The Audio Book Version of The Great Gatsby.  

Audio books are becoming more popular by the day thanks to MP3 technology. Many traditional book publishers are now aware of the growing audio book market and are starting to release a range of audio book titles. And, no wonder, as the audio book market is estimated to be worth in excess of 900 million dollars in 2008.

The Great Gatsby, one of the classic novels of the 20th century is now available on audio book format. But, the interesting thing is that there are several versions available by different publishers. And, at different price levels. Furthermore there is also a workbook available in audio book format which should be of great benefit to students.

The latest audio book just released is by academicmp3audiobooks and is 5 hours long.

It is narrated by John Pruskin and at the time of writing sells for $4.99. According to the publishers, The Great Gatsby synopsis is as follows:
"When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in the early 1920s, the American Dream was already on the skids.

Originally based on the idea that the pursuit of happiness involves not only material success but moral and spiritual growth, the dream had by Fitzgerald's time become increasingly focused on money and pleasure--a phenomenon the high-living writer was only too familiar with.

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald looks deeply into himself and his milieu to create the story of James Gatz, a self-educated nobody from North Dakota who has amassed a fortune and adopted the persona of Jay Gatsby, an Oxford-educated man about town, for the sole purpose of winning back the heart of Daisy, the woman he loved in his youth. Daisy is now married to Tom Buchanan--a brutal, ignorant racist who embodies the corruption that can come with unlimited wealth.

As Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom--and the narrator, Daisy's cousin Nick Carroway, who serves as the author's spokesman--play out the drama in a small Long Island town (the East Hampton of its day), Fitzgerald makes it increasingly clear that life is meaningless when it is based on money and glamour at the expense of the solid American values of self-reliance and hard work--and Gatsby's sad end underscores the point.

The Great Gatsby has long been celebrated as the archetypal American novel, and, just as Fitzgerald's book grew out of the tradition that included Henry James and Edith Wharton, its influence on later writers from J. D. Salinger to John O'Hara cannot be overestimated. The book remains vividly alive and widely read years after its writing."

Another version published by Blackstone Audio Inc, is 5 hours long and is narrated by Anthony Heald (of Silence of the Lambs fame). At the time of writing, this audio book sells for $14.95. The publisher's synopsis is as follows:

"'It expresses one phase of the great grotesque spectacle of our American scene. It is humor, irony, ribaldry, pathos and loveliness. A curious book, a mystical, glamorous story of today. It takes a deeper cut at life than hitherto has been essayed by Mr. Fitzgerald.' New York Times, April 1925

Jay Gatsby is still in love with Daisy, whom he met during the war when he was penniless. Having made himself wealthy through illegal means, he now lives in a mansion across the bay from the home of Daisy Buchanan, who has since married for money. Holding on to his illusion of Daisy as perfect, he seeks to impress her with his wealth, and uses his new neighbor, Nick Carraway, (our narrator), to reach her.

Daisy's wealthy but boring husband is cheating on her. When his mistress is killed in an accident caused by Daisy, Gatsby covers for her and takes the blame. The result is a murder and an ending which reveals the failure of money to buy love or happiness.

Fitzgerald's elegantly simple work captures the spirit of the Jazz Age and embodies America's obsessions with wealth, power, and the promise of new beginnings."

A third audio book version is published by Harper Collins US, is 7 hours long and is narrated by Tim Robbins the Holywood actor.

The publisher's synopsis is as follows:
"The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's portrait of the Jazz Age in all its decadence and excess, is, as editor Maxwell Perkins praised it in 1924, "a wonder." It remains one of the most widely read, translated, admired, imitated and studied twentieth-century works of American fiction.

This deceptively simple work, Fitzgerald's best known, was hailed by critics as capturing the spirit of the generation. In Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald embodies some of America's strongest obsessions: wealth, power, greed, and the promise of new beginnings.

The recording includes a selection of letters written by Fitzgerald to his editor, Maxwell Perkins, his agent, Harold Ober, and friends and associates, including Willa Cather, H.L. Mencken, John Peale Bishop and Gertrude Stein."

In conclusion, the student of The Great Gatsby now has a choice of audio book publishers to choose from, with well known narrators, and at price levels to suit all pockets. In addition, the audio workbook by Hachette Audio is also well worth considering.