The Great Gatsby（25K彩圖經典文學改寫英文版＋1MP3）

【內容簡介】

費茲傑羅早期生活的一些經驗，出現在他最有名的小說《The Great Gatsby》（大亨小傳）裡。《大亨小傳》是他的第三本小說，於1925年出版，時值爵士年代的中期。這本小說被喻為「美國第一本現代小說」，因為其所描繪的是第一次世界大戰到1930年代華爾街股災期間的社會現象。小說以一則愛情故事為主軸，但也同時傳達出「美國夢」的結束。
小說中的故事場景設定在東岸的紐約市，而故事的主要人物──蓋茨比、倪克、湯姆和黛希夫婦──這些人都來自美國的中西部鄉下。
蓋茨比代表了美國新興的富豪。他白手起家，即使故事暗示了他可能是因為從事非法勾當而致富。湯姆代表的是美國家財萬貫的權貴家庭。這兩個人同樣過著奢華的生活，他們開跑車，到處旅行，住在豪宅裡，穿著名貴。
故事中第一人稱的敘事者倪克，他並不屬於湯姆或蓋茨比社交圈裡的朋友，他只是因為他是蓋茨比的鄰居、湯姆妻子的表親，才和他們攀上關係。一開始，他們的世界讓倪克覺得很新鮮，但到了最後，他厭倦了環繞在蓋茨比身邊的人，因為在東岸富裕的生活下，是一片空虛和不道德的生活。最後，他決定搬回中西部。
《大亨小傳》曾多次被改編成電影，其中最有名的是1974年拍成的版本，由勞勃．瑞福和米亞•法羅主演。

Many of the events from Fitzgerald’s early life appear in his most famous novel, The Great Gatsby. It was his third novel and it was published in 1925, right in the middle of the period known as The Jazz Age. It has been called the first ‘modern’ American novel because it describes the new society after World War I and before the Wall Street Crash and the depression of the 1930s. It is a love story but it is also about the end of the American Dream.

The story is set on the East coast, in New York, but the main characters in the story, Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker, all come from the Midwest – a rural, provincial part of America.

Gatsby represents the newly rich of the USA. He is a self-made man, although the story suggests that he probably made his money by doing illegal business. Tom Buchanan represents the American aristocracy – families with old wealth. Both men live a life of leisure and luxury. They drive fast cars, travel a lot and have magnificent houses and expensive clothes.

Nick, the narrator, does not belong in the social world of Tom and Gatsby. He is only part of it by chance because he is Gatsby’s neighbor and a cousin of Tom’s wife, Daisy. At first he is fascinated by their world but in the end he feels disgust for the people surrounding Gatsby’s life and for the emptiness and moral decay of life among the wealthy on the East Coast. He decides to move back to the Midwest. There are several films of The Great Gatsby. The most famous film is the 1974 version, starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow.

【Helbling文學讀本（Helbling Readers）簡介】

共出版十餘本，分兩大套：
● Helbling Classics（經典英文文學改寫）
● Helbling Fiction（當代原創英文小說）

《Helbling文學讀本》為一套最優質的英文分級閱讀讀本，英語難易度由初級銜接到中級。在各項英語認證考試中，本系列書培養的英語能力級數如下：

GEPT英檢 TOEIC多益 TOEFL Ibt新托福 IELTS雅思
中級 550 57-86 4.5

全系列皆隨書附贈全文朗讀MP3。
內文編排精美，採用彩色印刷，全文穿插精美插圖，單元設計豐富。
除了精彩的小說之外，另編寫有：

1. About the Author（作者簡介）：介紹作者，幫助認識創作背景。
2. About the Book（本書簡介）：介紹故事內容概要，幫助了解故事的背景與旨意。
3. Before Reading（閱前活動）：設計各種問題和活動，幫助暖身，啟發各種探討與學習。
4. After Reading（閱後練習）：設計各種深入的問題和題目練習，幫助復習內容，加深英語的學習印象。
5. Test（測驗）：有些讀本在閱畢之後，設計有各種測驗題目，包括文意測驗和英語練習等。
6. 在故事行文中，另設計有針對內文情節的問題探討，幫助做啟發性的思考。

作者簡介：

弗朗西斯．費茲傑羅（F. Scott Fitzgerald），於1896年9月24日出生於美國明尼蘇達州的聖保羅市，他出身一個上層的中產階級家庭，而且是一個信仰天主教的愛爾蘭家庭。1913年，他進入名校普林斯頓大學就讀。他在大學期間寫了第一本小說，但沒有出版社願意幫他出書。五年之後，他輟學入伍。

1919年，他邂逅了年僅十七歲的美麗女孩潔塔．塞爾，他有意娶她進門，但她愛慕虛榮，而且只喜歡玩樂。為了滿足她的需求，他退伍並搬到紐約找工作。

1920年，他出版了小說《塵世樂園》（This Side of Paradise），讓他成為文壇一顆閃亮的新星。他現在的收入讓潔塔願意點頭嫁給他，他們也隨即過著奢華的生活，參加各種聚會和社交活動，並在美國和歐洲各處遊歷。

他的第二本小說《美麗與毀滅》（The Beautiful and Damned，1922年出版）和第三本小說《大亨小傳》（The Great Gatsby，1925年出版）首賣不佳，他開始舉債度日。1930年，潔塔精神分裂，並於1932年住進精神療養院，一直成為他的經濟負擔。

1937年，他前往好萊塢，擔任編劇的工作。他有酗酒的問題，健康每下愈況。1940年12月1日，因心臟病發作病逝。

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA in 1896. His family were upper-middle class Irish Catholics. In 1913 he enrolled at Princeton, a prestigious university. While he was at university, he wrote his first novel. But it was rejected by publishers. Five years later he left university without graduating and joined the army.

In 1919, he met and fell in love with Zelda Sayre. She was 17 and very beautiful. Fitzgerald wanted to marry her but she was only interested in money and having a good time. To please her, he left the army and moved to New York to look for a job.

With the publication in March 1920 of his novel This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald became a literary sensation. He was now earning enough money to convince Zelda to marry him. They immediately embarked on an extravagant lifestyle of parties and socializing, travelling widely both in the USA and in Europe.

His second novel The Beautiful and Damned (1922) and the third The Great Gatsby (1925) didn’t sell as well as the first and he was frequently in debt. In 1930, Zelda developed schizophrenia. From 1932 onwards she lived in mental institutions and she was a constant expense for Fitzgerald.

In 1937 Fitzgerald went to Hollywood and began working as a scriptwriter. He was drinking heavily and his health got steadily worse. Eventually in 1940, he died of a heart attack.

• 作者： 弗朗西斯．費茲傑羅
• 出版社： 寂天文化事業(股)公司 出版日期：2012-05-03 ISBN/ISSN：9783852725000
• 語言：繁體中文 裝訂方式：平裝 頁數：104頁
• 類別： 中文書> 語言> 英文