¿So we beat on; boats against the current; borne back ceaselessly into the past.¿ F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Great Gatsby It¿s the Roaring twenties; and New York City is the place to be. Everything can be purchased; everyone can be bought. But can you make money erase your past? It¿s the prosperous 1920s decade; and it is the time of over-indulgence. As far as the eyes can see and the mind can perceive; there are ostentatious displays of wealth and even more lavish displays of decadency. Unapologetic decadency. The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island; the novel depicts narrator Nick Carraway¿s interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby¿s obsession to reunite with his former lover; Daisy Buchanan. A youthful romance Fitzgerald had with socialite Ginevra King; and the Long Island¿s North Shore wild parties he attended in 1922 inspired the novel. Gatsby story continues to attract popular and scholarly attention. The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary masterpiece and a contender for the title of the Great American Novel.