关于本书
这部小说由尼克·卡拉威讲述，描绘了1922年夏天长岛上富裕精英阶层的生活。尼克搬到神秘而奢华的杰伊·盖茨比隔壁后，卷入了表妹黛西和她丈夫汤姆复杂的社交圈，揭示出他们奢华生活背后隐藏的紧张与躁动。
开篇
I
一
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice
在我年纪还轻、阅历尚浅的那些年里，我父亲给过我一句忠告，
that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
从那以后我一直在心里反复思考它。
“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember
“每当你想要批评任何人的时候，”他对我说，“你就要记住，
that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
这个世界上所有的人，并不是个个都有过你所拥有的那些优越条件。”
He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way,
他没有再多说，但我们一向在一种含蓄的方式上格外心意相通，
and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that.
我明白他的意思远远不止这些。
In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me
因此，我倾向于保留一切判断，这个习惯为我打开了许多古怪的心扉，
and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.
也使我成了不少老练的讨厌鬼的受害者。
The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person,
当这种品质出现在一个正常人身上时，不正常的头脑很快就能察觉并依附上来，
and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician,
于是在大学里，我被不公正地指责为一个政客，
because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men.
因为我知晓那些放荡不羁、默默无闻的人的秘密伤心事。
Most of the confidences were unsought—frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity
大多数的心里话都不是我求来的——每当我凭某种确凿无疑的迹象意识到，
when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon;
一番亲密的吐露正在天边颤动着要出现时，我常常假装睡着、心不在焉，或者摆出一种不友好的轻浮态度；
for the intimate revelations of young men,
因为年轻人的亲密吐露，
or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions.
或者至少他们用来表达这些吐露的言辞，通常是抄袭来的，而且因明显的隐瞒而残缺不全。
Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope.
保留判断是一件关乎无限希望的事。
I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested,
我至今仍有点害怕会错过什么，如果我忘记了，正如我父亲势利地暗示过、
and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.
而我又势利地重复的那样，对基本礼节的感知在出生时就分配得不均。
And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit.
而且，在这样夸耀了我的宽容之后，我得承认它是有限度的。