盖茨比为了久久地抱着的一个梦而付出了很高的代价。他死后，尼克发觉是汤姆暗中挑拨威尔逊去杀死盖茨比。他感到东部鬼影幢幢，世态炎凉，便决定回中西部老家去。这是一个简单的故事，却有着极悲凉的人生况味。

《大亨小传》（亦即《了不起的盖茨比》）描写一个来自明尼苏达州的穷小子，一心追求纸醉金迷的“美国之梦”，到头来却陷入悲剧而不可自拔，遭到上流社会的冷落排挤。反映了那个癫狂迷乱的历史经验，它们的人物也都在夜阑人静、曲终人尽之时，才蓦然醒悟：“风韵永远是独立存在的事物”。

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 of the American seaboard in the 1920s, to encounter Nick's cousin Daisy, Jay Gatsby and the dark mystery which surrounds him. The Great Gatsby is an undisputed classic of American literature from the period following the First World War and is one of the great novels of the twentieth century.