The gardens of Italy rank amongst the great treasures of the world. They have influenced & inspired almost every landscape designer & architect since the Renaissance yet they are not isolated historical artifacts. A garden is always a living evolving entity that tells a thousand stories about the people that made it as well as the plants that occupy it. Above all great gardens become a celebration of man's creative need to work with nature. This book is a personal exploration of Italy's legendary gardens. Over thirty are featured including some that are very well known as well as others that might not be on many people's obvious list. Few people have travelled more widely & have a more passionately practical engagement with gardening than Monty Don. Through captivating text & outstanding photography Monty & Derry invite the reader to accompany them on their tour around Italy. Their underlying message is that to appreciate a garden fully you must also know something of the food grown & eaten in the area of the politics religion & weather of the region & of the dreams for the garden's future as well as the glories of its past. Each garden is placed in the context of its surrounding landscape & the lives of those who made it & who tend it today. Far more than an inventory of interesting plants or classical designs this book leads the reader through a truly stunning odyssey of the breadth & magnificence of Italian gardens always engaging occasionally provocative & utterly mesmerising. ...

Now the subject of a major new film from director Baz Luhrmann (Romeo+ Juliet" " Moulin Rouge!") starring Leonardo Di Caprio & Carey Mulligan " The Great Gatsby" is F. Scott Fitzgerald's brilliant fable of the hedonistic excess & tragic reality of 1920s America. This " Penguin Classics" edition is edited with an introduction & notes by Tony Tanner. Young handsome & fabulously rich Jay Gatsby is the bright star of the Jazz Age but as writer Nick Carraway is drawn into the decadent orbit of his Long Island mansion where the party never seems to end he finds himself faced by the mystery of Gatsby's origins & desires. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life Gatsby is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. & soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel. In " The Great Gatsby" Fitzgerald brilliantly captures both the disillusionment of post-war America & the moral failure of a society obsessed with wealth & status. But he does more than render the essence of a particular time & place for
- in chronicling Gatsby's tragic pursuit of his dream
- Fitzgerald re-creates the universal conflict between illusion & reality. Like Jay Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) has acquired a mythical status in American literary history & his masterwork. " The Great Gatsby" is considered by many to be the 'great American novel'. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre dubbed 'the first American Flapper' & their traumatic marriage & Zelda's gradual descent into insanity became the leading influence on his writing. As well as many short stories Fitzgerald wrote five novels " This Side of Paradise" " The Great Gatsby" " The Beautiful & the Damned" " Tender is the Night" & incomplete at the time of his death " The Last Tycoon". After his death " The New York Times" said of him that 'in fact & in the literary sense he created a "generation"'. "A classic perhaps the supreme American novel". (John Carey " Sunday Times" Books of the Century)."

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Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald's finest novel The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the roaring twenties" & 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 & the mystery that surrounds him." ...

Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach.. . Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day & night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking dancing & debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby
- young handsome fabulously rich
- always seems alone in the crowd watching & waiting though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. & soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.

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The Great American Novel of love & betrayal in the Jazz Age is now a major film. Considered one of the all-time great American works of fiction Fitzgerald's glorious yet ultimately tragic social satire on the Jazz Age encapsulates the exuberance energy & decadence of an era. After the war the mysterious Jay Gatsby a self-made millionaire pursues wealth riches & the lady he lost to another man with stoic determination. He buys a mansion across from her house & throws lavish parties to try & entice her. When Gatsby finally does reunite with Daisy Buchanan tragic events are set in motion. Told through the eyes of his detached & omnipresent neighbour & friend Nick Carraway Fitzgerald's succinct & powerful prose hints at the destruction & tragedy that awaits. ...

Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach.. . Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day & night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking dancing & debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby
- young handsome fabulously rich
- always seems alone in the crowd watching & waiting though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. & soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.

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These sumptuous new hardback editions mark the 70th anniversary of Fitzgerald's death. Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day & night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking dancing & debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby
- young handsome fabulously rich
- always seems alone in the crowd watching & waiting though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing for the one thing that will always be out of his reach. & soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.

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THE ULTIMATE GUIDES TO EXAM SUCCESS from York Notes
- the UKs favourite English Literature Study Guides. York Notes for AS &
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Jay Gatsby is a self-made man famed for his decadent champagne-drenched parties. Despite being surrounded by Long Island's bright & beautiful he longs only for Daisy Buchanan. In shimmering prose Fitzgerald shows Gatsby pursue his dream to its tragic conclusion. ...

This title comes with a new introduction by Geoff Dyer. The world & his mistress are at Jay Gatsby's party. But Gatsby stands apart from the crowd isolated by a secret longing. In between sips of champagne his guests speculate about their mysterious host. Some say he's a bootlegger. Others swear he was a German spy during the war. They lean in & whisper 'he killed a man once'. Just where is Gatsby from & what is the obsession that drives him? This edition of The Great Gatsby is the result of a unique collaboration between Tiffany & Co. & Vintage Classics. It is based on designs in the Tiffany & Co. archives from the twenties when F. Scott Fitzgerald's talent beauty & notorious lifestyle made him one of best known writers of the Jazz Age. ...