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The Great Gatsby is a novel published in 1925, by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age, the novel portrays the narrator’s Nick Carraway’s relations with Jay Gatsby, the mysterious millionaire who has an obsession with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan. The novel was inspired by a romance Fitzgerald had with a well-known socialite in 1922. Since its publication by Scribner’s in 1925, The Great Gatsby received positive reviews, although the novel was somewhat of a commercial failure. When the author died in 1940, he thought he was a failure and his work forgotten. During World War II, the book had an abrupt surge in popularity when free copies were distributed to American soldiers serving overseas. The work soon became a core part of American popular culture. The Great Gatsby, with its cynical attitude towards the American Dream, is widely considered to be a literary masterpiece.