When Does "The Great Gatsby" (1925) Take Place?
"The Great Gatsby" is a romance historical fiction novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and released April 10th, 1925.
It takes place in the year:
We know this because, early in the book, Nick Carraway narrates to the reader how he moved to West Egg and tells us “I came East, permanently, I thought, in the spring of twenty-two.” meaning 1922 AD.
1922 AD
We know this because, early in the book, Nick Carraway narrates to the reader how he moved to West Egg and tells us “I came East, permanently, I thought, in the spring of twenty-two.” meaning 1922 AD.
(He also specifies, “I participated in… the Great War.” by which he means the global conflict now referred to as World War I, which lasted from 1914 AD to 1918 AD. Other characters are also veterans of this war and it casts a large shadow over all of them.)
Near the end of the entire story, Nick describes bumping into a key member of the plot for the last time in October of the same year with the phrase: “One afternoon in late October I saw Tom Buchanan.”
The entire narrative is told from Nick's perspective, specifically 2 years after the events he's describing. This frame is revealed near the end in a short passage that begins: "After two years I remember the rest of that day..." This strongly implies that all of it takes place within one calendar year.
It has also been reported that Fitzgerald based the story on recent romantic and social experiences.
This PrepScholar article by Dr. Anna Wulick examines its exact setting.
It was adapted for the stage in 1926, as well as to film in 1926, as another film in 1949, for radio in 1950, for television in 1955, a different television production in 1958, another film in 1974, as an opera in 1999, again on television in 2000, for the stage as "Gatz" in 2004, to the stage again in 2006, as a graphic novel in 2007, as a ballet in 2009, a video game in 2010, another video game in 2011, a radio drama in 2012, one more film in 2013, yet another video game in 2013, a graphic novel in 2020, another graphic novel in 2021, as well as a comic-book mini-series in 2021, a musical in 2023, and another musical titled "Gatsby: An American Myth" in 2024.
It's been loosely remade as "The Chosen and the Beautiful" in 2021 and "Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix" in 2022.
