The Great Gatsby; The Popular Girl = Великий Гетсбі; Популярна дівчина

Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) is a representative of the Legendary Jazz Age, artfully depicted in his works. “The Great Gatsby” novel answers whether fulfillment of the American dream always makes a person happy, and a short novel “The Popular Girl” is a variation of the Cinderella story where the protagonist faces an issue: is money important when love storms into her life? The characters of both works are trying to overcome difficulties, reach mutual understanding and solve conflicts while looking for their own way of life. The author immerses deeply in their psychology, reflects the slightest mood alterations, and strives to depict all the acuteness of their feelings.

Френсіс Скотт Фіцджеральд (1896–1940) — представник легендарної “епохи джазу”, яку він надзвичайно майстерно змалював у своїх творах. Роман “Великий Гетсбі” — це відповідь на питання, чи завжди здійснення американської мрії робить людину щасливою, а повість “Популярна дівчина” — своєрідна історія про Попелюшку, де головна героїня постає перед проблемою: наскільки важливі гроші, коли в життя вривається кохання? Персонажі обох творів намагаються здолати труднощі, досягти порозуміння й вирішити конфлікти, шукаючи власний життєвий шлях. Автор глибоко проникає у їхню психологію, відтворює найтонші відтінки настроїв та прагне передати всю гостроту відчуттів.

In my younger and 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 any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the 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 bores. 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 wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought — frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a 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 parcelled out unequally at birth.