead. I was promoted to be a major , and every Allied government gave me a decoration — even Montenegro , little Montenegro down on the Adriatic Sea!”

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They had difficulty in locating the sister, Catherine . She must have broken her rule against drinking that night, for when she arrived she was stupid with liquor and unable to understand that the ambulance had already gone to Flushing . When they convinced her of this, she immediately fainted, as if that was the intolerable part of the affair. Some one, kind or curious, took her in his car and drove her in the wake of her sister’s body.

Instead of taking the short cut along the Sound we went down the road and entered by the big postern. With enchanting murmurs Daisy admired this aspect or that of the feudal silhouette against the sky , admired the gardens, the sparkling odor of jonquils and the frothy odor of hawthorn and plum blossoms and the pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate. It was strange to reach the marble steps and find no stir of bright dresses in and out the door, and hear no sound but bird voices in the trees. Before I could answer, Daisy came out of the house and two rows of brass buttons on her dress gleamed in the sunlight

This is a terrible mistake,” he said, shaking his head from side to side, “a terrible, terrible mistake.” It belonged to Demaine, the oil man.” He turned me around again, politely and abruptly. “We’ll go inside.” The other girl, Daisy, made an attempt to rise — she leaned slightly forward with a conscientious expression — then she laughed, an absurd, charming little laugh, and I laughed too and came forward into the room. Oh, it isn’t about that. At least——” He fumbled with a series of beginnings. “ Why, I thought—why, look here, old sport, you don’t make much money, do you? ”

They’re a rotten crowd,” I shouted across the lawn. “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” Michaelis opened the drawer nearest his hand. There was nothing in it but a small, expensive dog-leash, made of leather and braided silver. It was apparently new. Don’t do it to-day,” Gatsby answered. He turned to me apologetically. “You know, old sport, I’ve never used that pool all summer?” In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since . I’ll tell you a family secret,” she whispered enthusiastically. “It’s about the butler’s nose. Do you want to hear about the butler’s nose?”Then it was all true. I saw the skins of tigers flaming in his palace on the Grand Canal; I saw him opening a chest of rubies to ease, with their crimson-lighted depths, the gnawings of his broken heart. I spent my Saturday nights in New York because those gleaming, dazzling parties of his were with me so vividly that I could still hear the music and the laughter, faint and incessant, from his garden, and the cars going up and down his drive. One night I did hear a material car there, and saw its lights stop at his front steps. But I didn’t investigate. Probably it was some final guest who had been away at the ends of the earth and didn’t know that the party was over. A little before three the Lutheran minister arrived from Flushing, and I began to look involuntarily out the windows for other cars. So did Gatsby’s father. And as the time passed and the servants came in and stood waiting in the hall, his eyes began to blink anxiously, and he spoke of the rain in a worried, uncertain way. The minister glanced several times at his watch, so I took him aside and asked him to wait for half an hour. But it wasn’t any use. Nobody came.