F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) is one of the best known and most widely read and taught novels in American literature. It is so familiar that even those who have not read it believe that they have and take for granted that they know about its main character and theme of the American Dream. We need to approach The Great Gatsby as if it were new and really read it, paying close attention to Fitzgerald’s literary language. His novel gives us a vivid depiction of and insight into income inequality as it existed in the 1920s and, by extension, as it exists today, when the American Dream is even more limited to the fortunate few, not within reach of the many. When we really read The Great Gatsby, we perceive and understand the American dimension of the novel and appreciate, too, the global range and relevance that in it Fitzgerald has achieved. It is a great American book and a great book of world literature.

中文翻译：

---

美国梦：真正阅读了《了不起的盖茨比》。

F. Scott Fitzgerald 的《了不起的盖茨比》（ The Great Gatsby，1925 年）是美国文学中最著名、最广泛阅读和教授的小说之一。它是如此熟悉，以至于即使那些没有读过它的人也相信他们已经并且理所当然地知道他们知道它的主要特征和美国梦的主题。我们需要把《了不起的盖茨比》当作新书来对待，并认真阅读它，密切关注菲茨杰拉德的文学语言。他的小说生动地描绘和洞察了 1920 年代存在的收入不平等现象，进而延伸到今天的情况，当时美国梦更加仅限于幸运的少数人，而不是大多数人的触手可及。当我们真正阅读了《了不起的盖茨比》，我们感知和理解小说的美国维度，也欣赏菲茨杰拉德在其中取得的全球范围和相关性。这是一本伟大的美国书，也是一本伟大的世界文学著作。