Великий Гетсби

Àäàïòàöèÿ, êîììåíòàðèè, 
çàäàíèÿ è ñëîâàðü 
Í. Ë. Íåøèíêèíîé

УДК 373.167.1:821.111(73)-93
ББК 81.2 Англ-922
 
Ф66

ISBN 978-5-9925-1038-6

© Нешинкина Н. Л., 
адаптация, комментарии, 
задания и словарь, 2015
©  КАРО, 2015

Фицджеральд, Фрэнсис Скотт.
Ф66  
Великий Гэтсби : книга для чтения на английском языке / 
Ф. С. Фицджеральд ; [адаптация, комментарии, задания и 
словарь Н. Л. Нешинкиной]. — Санкт-Петербург : КАРО, 
2015. — 256 с. — (Серия «Reading with exercises»).

 
 
ISBN 978-5-9925-1038-6.

В данном издании представлена адаптированная и сокращенная версия 
романа Ф. С. Фицджеральда «Великий Гэтсби» — многократно экранизированной знаковой книги «эпохи джаза», 1920-х годов.
К каждой главе текста даны лексические и культурологические комментарии. Упражнения направлены на отработку различных навыков речевой 
деятельности, на закрепление нового лексического материала, а также на 
освоение правильного произношения. Работа над ответами на вопросы и 
выполнение заданий на пересказ позволят осуществить контроль понимания 
текста. В книге содержится словарь.
Пособие адресовано учащимся старших классов школ с углубленным 
изучением языка, студентам филологических факультетов, а также всем, кто 
изучает английский язык самостоятельно.
УДК 373.167.1:821.111(73)-93
ББК 81.2 Англ-922

Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her;
If you can bounce high, bounce for her too,
Till she cry ‘Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover,
I must have you!’

 — THOMAS PARKE D’INVILLIERS

Chapter I

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father 
gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my 
mind since then.
“Whenever you want to criticize any one,” he told 
me, “just remember that all the people in this world 
haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always understood each other without words, and I knew that he 
meant much more than that. As a result, I’m inclined 
to reserve all judgments1, that’s why many curious natures have opened their secrets to me; but also I became the victim of many experienced bores. In college 
I was unjustly accused of being a politician2, because I 
could keep the secret grieves of unknown men. I didn’t 
want most of the confi dences — often I have feigned 
sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized 
by some unmistakable sign that somebody wants to reveal an intimate secret.
And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I decided that it has a limit. When I came back from the 

1 I’m inclined to reserve all judgments — я склонен воздерживаться от всех суждений
2 I was unjustly accused of being a politician — меня незаслуженно обвиняли в политиканстве

•   The Great Gatsby

East last autumn I felt that I didn’t want to look into 
the human heart anymore. Only Gatsby, the man who 
gives his name to this book, was an exception — Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn1. If personality is an unbroken series of 
successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous 
about him; some heightened sensitivity to the prom ises 
of life. He had an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other 
person. No — Gatsby turned out all right at the end.
My family has been well-known, rich people in this 
Middle Western city for three generations. The Carraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition 
that we come from the Dukes of Buccleuch2, but the 
actu al founder of my line was my grandfather’s brother. 
I never saw this great-uncle, but everybody says I look 
like him because of his portrait that hangs in father’s 
offi ce. I graduated from New Haven3 in 1915 and a little 
later I participated in the Great War. I enjoyed the 
counter-raid so thoroughly that I came back restless4. 

1 who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn — который воплощал собой все,что я искренне презираю
2 the Dukes of Buccleuch [bəˈkluː] — титул герцога Баклю, 
созданный в пэрстве Шотландии 20 апреля 1663 года для герцога Монмута, который был старшим незаконнорожденным сыном Карла II
3 New Haven — университет Нью-Хейвена — частный исследовательский университет США, основанный в 1920 году в 
Нью-Хейвене, одном из старейших городов Новой Англии, в штате Коннектикут
4 I enjoyed the counter-raid so thoroughly that I came back 
restless. — Меня так увлекло контрнаступление, что, вернувшись 
домой, я не мог найти покоя.

Chapter I   •   7

The Middle West now seemed like the edge of the universe — so I decided to go East and learn the bond 
business. All my aunts and uncles talked it and fi nally 
said, “Why — ye-es,” with very serious, unsure faces. 
Father agreed to fi nance me for a year, and after all I 
came East, forever, I thought, in the spring of twentytwo.
The practical thing was to fi nd rooms in the city. 
A young man at the offi ce suggested that we take a 
house together in a nearby town. He found the house, 
a weather-beaten bungalow at eighty a month, but at 
the last minute the fi rm sent him to Washington, and 
I went out to the country alone. I had an old Dodge1 
and a Finnish woman, who made my bed and cooked 
breakfast and muttered Finnish wisdom2 to herself over 
the electric stove.
It was lonely for a day or so until one morning some 
man asked helplessly the way. I told him. And as I 
walked on I was lonely no longer. I was a guide, a pathfi nder, an original settler. And so with the sunshine 
I had that familiar feeling that life was beginning over 
again with the summer.
It was by chance that I have rented a house in one of 
the strangest communities in North America. Twenty 
miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical 
in contour, were separated only by a bay. They are not 
perfect ovals but their physical alikeness, I think, is 
very confusing to the gulls that fl y overhead.

1 Dodge — марка автомобилей, производимых американской 
компанией «Крайслер»
2 muttered Finnish wisdom — бормотала под нос финские премудрости

•   The Great Gatsby

I lived at West Egg, the — well, the less fashionable 
of the two. My house was at the very tip of the egg, 
and squeezed between two huge places. The one on my 
right was a colossal thing by any standard with a tower 
on one side, a marble swimming pool, and more than 
forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby’s mansion. My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small 
eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of 
the water and a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn — 
all for eighty dollars a month.
Across the bay the white palaces of fashionable East 
Egg shone along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to 
have dinner with the Tom Buchanans1. Daisy was my 
second cousin and I’d known Tom in college. And just 
after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago.
Her husband had been one of the most powerful fellows that ever played football at New Haven — a national fi gure in a way. His family were enormously 
rich — even in college his freedom with money was 
criticized — but now he’d left Chicago and come East 
in a fashion that rather took your breath away; for example, he’d brought down a string of polo ponies2 from 
Lake Forest.
Why they came East I don’t know. They had spent 
a year in France and then moved here. And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over to 
East Egg to see two old friends whom I hardly knew at 
all. Their house was a cheerful red-and-white Georgian 

1 the Tom Buchanans [ˈbju:kənəns] — артикль the указывает 
на то, что речь идет о семействе Бьюкененов
2 a string of polo ponies — конюшня пони для игры в поло

Chapter I   •   9

Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay. The lawn started 
at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter 
of a mile. There was a line of French windows in front 
and Tom Buchanan in riding clothes was standing with 
his legs apart on the front porch.
He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he 
was a strong straw-haired man of thirty with a rather 
hard mouth and a supercilious manner1. Two shining 
arrogant eyes dominated on his face and gave him the 
appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. His 
riding clothes couldn’t hide the enormous power of that 
body and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting 
when his shoulder moved. It was a body capable of enormous strength — a cruel body.
His speaking voice added to the impression of irritation. There was a touch of paternal contempt2 in it, 
even toward people he liked — and there were men at 
New Haven who had hated his character. We were never 
intimate, I always had the impression that he approved 
of me and wanted me to like him.
We talked for a few minutes on the sunny porch. 
Then he turned me around, politely and abruptly. “We’ll 
go inside.”
We walked into a bright rosy-colored room. The windows were shining white against the fresh grass outside. A breeze blew through the room, curtains were 
fl ying in and out like pale fl ags, twisting up toward the 
ceiling, and then falling over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it.

1 supercilious manner — надменные манеры
2 a touch of paternal contempt — нотка презрительной отеческой снисходительности

•   The Great Gatsby

The only completely stationary object in the room 
was an enormous couch on which two young women 
were lying as though upon a shaky balloon. They were 
both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fl uttering1. Tom Buchanan shut the back windows and the 
caught wind died out about the room, and the curtains 
and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly 
to the fl oor.
The younger of the two was a stranger to me. She 
was lying full length at her end of the divan, completely motionless, and with her chin raised a little, as if she 
were balancing something on it, which could fall. If she 
saw me out of the corner of her eyes she didn’t show 
it — indeed, I was so surprised that I wanted to apologize for my coming in.
The other girl, Daisy, tried to rise then she laughed, 
an absurd, charming little laugh, and I laughed too and 
came forward into the room.
“I’m p-paralyzed with happiness.”
She laughed again, as if she said something very 
witty, and looked up into my face, and it seemed that I 
was the only one in the world she so much wanted to 
see. That was a way she had. She murmured that the 
surname of the balancing girl was Baker. (I’ve heard 
it said that Daisy’s murmur was only to make people 
lean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no 
less charming.)
At any rate, Miss Baker’s lips moved a little, 
she nodded at me with exhibition of complete self-suf
1 their dresses were rippling and fl uttering — их платья 
подрагивали и колыхались