Book excerpt: Ranked 2nd [after James Joyce's Ulysses] on the Modern Library's list of "The 100 Best Novels" Ranked 46th on the French Le Monde's list of "The 100 Best Novels in the World” The Great Gatsby is the anthem of the Jazz Age, the decadent twenties' seminal work, and the ultimate novel about the American Dream. It doesn't matter how many times it's adapted into film. Or theater. Or opera. It's through F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterful prose that the story of the ruthless and extravagant Jay Gatsby, narrated by the honest Nick Carraway, continues to live on as the great American classic. F. SCOTT FITZGERALD [1896-1940] was an American author, born in St. Paul, Minnesota. His legendary marriage to Zelda Montgomery, along with their acquaintances with notable figures such as Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway, and their lifestyle in 1920s Paris, has become iconic. A master of the short story genre, it is logical that his most famous novel is also his shortest: The Great Gatsby [1925].