The Great Gatsby, Knowing Him

Donde Gatsby cuenta sobre su vida: Europa, Oxford, la guerra, y Jordan relata sobre cómo vino a conocer a Gatsby. Del original inglés The Great Gatsby, de F. Scott Fitzgerald. Párrafos en inglés, adaptado, con inclusión de sinónimos más fáciles, vocabulario, y una síntesis

At nine o'clock, one morning late in July Gatsby's gorgeous car lurched up the rocky drive to my door and gave out a burst of melody from its three noted horn. It was the first time he had called on me though I had gone to two of his parties, mounted in his hydroplane, and, at his urgent invitation, made frequent use of his beach.

"Good morning, old sport. You're having lunch with me today and I thought we'd ride up together."…

"I'm going to tell you something about my life," he interrupted. "I don't want you to get a wrong idea of me from all these stories you hear."…

"I am the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west--all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition."…

"My family all died and I came into a good deal of money."…

"After that I lived like a young rajah in all the capitals of Europe--Paris, Venice, Rome--collecting jewels, chiefly rubies, hunting big game, painting a little, things for myself only, and trying to forget something very sad that had happened to me long ago."…

"Then came the war, old sport. It was a great relief and I tried very hard to die but I seemed to bear an enchanted life. I accepted a commission as first lieutenant when it began. In the Argonne Forest I took two machine-gun detachments so far forward that there was a half mile gap on either side of us where the infantry couldn't advance. We stayed there two days and two nights, a hundred and thirty men with sixteen Lewis guns, and when the infantry came up at last they found the insignia of three German divisions among the piles of dead. I was promoted to be a major and every Allied government gave me a decoration--even Montenegro, little Montenegro down on the Adriatic Sea!"…

"I'm going to make a big request of you today so I thought you ought to know something about me. I didn't want you to think I was just some nobody. You see, I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad thing that happened to me." He hesitated. "You'll hear about it this afternoon."…

One October day in nineteen-seventeen---- (said Jordan Baker that afternoon, sitting up very straight on a straight chair in the tea-garden at the Plaza Hotel) --I was walking along from one place to another half on the sidewalks and half on the lawns…

The largest of the banners and the largest of the lawns belonged to Daisy Fay's house. She was just eighteen, two years older than me, and by far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville.

When I came opposite her house that morning her white roadster was beside the curb, and she was sitting in it with a lieutenant I had never seen before. They were so engrossed in each other that she didn't see me until I was five feet away.

"Hello Jordan," she called unexpectedly. "Please come here."

I was flattered that she wanted to speak to me, because of all the older girls I admired her most. She asked me if I was going to the Red Cross and make bandages. I was… The officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime, and because it seemed romantic to me I have remembered the incident ever since. His name was Jay Gatsby and I didn't lay eyes on him again for over four years--even after I'd met him on Long Island I didn't realize it was the same man.

Vocabulario

Lurch: mover

Oxford: ciudad en el sur de Inglaterra, centro de la universidad de Oxford. Población: 118 795 (1991)

Argonne: región montañosa y maderera del noreste de Francia entre los ríos Meuse y Aisne. Esta área fue un campo de batalla durante la primera guerra mundial.

Detachments: destacamentos

Lewis guns: ametralladora ligera usada principalmente durante la primera guerra mundial.

Montenegro: país al oeste de la península Balcánica bordeando el mar Adriático. Capital: Podgorica

Síntesis

Gatsby me contó sobre su vida. Había heredado una gran fortuna, tuvo la oportunidad de viajar por Europa, y combatió en la Gran Guerra. Esperaba pedirme algo y quería que supiera sobre él.

Mañana un resúmen de El Gran Gatsby