Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald s finest novel, The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the roaring twenties , and a devastating expose of the Jazz Age . Through the narration of Nick Carraway, the reader is taken into the superficially glittering world of the mansions which lined the Long Island shore in the 1920s, to encounter Nick s cousin Daisy, her brash but wealthy husband Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby and the mystery that surrounds him.